Voting for YBI’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2022 is now open

The voting for YBI’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2022 is now open. The public is invited to vote for their favourite in three categories: Green Business of the Year, Covid Resilience Award, and Business for Good Award.

A total of nine finalists – three per category – have been shortlisted for YBI’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2022. All finalists will be traveling to The Hague, Netherlands, in October to attend YBI’s Global Youth Entrepreneurship Summit, where we will announce the winner for each category, and one overall winner, who will be chosen by a combination of the public vote and an expert panel of judges – to be announced soon.

The 9 finalists are:

Green Business of the Year

• Hakan Aktan from Turkey with his business BeePlant, which develops beekeeping technologies that protect bee health, such as robot beekeepers.
• Marta Uetela from Mozambique with her business BioMec which transforms plastic waste from the ocean into comfortable, affordable prosthetics.
• Adriana Alegre Génez from Paraguay with her business Asociación Brotes de Mbaracayú, a collective of 14 young rural women, implementing projects that generate sustainable management strategies and efficient use of natural resources in production.

Covid Resilience Award

• Niranjan Ovhal from India with his business Simforge Engineering, which took advantage of the growing demand for video games during lockdown by manufacturing affordable hardware to simulate auto racing on PC.
• Babajide Oluwase from Nigeria with his business Ecotutu Limited, which developed and launched a new product line, Fresh Box – a last-mile cooling solution to preserve perishables on the go – during lockdown.
• Michell Nataly Garcia from Peru with her business Plant Love, which she started from home at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing and selling plants from home

Business for Good Award

• Jessika Sillanpää from Sweden with her business Jessikasstory supporting young people who have family members in prison through conselling, coaching and lecturing.
• Purity Gakuo from Kenya with her business Kuza Freezer manufacturing and distributing solar-powered freezers to local fishermen.
• Sayaka Kankolongo Watanabe from Japan with her business WELgee – JobCopass, a non-profit organisation working with companies to connect refugees to employment opportunities that will enable them to obtain a stable legal status.

Learn more about our finalists and vote for your winners here.

Voting closes on 30 September 2022.

Each winner will receive a trophy, business coaching, and a place in the YBI hall of fame. The overall winner will secure a $10,000 grant for their business.