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AmCham EU Youth Entrepreneurship Award 2019: online finale selects top 3, winner to be announced on 2 October

13 September 2019

Each year, thousands of JA alumni enter Europe’s economy as potential entrepreneurs. Since 2013, AmCham EU and JA Europe team up through the AmCham EU Youth Entrepreneurship Award to recognize young people who have participated in a JA programme and are now running businesses with strong growth potential.

5 candidates were shortlisted to take part in the online finale on 12 September, in the presence of a high level jury panel, composed by:

Daniel Calleja-Crespo, Director-General at the European Commission
Susan Danger, CEO, AmCham EU
Joanna Gill, Deputy Bureau Chief, Euronews
Mark Libby, Deputy Chief of Mission, United States Mission to the EU
Eva Maydell, Member of the European Parliament, EPP
Lou Rivieccio, President, UPS Europe

The jury selected the top 3 to be invited to AmCham EU’s annual Gala on October 2nd in Brussels, with high-level stakeholders and AmCham EU members as guests. These young people will be given the opportunity to tell the audience about their business and future plans, to meet with AmCham EU executive committee members and network with the audience. The gala will also be the culminating point of the award, when the winning team will be announced and receive a public recognition of their work . This is in addition to a cash prize of €10,000 and several hours of mentorship over a 12-month period from a number of ExCo members who will coach, encourage and offer their time, expertise and advice.

AmChamEU YEA 3 finalists

Learn more about the top 3:

Biofy

Entrepreneur: Fernando Matías Casale
Country: Spain

Biofy designs and sells modular plants that turns landfill bound plastic waste into low sulphur fuel, which can be directly used in machinery or blast furnaces or refined into more conventional fuels. The price is lower and more stable than the one that comes directly from petrol, thanks to their local production.

https://biofyspain.wixsite.com/landingpage

eAgronom

Entrepreneur: Robin Saluoks
Country: Estonia

eAgronom is an AgTech start-up founded by farmers, financed by farmers and developed via farmer feedback. It was started by a JA alumnus who didn't find suitable software for his father's farm. He learned how to code and made a first version himself. Today, hundreds of farmers use eAgronom in 7 countries and trust the company with its data organization and AI suggestions.

https://eagronom.com/

Edumus

Entrepreneur: Maria Rahamägi
Country: Estonia

Edumus helps working professionals to go back to school and teach one grade, one subject at a time. For working professionals, Edumus is a self-development program to learn and practice leadership and training skills. As the lack of teachers is worsening, Edumus offers a complementing approach which is less demanding for teachers and can become a catalyst for positive change.

https://www.edumus.org/

Congratulations to the three finalists, looking forward meeting you on October 2^nd !

Previous winners

2018

Bioo, a Spanish start-up, won the sixth AmCham EU Youth Entrepreneurship Award. Bioo created a unique tool to generate electricity from plants in a sustainable way. With this technology, the start-up develops a range of applications, such as phone chargers or WiFi connection terminals..
2017

The fifth edition of the Youth Entrepreneurship Award was won by Oculus. This Romanian start-up developed the Mitra Glasses, a device that provides essential aid and safety to visually impaired people during movement, using incorporated sensors and efficient algorithms.
2016

The 2016 edition of the Youth Entrepreneurship Award was won by MeetingPackage.com (Joonas Ahola & Saku Loukonen, Finland), an online platform dedicated to the booking of meeting rooms which allows users to easily compare various meeting venues and prices. Jurors praised its potential to scale, its sustainability and the team’s marketing plan.

2015

The 2015 edition of the Youth Entrepreneurship Award was won by COOL4SEA (Christian Jensen, Denmark), an engineering firm working to develop thermodynamic, energy and environmental technologies for the international maritime industry. The jury commented on its commercial potential and praised its environmental considerations.
2014

PYNK SYSTEMS (David Mata Valdes, Spain), a start-up constructing ergonomic and smart office desks in the hope of boosting work productivity, was awarded the 2014 edition of the Youth Entrepreneurship Award. Jurors felt the focus on combining modern technology to aid manufacturing and engineering was highly innovative, as well as citing a well-coordinated business model in their decision.
2013

The first edition of the Youth Entrepreneurship Award was awarded to Real Impact Analytics (Sébastien Deletaille & Loïc Jacobs van Merlen, Belgium). The jury recognised their ‘unique and innovative’ business model, ‘proving they can operate in a very competitive market.’