KIPCO – the Kuwait Projects Company – and the Youth Empowerment Organization (Tmkeen) announced the names of the three e-media and technology businesses that have advanced to the final judging round of the KIPCO Tmkeen Award for Young Entrepreneurs 2017.
The three business that qualified are Baims – an education platform offering online classes for university students, Orddr.com – a B2B online platform for the food industry, and Yahalooh – an online platform for the rental of toys and children’s party games.
The entrepreneurs were required to give a 5-7 minute presentation about their companies in the preliminary judging round. The judges were KIPCO Group professionals representing Burgan Bank, Gulf Insurance Group, OSN, United Real Estate, KAMCO Investment Company, Qurain Petrochemical Industries, United Networks, AUK and Marina FM.
KIPCO’s Group Communications Director, Ms Eman Al Awadhi, said:
“First and foremost, I thank all the entrepreneurs who participated for taking up this challenge. The standard of this year’s businesses made it very difficult for our judges to decide who moves on to the next round. Many of the businesses showed strong potential, and we are proud to be able to shed light on the work of these entrepreneurs through the KIPCO Tmkeen Award. Moreover, our judges had the opportunity to interact with the entrepreneurs, and this has been an ongoing learning process for us just as much as it has been for the participants.”
The CEO of Youth Empowerment Organization, Mr Ali Al Ibrahim, said:
“We are pleased with the turnout for this year’s award. The businesses were very promising and we are delighted to be working with KIPCO to showcase these outstanding businesses. Over the past three years, our participants have continued to pleasantly surprise us. The amount of great ideas presented today are a sign of the positive direction being taken by the youth of Kuwait, and we hope that Tmkeen and KIPCO will continue to support these young entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses.”
The final judging round will take place on October 23, during the first day of the Youth Empowerment Symposium. The finalists will be required to give a more detailed presentation about their businesses.
This year’s winner will be rewarded with $100,000 worth of services from the KIPCO Group as well as $15,000 in cash. In addition, this year’s second and third place winners will be rewarded with $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. The winner will be announced on October 24.