Citi: Mayor awards London’s top young green entrepreneur with £20,000 prize
March 21 2017 - 8:15AM
Business Wire
Judges choose Twipes for prize provided by
the Citi Foundation
Winning project aims to ease pressure on
London’s sewers
Two City University students will receive a £20,000 investment
from the Citi Foundation after winning this year’s Mayor’s
Entrepreneur Competition.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, presented the winning students
Alborz Bozorgi and Ellenor McIntosh – creators of the winning entry
Twipes – with their prize at a ceremony at City Hall.
Entrants were asked to come up with creative solutions to the
environmental and social challenges London faces – and more than
300 entries from 37 institutions were whittled down to the final
shortlist, with nearly 599 students involved.
The 10 shortlisted entries – representing seven London
universities – spent the day pitching their ideas to the expert
judges. They then faced the pressure of answering questions about
all aspects of their ideas from the panel, which included perfumer
and entrepreneur Jo Malone, Citi’s Chairman of Energy Banking,
Niels Kirk, and founder of Bio-bean, Arthur Kay.
Twipes are eco-friendly, antibacterial toilet wipes which are
dispensed from a roll similar to toilet paper, are free from harsh
chemicals and – crucially – disintegrate in water in just three
hours.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “As London’s population
grows the pressure on our infrastructure increases with it. Alborz
and Ellenor are to be commended for tackling this challenge head on
and they should be very proud of what they have achieved.
“I’m hugely impressed by the quality of entries. It’s testament
to the creativity and talent in London’s world-leading universities
that such a range of innovative solutions have been developed to
make our city a better place for future generations.”
Winner Ellenor said: “Winning was absolutely fantastic. Having
the Mayor endorse our product and our idea gives us such
validation.”
Fellow winner Alborz added: “All the judges are heads of their
industries and to have them believe in our product is amazing.”
Judge Niels Kirk said: “Citi are excited to be supporting the
Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur award. Today’s finalists have
developed environmentally and socially-minded business propositions
and should all be incredibly proud to have reached the final of
this competition.
“We believe in the importance of supporting today’s urban youth
with the Mayor’s Fund for London to help catalyse jobs and develop
entrepreneurial and innovative mind-sets, so that they are
empowered and career ready. As a global business we see first-hand
the impact unemployment has on young people the world over, and the
influence this can have on their self-esteem and future
prospects.
“This year the Citi Foundation has expanded their commitment to
support young people with $100 million to reach 500,000 young
people with training and jobs worldwide over the next three
years.”
Other shortlisted entries included, a device for engines and gas
boilers that removes nitrogen from the air entering the equipment.
a robotic arm to enable stroke patients to complete more rehab at
home and a biodegradable substitute for leather made from
carbon-neutral mushrooms.
Notes to editors
- The full shortlist of entries is
available
here: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/smart-london-and-innovation/mayor-entrepreneur-2017.
- The judging panel consisted of:
- Garry Moore - founder, Propelair
- Jo Malone MBE – perfumer and
entrepreneur
- Jenny Tooth OBE – CEO, UK Business
Angels Association
- Niels Kirk – Chairman of Energy
Banking, Citi and Head of Climate & Sustainability Council
- Christian Lane – CEO, Smarter.am
- Arthur Kay – CEO, Bio-bean and former
competition winner
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