Mindi Pekola has won the GrowUp Students competition of the year

The GrowUp Students, a Growth Competition project for new Businesses and Ideas, culminated in the Final event at SeAMK this November.

The competing teams were selected from the participating applied science universities: Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (SeAMK), Vaasa University of Applied Sciences   (VAMK) and from Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK). The competition took place in SeAMK premises this year in agreement with VAMK and TAMK.

Towards the end of the race, two finalists from SeAMK came up to the top. At the very end, the jury chose Mindi Pekola and her creation of Anouk Studio, as the winner of the competition. The up and running business of Anouk Studio sells high-quality contemporary art design posters of artists’ artwork, all around the world. The aim of the company, is to introduce and sell various contemporary artist´s work, to interested buyers around the world.

“The winning idea of this business has value and makes people happy in their homes,” said about the winner, the chairman of the jury and Managing Director of the South Ostrobothnian Chamber of Commerce Pertti Kinnunen.

The winner of the award was granted 1500 euros.

Second in the competition was Eero Jääskeläinen, with his enterprise of Oree Oy. Oree Oy produces automotive cleaning and care chemicals for both B2C and B2B. Consumers are targeted at the Fureо car care product series website, a trademark owned by Oree Oy. For companies Oree produces private label products as well as larger quantities for car washes, for example.

“A good product line, customer target group well thought of and in existence. However, the sector is very difficult and with a wide competition, “Kinnunen summarized in the jury’s views.

Second place Eero Jääskeläinen, received 1000 euros.

Third in the line was the winning team of, Robin Bulz, Sonia Smolinskan, Linda Herrmannova, Kasper Kumpulainen, Arttu Koskela-Koivisto and Daan Pladet, with Idea Cuppa, from VAMK. The group raised a prize money of 500 euros.

For the best pitch, the Jury selected Adrien Hustache and five other Tampere students for the Journey in HEL concept, which introduces Finland to the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport for flights to Helsinki.

“A vivid and inspiring presentation, a clear presentation of a very good idea,” the jury said.

“As always, making a decision was really difficult. The ideas of the Finalists were variable and covered different aspects of life, “said Pertti Kinnunen, chair of the jury of the competition, describing the competition as a whole.

According to Kinnunen, the ideas of the finalists were good, but some of them needed to develop the business model and eventually form partnerships.

SeAMKs vice principle Elina Varamäki, thanked the students who participated in this years´competition and looks forward to the competition expanding further, in the coming years.

“For SeAMK, I would like to warmly thank all the competitors. The competition included very good ideas and business models. Hopefully, we will have more universities of applied sciences included in the competition in the future ”

From the original GrowUp-growth competition, this spin-off competition is taking place for the second time. This year, the competition expanded outside of the Southern Ostrobothnia borders when Vaasa and Tampere Universities of Applied Sciences were also invited to participate. Each UAS will send the top four of its qualifying participants, to the competition finals. Participating in the jury for the finals was also the representation of all three UAS.

The competition is co-organized with the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Into Seinäjoki, the South Ostrobothnia Chamber of Commerce and the Seinäjoki Entrepreneurship Society SeiES as partners in Sales World and LähiTapiola, Etelä-Pohjanmaa.