“StartUp 2025” FINALS AND AWARD CEREMONY
“MedschoolPal” won the ticket to Athens and GEN-E!
Junior Achievement Cyprus announces the successful completion of the StartUp 2025 Programme. In the final competition we enjoyed the innovation, talent and entrepreneurial spirit of young people from all over Cyprus. The organization provided all the tools to the participants to turn their business ideas into reality, utilizing their creativity and determination to achieve remarkable results. The event was crowned with a special success, reinforcing the belief that young people have the power to shape the future of entrepreneurship. The Final and the Award Ceremony took place on Tuesday 11 March 2025 at the ASBIS TECH CLUSTER in Limassol.
The competition was the culmination of the efforts of students from 7 Universities, aged 18-30. During the event, the 6 finalist student companies had the opportunity to present their innovative business ideas and were evaluated through interviews by the Jury.
The jury consisted of Konstantina Logotheti (JA Cyprus, President BoD), Lina Kourtella (Embio Diagnostics, COO), Marilena Paraskeva (Research and Innovation Foundation, Sponsorship Officer), Monica Polemiti (Hybrid ConsulTech, Founder and CEO), and Nicolas Lambrou (MetLife Cyprus, Corporate Sales Executive).
This year the programme was implemented with the participation of students from 7 Universities, with the support of 11 academics and 20 mentors.
The idea of the MedschoolPal team was named Business Idea of the Year 2025! MedschoolPal is an application that revolutionizes the mental health support of medical students through AI-based solutions. It offers personalized mental health guidance, smart scheduling, and smartwatch integration to detect stress and provide immediate real-time interventions. With gamified features that keep users engaged, MedschoolPal helps students remain balanced, productive and resilient in their demanding course. The University of Nicosia team had the support of their mentor Evangelia Athanasiou (Business Engineer focused on HealthTech innovation and research commercialization).
MedschoolPal will represent Cyprus in the European Competition of JA Europe, GEN-E that will take place on July 1-3 and will be hosted by JA Greece, in Athens. The Cypriot team will be represented by Aikaterini Katramadou, Maria Tzifa and Dimitris Vlachos.
2nd Place Award went to the Shelf It team. Their concept focuses on personalizing spaces through innovative, modular shelves that maximize the use of the wall. Although the design of shelves has been modernized, the lack of adaptability often leads to wasted space and clutter. Shelf It offers a solution that not only improves the organization and aesthetics of spaces, But it also provides a safe, practical way to store. The students of the team coming from the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo are: Ahmad Ayad, Ahmad Rustom, Dalia Fakhouri, Rand Jaroush. The team was supported by professors Dr. Christodoulos Pavlou and Dr. Georgios Charalambous, and by mentor Annita Petrou.
In 3rd place was the HairTracker team. Their concept offers an innovative solution for monitoring and managing hair loss through analysis with artificial intelligence. By simply uploading a photo, users receive a hair loss rate (0-100%) as well as personalized tips for hair regrowth. The app tracks progress over time, providing personalized information through a small monthly subscription, giving users control over the health of their hair. The students of the group coming from Frederick University are: George Fiakkas, Petros Ioannou, Christodoulos Tylleros, Kyriakos Fantousis. The team was supported by mentor Panagiotis Kostas (Cocoon Creations).
The programme is supported by MetLife and the Research and Innovation Foundation.
JA Cyprus is a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, the largest global non-profit organization specialized 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
