BUDDING business whizzkids were awarded £70,000 in funding at a special ceremony in Glasgow.

Top entrepreneurial gurus sat on the judging panel at business accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark's Hatchery Hits The Street awards, last night.

The start-up businesses pitched for the cash in front of a panel of judges, including Mike Russell MSP, Lord Haughey, Sir Tom Hunter and Ann Gloag, in a Dragons' Den style competition.

More than 600 guests packed into the Grand Ballroom at Glasgow's Thistle Hotel to cheer the worthy winners.

Entrepreneurs from E-Spark's three hatcheries, based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayrshire, gathered for the event.

Glasgow-based Tsumanga Studios, who develop gaming apps, won the High Impact prize of £8000.

The company's first app has been downloaded two million times, generating $100,000 in revenue, while its second has achieved 6000 downloads in just three weeks, bringing in $50,000.

Tsumanga, which employs 10 people and has attracted $1.7m of private investment, were presented with their prize at the event hosted by E-Spark chief executive Jim Duffy.

Other winners, many of whom have been profiled in the Evening Times' weekly 'Glasgow Means Business' column, included Freedom Brand, GoCoCo Coconut Water and Mo's Cookie Dough.

The Social Impact prize, for the entrepreneur who has increased their turnover significantly, went to Core 150 who won £5000. The firm's protein shaker cups have been patented and sell globally. The firm has two new international distributors with the potential in 2014 to grow to £1m in turnover.

Core 150 donates some money from sales to the Mary's Meals charity and has so far funded 90,000 meals.

Speaking at the event, Mr Duffy praised the progress of E-Spark, which has worked with more than 400 start-ups since launching two years ago and is already generating million pound turnover businesses.

matty.sutton@eveningtimes.co.uk