Winners of the “Pitch-Up: Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge” have received over USD 800,000 in grant aid for their start-up businesses.
Pitch-up was a business pitch competition held to promote entrepreneurship among Maldivian youth. The competition was an initiative by MEERY Project, aimed to foster a culture of informed risk taking through innovation and entrepreneurship, and inculcate skills essential to run a successful start-up.
The winners of the competition were awarded during a special event held on January 10. During the ceremony, 23 winners of the competition received a total of over USD 800,000 in grant aid to launch their start-up businesses. Winners of the Pitch-Up challenge included 11 agricultural projects, 6 tourism projects and 5 ICT projects.
Speaking at the awarding ceremony, Project Manager of the MEERY project Ali Shareef said the project received a very good response from the Maldivian youth, with a total of 192 business ideas and 50 proposals pitched in the competition. He expressed hope the winners of the competition will use the grant aid to create innovative and sustainable business solutions.
MEERY, the “Maldives: Enhancing Employability and Resilience of Youth” project is a collaboration between the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Economic Development and the World Bank. Funded by the World Bank, the objective of the MEERY project is to empower youth with skill sets and entrepreneurship training relevant to address the job market amid the COVID-19 pandemic to foster livelihoods.