Ministry of Economic Development has awarded grant offer letters to the winners of the Pitch-Up: Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.
The economic ministry awarded the 24 winners of the competition a total of USD 800,000 at a special ceremony. Those in attendance included Minister of State for Economic Development Neeza Imad, Deputy Minister Riyaz Mansoor, and Senior Policy Director Mariyam Manaarath.
Pitch-up was a business pitch competition held to promote entrepreneurship among Maldivian youth. The competition was a Maldives initiative: the Enhancing Employability and Resilience of Youth (MEERY) project aimed to foster a culture of informed risk-taking through innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as instill skills necessary for running a successful start-up.The MEERY project is a collaboration between the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Economic Development, with funding from the World Bank. Its objective is to foster technical and vocational skills development and promote youth entrepreneurship in priority sectors.
Pitch-Up was launched in 2021 and invited Maldivians aged 18–35 to submit innovative, feasible, and sustainable entrepreneurship ideas as solutions to local and global problems. Around 102 business proposals were received in the areas of information and communication technologies (ICT), tourism, tourism-related construction, and agriculture.
In stage one of Pitch-Up, shortlisted applicants were invited to complete a boot camp training focused on entrepreneurial skill development, in which they also learned how to develop their ideas into a detailed business proposal. In stage two, candidates who successfully completed the boot camp submitted their detailed business proposals. Candidates who submitted the best proposals were shortlisted and invited to pitch their business proposals to a panel of judges in stage 3. This was followed by an interview with the judges, who made the final decisions on the winners.
The winners of the competition were awarded during a special event held on January 10. The winners of the Pitch-Up challenge included 11 agricultural projects, 6 tourism projects, and 5 ICT projects.