The «E-mbracelet» travels to Istanbul!
Junior Achievement Cyprus announces the successful completion of the JA StartUp Programme 2023. In the final competition, we enjoyed the innovation, talent, and entrepreneurial spirit of young people from all over Cyprus. The programme provided all the resources for the participants to turn their business ideas into reality by harnessing their creativity and determination to achieve remarkable results. The event was a great success, reinforcing the belief that young people have the power to shape the future of entrepreneurship.
This year the programme was implemented in 8 Universities in Cyprus, with the support of 17 academics and 30 mentors.
The Final and Awards Ceremony took place on Thursday, June 1, 2023, at ASBIS TECH CLUSTER in Limassol.
The competition was the culmination of the efforts of more than 200 students, aged 18-30. During the event, 10 finalist teams, from the 42 student companies created, had the opportunity to present their innovative business ideas and were evaluated through interviews by the Jury.
The jury consisted of Mr. Andreas Papadopoulos (Chairman of the Board of Directors of JA Cyprus), Mr. Costas Tziamalis (Asbis, Deputy CEO), Ms. Marianna Prokopi-Dimitriadis (Theramir, Co-Founder), Mr. Theodoros Loukaidis (Research Foundation and Innovation, General Manager), Mr. Michalis Tyrimos (Capacitor Partners, Founder, and General Manager), and Ms. Niki Ioannou (Head of Business Solutions, Cyta Business).
The Business Idea of the Year 2023 was the idea of the E-mbracelet team, whose mission is to help people within the autism spectrum disorder to live happier lives. Their product is a smart bracelet with heart monitoring and a unique sound analysis function that provides personalized statistics to the user through the app. Their mission is to foster understanding and empathy for people with autism. The University of Cyprus team was supported by the Professor Dr Diana Nikolaou and the mentor Mr Marinos Mitsiou.
E-mbracelet will represent Cyprus in the European Competition of JA Europe, GEN-E which will be held on July 11 – 14 and will be hosted by JA Turkey, in Istanbul. The Cypriot team will be represented by Maria Manolis, Anna Charalambous, Amalia Yasoumi, Christoforos Malekos and Christodoulos Nikiforos.
The 2nd Place Award was won by the LEC team from the Cyprus University of Technology. The company’s purpose is to produce environmentally friendly decorative linings, using recycled raw materials from the construction sector. The company’s vision is to reuse the waste of the construction sector and conquer a significant percentage of the market. The team members were: Christos Rousis, Christos Priniotakis and Andreas Chatzimarkou. The group was supported by the Professor Dr. Thomaidas Polydorou and the mentor Mr. Christos Papaxanthos.
The Olympgram team from the Cyprus University of Technology was awarded the 3rd place. The company is building a platform that will present the history of various people in a non-standard way of learning, creating a simulation of social media as the ancients had it, where the user will have the opportunity to learn about ancients’ daily life. The team members were: George Athanasiadis, Konstantina Sophokleous, and David Balian. The group’s mentor was Mr. Kyriakos Stouppas.
The program is supported by ASBIS and the Research and Innovation Foundation.
JA Cyprus is a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, the largest global non-profit organization specializing in youth entrepreneurship education that aims to empower them with entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and employability skills.
For more information, you can also visit our website www.jacyprus.org
