Winning the JA Europe Enterprise Challenge 2017, Sophie Back from JAYE Malta, Charles Theuma, Katryna Briffa, Nicole Cassar, Stephen Mintoff, Sam Hoiles from Saint Martin’s Institute and Julian Azzopardi from JAYE Malta

The European Enterprise challenge hosted this year by JA Finland gathered 19 Startups from 15 countries in Helsinki. University students who took part in the ‘Start Up Programme’ were competing and presenting their start-ups to a selected jury.

The main Award was presented to a student team from Saint Martin’s Institute of Higher Education in Malta. They impressed the jury with their INTACT system, a technology enhancing safety for motorcyclists. Impact sensors installed in the rider’s helmet are connected to a smartphone app that automatically alerts emergency services and relatives, providing the location once a collision is detected.

“Winning the award is overwhelming, it happens once in a lifetime. From the beginning we wanted to have a positive impact on society and our focus was to improve safety for motorcyclists on the road. Participating in the JA Startup programme was a practical experience of our studies in entrepreneurship. We learned team work, how the real business works and how to present our company. We’re going to keep on working on our system for further success”,said INTACT member Katryna Briffa.

The INTACT team consists of five student members, Stephen Mintoff, Katryna Briffa, Nicole Cassar, Sam Hoiles and Erika Galea mentored by Charles Theuma, Dylan Seychell, Sue Wallbank and Mark Pizzuto. It is the very first time that a Maltese team has ever won the European Start-Up Competition.

Every year, the Startup programme engages over 14,000 students from 300 centres of higher learning, giving them the opportunity to experience running a business from top to bottom. Supporting European goals of improving youth employability and the start-up ecosystem, the programme fosters key competences to ensure that students are prepared for success after university. They gain key understanding in self-employment, business creation, risk-taking and coping with adversity, all with the support of experienced business volunteers.

“It was extraordinary to see so many talented young people. I’m so grateful to JA Europe and JA Finland for inviting me as a keynote speaker and jury member in this competition. These companies not only know how to run a business, but they also want to make money, help a lot of people, and most importantly have a lot of fun”, said jury member David Meltzer, CEO & Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing.

The European Enterprise Challenge is supported by businesses who awarded the competing startup with signature Awards. Local partners in Finland included Microsoft, Nordea and Roschier. INTACT won the Roschier Client in Focus Signature Award. At European level, the NN Social Innovation Award was presented to the Spanish team who developed Light, a mobile application encouraging people to be more sustainable in their daily lives through gamification and smart city systems. The Visa Award for Connected Commerce rewarded City Check an app with a customizable family game that allows you to play various games while visiting a city.

“Visa has a long standing commitment to entrepreneurial education. Our partnership with JA Europe at this year’s European Enterprise Challenge in Helsinki has given us a fabulous opportunity to hear from the young start-ups and talented entrepreneurs from across Europe who are helping to shape a culture of innovation. We are delighted to recognise City Check with the Visa Award for Connected Commerce, and look forward to meeting the team again when they visit London for a mentoring session with our innovation experts”,said Anthony Craufurd, Director, Venture, Visa.

 

The Jury members were;

• Hans Daems, Group Public Affairs Officer, Hitachi Europe 
• Max Mickelsson, Director Government Affairs, Microsoft Finland
• David Meltzer, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Sports 1 Marketing
• Sari Suono, Chief People & Culture Officer, ISS Palvelut 
• Cristian Gheorghe, Managing Partner, Nexus Consulting
• Laurent Roux, Entrepreneurship Officer, European Institute of Innovation & Technology
• Joonas Ahola, CEO & Co-founder, Meetingpackage.com