The Pitch-Up youth entrepreneurial challenge has entered its final stage, where candidates are required to pitch their business proposal to a panel of judges.
Pitch-Up is a competition being conducted by the Maldives: Enhancing Employability and Resilience of Youth (MEERY) project, which is jointly implemented by the Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of Economic Development. MEERY aims to foster technical and vocational skills development and promote youth entrepreneurship in priority sectors.
Pitch-Up was launched on April 5 and invited Maldivians aged 18-35 to submit innovative, feasible, and sustainable entrepreneurship ideas as solutions to local and global problems. Around 102 business proposals were received in the areas of information and communication technologies (ICT), tourism, tourism-related construction, and agriculture.
In stage one of Pitch-Up, shortlisted applicants were invited to complete a boot camp training focused on entrepreneurial skill development, in which they also learned how to develop their ideas into a detailed business proposal. In stage two, candidates who successfully completed the boot camp submitted their detailed business proposals. Candidates who submitted the best proposals were shortlisted and invited to pitch their business proposals to a panel of judges in stage 3. This will be followed by an interview with the judges, who will then make the final decisions on the winners of the competition before the end of the year.
Winners are eligible to receive financial grant assistance between USD 10,000 to USD 39,000. Pitch-Up aims to foster a culture of informed risk-taking through innovation and entrepreneurship and inculcate valuable skills essential to running a successful start-up.