Prince Andrew was invited to Davos to speak about his two initiatives for young entrepreneurs — Digital Enterprise Awards (iDEA) and Pitch@Palace. iDEA was established to provide digital skills to employable young people — about 10,000 are enrolled in the program. Pitch@Palace is an event driven organization. A select group of start-up entrepreneurs in the UK are invited to pitch their businesses to an audience of angel investors, venture capitalists and CEOs at Buckingham Palace.
The startup that recently won first prize at Pitch@Palace is Squirrel, a technology platform that enables people to “regain control of their finances by plugging directly into employers’ payroll.” Since winning, Squirrel has raised £500k ($756,000), hired four employees and received a boat load of media coverage due to the company’s association with the Prince.
