The founder of Munchy Play, Sophia Procter, has today been named the Virgin Start-up Mentor of the Year 2022. The entrepreneur, who launched her innovative children’s tableware business in lockdown, was selected by a panel of judges for her outstanding dedication and contribution to the Virgin StartUp programme. It even warranted a personal message from Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson.

Over the past nine months, Sophia offered insight and experience to the start-up community, through the Virgin Start-Up Programme, which aims to help founders start-up and thrive.

Sophia, said: “As someone who has greatly benefitted from mentoring, I joined the Virgin Start-up Programme to give back to the community that has given me so much. I’m most grateful to the Virgin StartUp Programme for giving me the platform and opportunity to make a positive difference.“

Andy Fishburn, Managing Director at Virgin StartUp, adds: “Mentors are the backbone of the entrepreneurial community and a lifeline for new start-ups - we simply couldn’t do what we do without them. The feedback we had from Sophia’s mentee was glowing and she has clearly been a huge support and helped her mentee to thrive in a challenging year and is very deserving of the award. It is thanks to volunteers like Sophia that we can offer this valuable support to new founders and support them when they need it the most.”

Virgin StartUp is the not-for-profit entrepreneurial hub of the Virgin Group and a leading delivery partner of the Government-backed Start Up Loans Programme. Virgin StartUp runs the UK’s largest network of entrepreneurial mentors and every founder who receives a Start Up Loan through Virgin StartUp is matched with a mentor for 12 months as part of a broad range of support offered to help new founders develop the skills they need to build better businesses. 

Earlier this year, Munchy Play was named the London Start-up Business of the Year by the Federation of Small Businesses.