Young entrepreneurs won thousands of pounds’ worth of funding to develop their impressive business ideas.

Investors, academics and businesspeople were bowled over by the innovation at the StartUp Sussex Enterprise Competition, with nearly £20,000 awarded to three winning ideas.

Psychology graduate and sales team member at The Argus, Roxanna Bayram, scooped joint first prize for iStop Smoking, a mobile app to help users quit cigarettes.

She will use her £7,500 grant for app development, testing and marketing the product.

Two-man team Shahid Mahmood, an electrical and electronic engineering undergraduate, and Donghao Liao, a business and human resources management undergraduate, also won joint first prize for their business German Motor Specialist, an online luxury car showroom for international students.

They plan to use the money for marketing, advertising and web development.

In third place, Sam Parlett, a thirdyear human sciences undergraduate, received a £2,500 grant to develop Authorise, a website collating lessons and courses from different teachers.

The winners were unveiled at a ceremony at the University of Sussex’s Attenborough Centre Creativity Zone.

The Dragon’s Den-style competition was judged by investors, entrepreneurs and representatives from the University and attended by business people community, academics and students.

Three other finalists, picked from a field of 50, will continue to be supported by the Sussex Innovation Centre.

For the last six months the finalists have been supported and mentored by StartUp Sussex.

Roxanna said: “I’m so relieved and excited, but the hard work starts now.

"I’m really proud of how far I’ve come.

"Six months ago I didn’t have a clue.

“Developing the app will be the next big thing.”

Shahid said: “It’s surreal, I didn’t expect to win. We’ve learnt quite a lot and the business has changed as time went on.

“Winning will open doors for us and help us establish the business.”

Mike Herd, executive director of the Sussex Innovation Centre and StartUp Sussex judging panellist, said: “I have been involved in judging student enterprise competitions for the past ten years, and I can honestly say that this year’s finalists were some of the strongest that I have ever seen.

“It’s a real vindication of the change of format for this year’s competition, which has helped these candidates to thoroughly develop their initial ideas and to verify a strong business opportunity.”