Prize expands Support for Scotland’s Start-up Ventures

Healthtech pioneer Christopher McCann, founder and CEO of Current Health and his partner Dr Jo-Ann Nugent are backing emerging Scottish entrepreneurs, having pledged a £25,000 cash prize to the winner of the University of Dundee’s McGhee Award, part of the institution’s annual Venture competition for start-up businesses. The award recognises and supports business concepts with impact, global growth and scalability ambitions.

“The University of Dundee occupies a special place in Jo-Ann and I’s lives. “It is where we met and spent some of our best years, and it is where Current Health started,” said Christopher. “Today, Current Health is a market leader in the US and UK. Along the way, so many great founders helped me and it is now my turn to help new founders as they build companies and solve real problems, benefiting our economy and our society.

“Jo-Ann and I are excited to support Venture 2023, with the McGhee award named after my mother’s family. I look forward to viewing the entries and following the journeys of those founders.”

The business concept for Current Health, an enterprise platform that enables healthcare organisations to deliver safe, end-to-end care in patients’ homes, was developed by Christopher whilst studying Medicine at Dundee; it was subsequently acquired by the US-based technology retailer Best Buy.

Earlier this year, he returned to deliver the University’s annual Public Lecture in Entrepreneurship, where he detailed his transition from the Ninewells classroom to corporate boardroom.

Venture is a three-stage new business idea competition for all University of Dundee students, staff and recent graduates split across different prize fund categories. Winners are offered a place on Dundee’s accelerator programme, run in partnership with Elevator, Scotland’s leading private sector organisation supporting entrepreneurs, inventors, disruptors and future business leaders. Winners receive seed funding for their proposals and further prizes can also be won by audience vote at the pitching final. 

The addition of the McGhee award to Venture 2023 swells the prize fund to a record-breaking £68,000. Brian McNicoll, Head of Dundee’s Centre for Entrepreneurship said, “The University is an exciting and dynamic environment for developing new business concepts. Our annual Venture competition is one of the most important ways in which we support our students and staff in fulfilling their entrepreneurial ambitions and once again we look forward to examining a host of quality submissions.”

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