After receiving a record number of applications from young entrepreneurs across Europe, we are excited to announce the three candidates in the 2024 Youth Start-Up Competition (YSC) who will progress to the final round. 

Building on last year's momentum, the YSC 2024 is an opportunity for young innovators to showcase their ideas, addressing key issues such as sustainability and the digital transition, while upholding EU values. This year's winner of the YSC 2024 will be unveiled on 20 November 2024 at the SME Assembly in Budapest, where the three finalists will pitch their start-up ideas to the jury and the audience. 

With that in mind, let's meet this year's top entrepreneurs: 

Anna Bíborka Nagypál (Hungary) - Cheera 

Anna Bíborka Nagypál is 24 years old, from Szentes in southern Hungary, and the founder of Cheera. Anna turned her father's idea of feeding sprouts to chickens into a solution to tackle the major issue of antibiotic resistance in the poultry industry. Sprouts possess naturally antibiotic properties and a high feed index, offering a sustainable alternative to food supplements. Cheera provides custom sprout mixes, consultancy services for farmers, and technologies to support the local production of sprouts in rural areas, recognising the value of sustainable production methods at the local level.

Frederico Mauritty (Portugal) - HidroQapa

Frederico Mauritty is a 19 year old university student from Portugal who is passionate about sustainability and science. Together with his co-creator Madalena de Castro Filipe, the two established the HidroQapa, an idea capitalising on the economic potential of by-products from the fishing industry. HidroQapa extracts chitosan from shrimp shells to create a biodegradable bioplastic which can be used as a waterproofing agent in the textile industry. The project simultaneously reduces waste from the seafood industry and replaces the environmentally harmful aerosol-based waterproofing practices currently used in the textile industry. 

Jacques Mery de Montigny (France) - Green Fusyon

Jacques Mery de Montigny, founder of Green Fusyon, is 22 years old and from France. Along with his teammates, Emmanuel and Stanislas, Jacques has developed an innovative production method for chlorella - a microalgae rich in protein, omega-3, offering a highly nutritional dietary supplement. Green Fusyon utilises the carbon dioxide and residual heat produced by Europe's expanding biogas industry. The team have so far created a working prototype and forged partnerships with the biogas industry, highlighting that Green Fusyon can help the industry manage its potentially harmful by-products whilst ensuring more sustainable chlorella production. 

Register on the Promoting Enterprise app, powered by Swapcard, to tune in to the Youth Start-Up Competition finale on 20 November at 10:45 CET and find out who will be crowned this year's winner!