Winners of ‘Win a trip to India with Richard Branson’ competition | Virgin Media Pioneers

We were overwhelmed by the quality of entries and number of votes we received for the ‘Win a trip to India with Richard Branson’ competition courtesy of Virgin Atlantic. At close to 2,000 votes in less than three days, the number speaks for itself and it’s testament to the way Pioneers support each other within the community.

The way Pioneers support and encourage each other never fails to inspire us so a huge thank you for every single application and to everyone in the Pioneers community that watched the shortlisted videos and voted.

How the winners were decided

Four places were available on the trip to India with Richard Branson and the winners were to be decided in two ways: two of the shortlisted candidates were to be selected by a judging panel from Virgin Media and the remaining two winners would be the shortlisted entrants that received the most votes in the poll.

And the winners are…

There were two clear winners from the poll votes but when it came to the Virgin Media judging panel deciding on the other two winners, it wasn’t quite so simple. Three entrepreneurs really stood out to the judging panel as having valid business reasons for wanting to win the trip to India with Richard Branson so after much head-scratching and soul-searching, the panel decided that the only fair outcome would be to take all three entrepreneurs to India!

Congratulations to all five winners: Ed Francis, Ravinder Ryan Deol, Natasha Lipman, Rob Nunn and Kiran Yoliswa who will be winging their way to India this month. They’ll be flying in style with Virgin Atlantic, staying in 5-star luxury hotels in Mumbai and Delhi, seeing the sights, experiencing some of the cities’ finest restaurants and bars in addition to meeting entrepreneurs from the UK and India, enjoying an audience with Richard Branson and talking business over lunch at the British High Commissioner’s residence.

The winning entries

Ed Francis

Company: Has just received funding to open a social enterprise restaurant in India.

Why networking in India? Hospitality business with a social conscience. Experienced GM of leading London gastropubs. Ed has funding in place to open a social enterprise restaurant and training school in Mumbai.

Ravinder Ryan Deol

Company: Indian Snack Box
Website: IndianSnackBox.co.uk

Why networking in India? Food business. New company keen to source and import Indian sweets and snacks into the UK for their soon-to-launch subscription snack company.

Natasha Lipman

Company: International Political Forum
Website: InternationalPoliticalForum.com
Why networking in India? An international political forum dedicated to giving global youth a voice to effect change in the world. India is an area of interest because it’s an emerging economy with so many young people that have something to say.

Rob Nunn

Company: Your Aviation Future
Website: YAFAlliance.co.uk
Why networking in India? YAF Group is an association of companies operating under one name. YAF (the fund) is a company designed to fund, mentor and coach future pilots into their dream aviation job via the Private Pilots Licence. The YAF Alliance campaigns for positive change within the aviation industry.

Kiran Yoliswa

Company: Styled By Africa
Website: StyledByAfrica.com
Why networking in India? Initially a blog, Styled By Africa is now an e-commerce fashion site looking to expand into different regions. India is already on their radar and they are eager to see whether it is viable to source and sell Indian fashion through their site.