This year we took our Big Idea Challenge global through partnering with British Council Creative Spark Higher Education Enterprise Programme.
We took our pitching competition to seven countries in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan), South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia) and Ukraine to develop the creative sector and address the demand for entrepreneurship training, supporting wealth and job creation.
Back in June, panels of local judges deliberated to choose country winners in three categories: Digital Technology, Social Impact and Creative, as well as overall national champions.
Plus the competition received 40,000 public votes to identify the most popular idea for each of the seven Creative Spark countries.
This weekend, eight teams (the seven-country champions and one international popular vote winner), comprising fifteen individual team members joined us at Accelerator, London Met’s business incubator to take part in our intensive three day Startup Sprint programme.
Meet the 2019 winners…
Social Impact Category: GreenDom
Emma Grigoryan, Azganush Mnatsakanyan, Hrag Markarian from Yerevan V. Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences State present GreenDom – a therapeutic Greenhouse preparing children with disabilities for the labour market
Creative Category: Sapo
Naili Vakhania and Tengiz Kavkasidze from Business Technology University present Sapo – Natural, handmade toy shaped mysterious soaps with its adventure books.
Digital Category: Pi Pillow
Oleksandr Shymanko, Serhii Dmytrenok and Andrii Zhydeko from NGO Tech Start-up School (of Lviv Polytechnic National University) present Pi Pillow – a smart pillow with built-in tech to aid sleep and relaxation.
People Choice Category: Recycled Textile Waste
Tamara Ustenko from Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design (KNUTD) presents a new collection of designer products produced from recycled textile offcuts and waste.
Grand Champion: Pi Pillow
Meet all the 2019 international finalists