A graduate has won £2,000 after beating more than 100 other contestants in a business start-up competition.

Beverly Banahene, a 24-year-old marketing and economics graduate from Florence Road, in East Ham won the ‘Business Start-up Challenge’ with her business Bev’s Cookie Desserts, a luxury home-baking company specialising in dessert flavoured cookies.

Flavours specialties which include Tiramisu, Banoffee Pie and Apple Crumble and products are baked using the finest ethically sourced ingredients.

She won the University of Hertfordshire’s annual business start-up competition, ‘flare’.

Beverly said: “It’s so great to have the support from the university and to know that fellow business minds have decided that my business is good.

“I feel really appreciated and have gained the confidence to take Bev’s Cookie Desserts further. The competition really helped me refine my business plan, and working with fellow entrepreneurs at the flare boot camp was fantastic because working as an entrepreneur can be lonely. I’m going to use the money for the expansion of my business, packaging and setting up my market stalls.”

After submitting a video entry and a business plan in the first two rounds, Beverly went head to head with 12 other finalists to impress the judges in a live Dragons’ Den style pitch. The £20,000 prize fund was split into seven cash prizes, with awards granted to those who impressed the judges.