José Miguel Bermúdez, co-founder and CEO of bound4blue, Sònia Castelló, CEO of Fil Katia, and Josep Dosta, founder and CEO of WOODYS, are the three finalists who choose to take home this edition of the Young Entrepreneur Award organized by the AIJEC , the Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Catalonia. With the award for the best Young Entrepreneur, the entity is looking for the young entrepreneur who best represents the new visions and values of the business world, taking into account aspects such as the consolidation of the initial idea in the form of a business, economic viability, the spirit entrepreneur, personal trajectory, innovation, international vision and future challenges.
In the category of Best Business Initiative for the most innovative business idea with future prospects, the three finalist projects in this 31st edition of the Young Entrepreneur Award are Able Human Motion, D-Sight and Venvirotech.
The Young Entrepreneur Award celebrates its 31st consolidated edition in 2024 as one of the most important entrepreneurship awards held in Catalonia. With these recognitions, the AIJEC wants to distinguish the work, effort and perseverance of young entrepreneurs capable of generating jobs and promoting business projects.
The finalists in the Young Entrepreneur Award
José Miguel Bermúdez is the CEO and co-founder of bound4blue, a startup that develops automated wind-assisted propulsion systems that enable all ship owners and shipping companies to reduce fuel costs and pollutant emissions by up to 40%. bound4blue was born in 2015 with the aim of revolutionizing maritime transport by using wind as a complementary propulsion system and through an innovative suction sail system. The company co-founded by Bermúdez has devised a solution that requires little maintenance and is easy to install on board, being the most cost-effective wind-assisted propulsion technology today. In September 2023, the startup secured 22.4 million euros in public and private funding, which confirms its leadership in a market that is now experiencing sustained growth.
Sònia Castelló is the third generation and current managing director of Fil Katia, a Catalan brand of threads, wools and fabrics for work, born in 1951 when Grandma Castelló ran a small wool shop. Regarding Europe in fantasy yarns, Katia has managed to export its products to around fifty countries, the latest being the United States, a market that is now the focus of the company’s international strategy. In addition, the company located in Castellbell i el Vilar (Barcelona) markets its products through around 3,600 stores distributed mostly throughout Europe. Katia acts as e-commerce for its stores and is currently in the midst of a digitization process to continue being the reference company in textile handicrafts for the new generations. Among the projects that the current CEO of the company has promoted, is the Schools Project to publicize the benefits of textile handicrafts, which are the same as Katia’s values: creativity, community and well-being. It is a social project where Katia gives the material to schools that decide to give workshops and where the company does not look for profitability but to stimulate emotional benefits such as self-esteem, autonomy or children’s concentration through handicrafts textiles.
Josep Dosta founded WOODYS when he was only 23 years old and after detecting a business opportunity in the world of optics with the design and manufacture of wooden glasses. Dosta was European champion in wakeskate, a water sport in which a wooden board is used to surf the waves produced by a boat. During his training, his glasses always fell off in the water until one day he had the idea to create glasses that float. After investigating he found that the key was in the sheets of the wake tables. And so Woodys began, making wooden glasses from recycled wakeskate boards. Ten years later, the company that runs Dosta no longer works with wood, but offers glasses with high-quality materials such as acetate, titanium or metal, and is present in 75 countries with more than 15,000 points of sale.
The finalists for Best Business Initiative
ABLE Human Motion is a spin-off of the UPC that was born in October 2018 and develops innovative robotic exoskeletons to improve the mobility and quality of life of people with disabilities, specifically people with paraplegia due to a spinal cord injury ·lar or for stroke survivors. After 5 years, the company co-founded by Alfons Carnicero has created the ABLE Exoskeleton, the world’s lightest, fastest to adjust and most accessible robotic exoskeleton that facilitates the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries. The latest version of the device allows people with paraplegia to get out of their wheelchairs and walk again naturally and intuitively. After completing the development, carrying out clinical trials in hospitals such as the Guttmann Institute or the Heidelberg University Hospital and obtaining CE certification as a health product, the company started last April a new stage of commercialization and has already sold the first units to clinical centers in Madrid, A Coruña, Barcelona and Holland.
D-Sight is a spin-off from the Barcelona Vall d’Hebron Hospital Research Institute (VHIR) which has developed the first drug in the form of eye drops for the early treatment of diabetic retinopathy, the most common neurovascular disease of diabetes and the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. There are currently no treatments available for this affectation in its earliest stages. The company co-founded by Carla Maté offers an innovative, safe, non-invasive, self-administered and low-cost solution, which aims to improve the quality of life of more than 185 million people worldwide, responding to an unmet medical need global scale cover. In May 2023, the company managed to secure funding of one million euros, which it is using to move forward with the first phase of clinical validation of this drug. With less than two years of existence, the company has already manufactured its product on a large scale for clinical use and will start its clinical trial in humans at the beginning of next year 2025, demonstrating the competitiveness of its project and promoter team. At the same time, the company is developing new therapies for the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases of the retina, such as glaucoma.
Venvirotech is a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of sustainable solutions and is revolutionizing the bioplastics industry through a unique technology that produces 100% organic and compostable bioplastic from waste materials. Co-founded by Patricia Aymà, the startup based in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda has devised a new technology that allows to reduce production costs and, therefore, to sell the product at a lower price than competitors. Unlike conventional plastics, the product generated by Venvirotech goes through a much faster biodegradation period.
The benchmark awards for entrepreneurship in Catalonia
The finalists for the Young Entrepreneur Award and the Best Business Initiative will defend their projects next October 22 before a jury made up of representatives of the main public and private institutions in the country that work in favor of the company, as well as various media of communication They will be the ones who decide who will finally take home the awards of the 31st edition of the Young Entrepreneur Award.
The winners will be announced at a gala that will be held on November 6 at the Gaudí Auditorium & Hall in La Pedrera. During the event, the AIJEC will present for the first time the Blue Entrepreneurship Recognition, an award that aims to reward the best blue economy project or company that promotes sustainability, innovation, economy, equality, diversity and any other value of public interest in relation to the blue economy.
In addition, the Recognition for Social Entrepreneurship will also be given, for companies with a social objective; the Recognition of Business Linguistic Quality, for positive promotion of the use of the Catalan language in the company as a tool for qualitative improvement; the Recognition for the Best Business Trajectory, to an entrepreneur with experience and an already established business project and the Future Entrepreneurship Recognition, which aims to reward an entrepreneurial project worked on by under 18s.