A team of students from Imperial College London have won £20,000 from the Mayor of London to invest in a start-up business.

The group of four, known as WithLula, were among ten finalists in the Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition.

Entrants were asked to create a business idea to tackle one of the big environmental challenges facing London.

WithLula created an eco-friendly sanitary pad and plan to use their winnings to start small-scale manufacturing and have their product available for Londoners by the end of the year.

Aaron Koshy from WithLula said: “We’re so excited to have won the Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition.

“We can’t wait to work with the team at City Hall to get our business off the ground.”

A total of 468 entries were made to this year’s competition representing 37 higher education institutions including University College London and London School of Economics.

Among other entries in the final were a reusable drink cup vending system designed to replace disposable coffee cups; the world’s first carbon-negative road paving and a new way of making sustainable textiles using waste from bananas.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan congratulated the winners. He said: “Their product is an innovative concept and I look forward to seeing this project develop in the future.”

Judges included Deputy Mayor for environment and energy, Shirley Rodrigues and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, CEO of Stemettes, a group that encourages girls aged five to 22 to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Ms Imafidon, said: “My congratulations go to the winner and all the finalists in this innovative competition. This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their entrepreneurial talent and gain support from the Mayor to make their ideas a reality.”