An AI-powered elite swimming coaching app, and a large language model evaluation tool for healthcare applications, were the co-winners at this year’s JEN-Z Venture Forge start-up competition final.

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Four Jesus College student teams pitched their business ideas at the final, which took place last week, competing for a share of a £1,500 prize pot. The event was the culmination of the Jesus Entrepreneur Network’s (JEN) flagship entrepreneurship mentoring programme 2025, which is designed to support entrepreneurial students transform their ideas into business ventures.

The programme launched in Hilary term, with eight ambitious venture ideas put forward by students. Over the past two terms, those ideas were shaped and strengthened with guidance from experienced alumni JEN mentors – Rachel Angell (1998, Modern History), Drummond Gilbert (2021, PGDip AI for Business), Alex Kelleher (1992, Experimental Psychology), Minsang Kim (2021, Software Engineering), Jonathan Lipton (2022, PGDip AI for Business), Bart Nollen (2024, PGDip AI for Business), and Wolfgang Seul (2022, PGDip AI for Business).

The four finalists were:

Midas Biotech – Diego Dolgetta-Garcia (2024, DPhil in Biology): Sustainable electronics recycling using proprietary bioleaching technology to efficiently extract precious metals from e-waste.

Backr – Oliver Donald (2022, MBiol Biology): An SaaS platform helping med-tech research groups spin-out faster and smarter.

AI4Swim – Bochuan C (2025, MSc Social Data Science): AI-powered elite swimming coaching for all.

Scrutiny AI – Munib Mesinovic (2020, DPhil in Engineering Science ESPRC CDT in Health Data Science) & Daniella (Zihuiwen) Ye (2021, DPhil in Computer Science): Evaluation and certification of large language models for healthcare applications.

 

The final was hosted by Dr Pamela Walker Geddes (2002, DPhil Experimental Psychology), and judged by six JEN alumni – Saran Davies, PhD (2018, DPhil Environmental Science – Zoology), Anthony Fletcher (2000, MChem Chemistry), Kat Knocker (2003, MChem Chemistry), Conan Lauterpacht (1998, PPE), Adam Still (2004, MMath Mathematics), and Daniel Waterhouse (1989, Mathematics).

In a first for the competition, AI4Swim and Scrutiny AI were announced as joint winners. Eve Bodniece, JEN Lead at Jesus, said: “The room was filled with energy, ambition, and ideas that impressed us all. We’re incredibly proud of what these students have accomplished, and deeply grateful to the mentors, judges, and supporters who made this year’s programme such a success.” 

Jesus College alumni who are interested in mentoring, judging, or supporting the next generation of College entrepreneurs can get in touch with Eve Bodniece, JEN Lead, to learn more about how you can get involved in future initiatives.