Sound-absorbing mushroom mycelium panels, university electives and physiotherapy applications – youth business ideas …. – Education, webinars

Sound-absorbing mushroom mycelium panels, university choice and physiotherapy applications – young people’s business ideas attract more than 10,000 votes In the battle with almost a thousand young people’s ideas, the highest rating in the Swedbank idea competition “Business Sketches” goes to the sound-absorbing panels “Hushroom”, made from mushroom mycelium, and two applications – “Studefy”, which will help you choose the most suitable university, and “Re:Shape” – for precise physiotherapy exercises at home. In order to get the desired victory, the young people attracted more than 10 thousand votes of potential customers in the final of the competition.

“Last year, my business idea only made it to the semi-finals. Therefore, this year we thought of another business idea and already in November we started working with mushroom mycelium acoustic panels. Although the panels we made in the first attempt got moldy, we did not get scared and purposefully tried again. We are currently working on the fourth prototype. I liked making videos the best, but writing a business plan will definitely come in handy in the future, which helped put the idea on the shelves. Collecting votes was also very valuable, and we have found supporters all over Latvia, the whole school, teachers, parents, friends and acquaintances who helped collect votes were actively involved. Our goal was to show that valuable business ideas can be created in Jelgava Secondary School 4. We invite young people to think about entrepreneurship already during school and we are glad that the money obtained in the Swedbank competition will help us develop our business,” he emphasizes Esther Jungferman, one of the authors of the “Hushroom” idea.

Second place was won by three ideas – “EkoCikls”, which produces innovative bio-waste boxes for compost production, “BioVe” food freshness sensor and “Heatee” self-heating sweater. On the other hand, he won the third place

“MGNG” – cards that facilitate learning, “AR” – a box with a time lock for smart devices, as well as “Peak” – an application for travelers.

“I have good news for investors – future entrepreneurs have great ideas and, as the final round of the competition proved, they are ready to work hard to implement them. However, as it often happens in business, there were also teams in this competition that presented themselves very convincingly, but lost their leading positions after the public vote, and there were also those that made a significant breakthrough right after the voting round. Every business idea needs to be tested, because what seems current and exciting to oneself will not always seem so to potential buyers. However, the ideas in the competition were really great, and I hope that the experience gained in the competition will also inspire those who did not get the prized places this time not to give up, to further develop and improve their idea and find their real target audience,” says Reinis Jansons, head of the Swedbank Financial Institute.

The best teams will receive cash prizes for the development of their business: the 1st place winner in each age group will receive 1,500 euros, the 2nd place winner – 1,000 euros, and the 3rd place winner – 500 euros, dividing the more than 14,000 euros of the Swedbank competition prize fund. On the other hand, the consulting teachers of the award-winning primary and secondary school teams will receive a 200-euro cash prize along with the satisfaction of the students’ success.

Young people from all over Latvia (26 counties) participated in the competition. The most active young people, having created 103 teams, are in Riga, followed by Jelgava region with 62 teams and Limbažu region with 24 teams. The most represented teams in the primary school competition are from Jelgava Spīdola State Gymnasium, the largest number of teams in the secondary school group is represented by Āgenskalnas State Gymnasium, while in the university competition the most teams are from the University of Latvia.

The business planning competition “Business Sketches” is organized by Swedbank in cooperation with the State Educational Content Center and the Science and Innovation Center of Riga Technical University.

This year, the supporters of the competition have also provided great special prizes – JSC “Capital” donated a Neo Play stationary gaming computer to the “Heatee” team, while “Hushroom” received 1,000 euros for the development of sustainability from “AJ Power”. In the high school group, “Summer Sound” gave tickets to the festival to their favorite team “BioVe”. On the other hand, university teams were provided with the widest range of prizes – the Baltic Computer Academy (BDA), one of the largest training centers in Latvia, will give the “Peak” team the opportunity to improve their knowledge in artificial intelligence courses, while Civitta will help the “EkoCikls” team to create a presentable business plan in English and within the framework of the Erasmus program, go on an exchange program for up to six months and receive a special scholarship.

Swedbank