A business set up by two University of Bristol graduates which uses artificial intelligence to create automated handwritten letters has beaten off competition from more than 2,000 others to win £25,000 worth of seed funding.
Scribeless, founded by Robert Van Den Bergh and Alex Robinson, both 23, scooped one of the two top prizes at the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards 2019. 
The pitching competition for students and recent graduates has become one of the UK’s largest, and being recognised in the awards is highly prized by budding entrepreneurs.
Robert came up with the idea for Scribeless after spending several weeks handwriting letters during an internship. He joined forces with Alex to develop software able to learn the nuances of handwriting in order to introduce variation and inconsistencies in its fake handwriting.
They automate the process, using artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced printing technology to create handwritten letters that are indiscernible from one from a human hand, pictured.
With support from the Basecamp Student Enterprise Team in the University of Bristol’s Careers Service, Scribeless was officially launched last year.
The prize money, along with business mentoring and a fully funded intern, will help Robert and Alex grow their business even further
The service is already being used by banks, hotels and universities to better engage with their customers through the power of the handwritten letter. It’s claimed handwritten letters can lead to open rates above 95% – dramatically higher than traditional follow-up emails.
More than 2,000 businesses engaged with the competition at the start of this year with 151 entrepreneurs entering the awards. These were shortlisted down to 60 semi-finalists who pitched across three regional events, from which 12 businesses were identified as finalists.
Robert, who graduated with a BSc in Accounting and Finance in 2017, and his co-founder Alex Robinson, BSc Computer Science in 2018, are now teaching the next generation of talent how to perfect their pitches by partnering with the Basecamp team.
Since the company’s inception, they have hired a number of interns from the University of Bristol and are currently recruiting for internship and full-time positions in their Bristol office.
Robert said: “We are incredibly proud to win the competition and now can’t wait to help more companies utilise our handwritten solution.
“The University of Bristol and, specifically, their enterprise hub, Basecamp have been hugely helpful since the start of Scribeless and supported us through the entire Santander Universities competition. The Basecamp team have helped us every step of the way.”
The business plans to use the funding to continue helping organisations across Europe and the US personalise their marketing and better engage customers.
After raising an investment round earlier this year, the company continues to grow and is recruiting sales and marketing professionals in the UK and US.
Pictured: Robert Van Den Bergh collects his award from Susan Allen, Head of Retail and Business Banking at Santander UK, and Matt Hutnell, Director of Santander Universities
