WREXHAM received a royal visit from the Duke of York with a Dragons Den style competition for entrepreneurs.

The Queens second son, His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, spent the day in Wrexham at the town’s Enterprise Hub.

He brought his ‘Pitch@Palace’ project to give entrepreneurs the chance to win one of three places in the next round in Cambridge. There they will have the chance to go through to the final where the winner will recieve investment opportunities to grow their ideas further.

Two of the candidates were from Wrexham, and the Prince, who sat on the judging panel, said he was very impressed.

Andrew Roberts created Weekly 10, a cloud based platform that increases employee engagement through a ten-minute online check-in between managers and employees.

Mr Roberts said: “Employees can take just ten minutes a week to answer questions set by managers which allows for rapid company feedback.”

Nick Dudderidge, of Designed Technologies, from Wrexham, pitched his idea to improve digital creativity in children, prompting them to create and use more design technology.

He said: “My idea is about founding somewhere where people can go to create, try different technologies and integrate with the technological community.”

Prince Andrew, on addressing the Enterprise Hub, said: “It is a great pleasure to be here today.

“I believe that there is a pattern around the country as to what entrepreneurial issues need solving and improve not only the economy but how we live.

“Connections make the biggest difference to businesses and it is these that have helped this project grow over the last four or five years.”

The winners were Four Minutes, a first -aid training technology, Near me Now, an app which allows independent business owners to interact with customers, and Psycapps, a digital game which helps to boost mental well-being.

A further six businesses were put forward for recommendation from the judges to receive support.

Siljin Litvin, of Psycapps, said: “I’m so excited and am very happy to have got through.” Now I’m going to look at contestants from the last few years and learn from them for the next round.”

Vicky Mann, of Near me Now said: “I’m so surprised and it’s been such an honour, so now I’m excited for what the future holds.”

After announcing the winners, Prince Andrew said: “The pitches have been very good but it’s difficult to make comparisons to other years.

“This year there have been a higher number of recommendations from the judges.

“This project is about getting the message out to entrepreneurs and if people can see that smaller communities like Wrexham are getting involved then they will be more inclined to.”