Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2019

Overall winner of the 2019 HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneurs Prize

On 28 November, Unilever and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership announced that Emmanuel Emodek, founder of digital platform ChapChap, has been chosen from eight winning entrepreneurs as the recipient of this year’s HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize.

Eight 2019 winners

In 2019, 1,850 entrepreneurs from around the world entered the Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards. Through an intensive selection process led by CISL, eight inspiring young entrepreneurs were chosen as the winners of the 2019 Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards. These winners travelled to Cambridge at the end of November for the CISL Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme, and then to London to pitch to a high profile panel of judges.Our 2019 winners are:

Emmanuel Emodek, ChapChap

A digital platform that helps small businesses balance the books and keep track of transactions all from their smartphone.

Sebastian Groh, Me SOLshare

An organisation connecting households and mirco-businesses in Bangladesh through solar home systems, allowing off-grid rural communities to use and trade energy.

Prince Kwame Agbata, Coliba

A mobile platform linking waste collectors in Ghana with the plastic waste that can then be recycled and sold on.

Sonal Kapoor, Protsahan India Foundation

A non-profit supporting girls who have been victims of violence and abuse to break the cycle and get back into school.

Abdul Khogali, Genecis Bioindustries

An organisation using bacteria to convert food waste into high-quality, environmentally friendly bioplastics.

Nidhi Pant, Science for Society

An Indian organisation which has developed a solar conduction dryer to dehydrate food - reducing post-harvest losses and improving nutrition

Francis Xavier Asiimwe, Kaaro Health

A business providing Uganda’s rural communities with remote access to doctors through solar-powered container clinics

Virtue Oboro, Tiny Hearts Technology

An organisation creating solar powered, lightweight phototherapy cots to treat babies with jaundice across rural Africa.

Find out more about the 2019 winners and their initiatives.

In late November, these winners will be flown to Cambridge for an all-inclusive accelerator programme with CISL, delivered by experts in sustainability, entrepreneurship and scaling for impact. The winners share in €100,000, along with tailored one-to-one mentoring for 12 months. From the eight winners, one overall winner will be awarded the HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize at a high profile event in London.

Celebrating young sustainability innovators

The Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards, delivered by Unilever and CISL, support and celebrate inspirational young people from all over the world who have existing initiatives, products or services tackling some of the planet’s biggest sustainability challenges. Now in their sixth year, the Awards have reached over 5,800 inspiring young sustainability entrepreneurs and their organisations, and provided tailored support and funding to 37 winners, helping them achieve scale for impact.

The world’s problems will only be solved with the ideas and talents of a new generation of leaders who are challenging business as usual. The Awards are an opportunity to support, inspire, reward and collaborate with these leaders; innovators who are the future of sustainability.

Find out more about the prizes.

The 2019 Awards

This year we are searching for young entrepreneurs from across the world who have innovative and scalable technologies or initiatives that are addressing a sustainability challenge within one or more of the following three categories.

		Improve people’s health and wellbeing Improve health, sanitation and hygiene challenges Encourage healthy lives and promote physical, social and mental wellbeing at all ages Promote affordable, nutritious food and drink production from source through to consumption

		Improve the health of the planet Combat climate change and its impacts Reduce waste and ensure responsible consumption and production patterns Promote healthier natural ecosystems alongside commercial gain

		Contribute to a fairer and more socially inclusive world Champion equal participation in the economy and society Address core human rights issues across the value chain Encourage better livelihoods and communities