Recycla Chile from Octantis Business Accelerator in Chile and Broker Inc. from YES Incubator in Macedonia have been selected as finalists for the Smart Entrepreneurship Competition held within the framework of The European Business and Innovation Center Network (EBN) Annual Congress in Burgos, Spain on June 30-July 2, 2010.
On the 25th anniversary of EBN, the 19th EBN Annual Congress 2010 will highlight a selection of 25 innovative entrepreneurs - 25 "smart champions" - nominated and coached by the 250 Members of the EBN network, the smart BICs. The selected entrepreneurs will showcase their stories, their models, their innovations, their passions, and how their BICs contributed to their success with a focus on the end-users of the BICs’ supply chain. The show-cases and discussions will be organized around five categories: business models, collaborative models, digital models, socially responsible models and total service models.
"Thanks to infoDev, Recycla has the chance to be one of the finalists of this competition and to be remembered for its socially responsible model... I expect to meet new partners and to have the chance to establish important networks with different companies and organizations from around the world in order to work together, exchange new ideas and share our innovation experiences."
Fernando Nilo, CEO, Recycla Chile
Recycla Chile, a client company of Octantis Business Accelerator, will compete in the group on socially responsible models. Founded in 2003, Recycla Chile spent 3 years in the Octantis Business Accelerator program and currently employs 25 people as well as 5 board members. Recycla was the first company to recycle E-Waste in Chile and Latin America, bringing up a very important subject into public discussion. In a country with weak recycling legislation, in the beginning few knew there was an environmental issue behind E-Waste disposal, and Recycla had to make enormous efforts in order to get companies to recycle their useless equipment. Recycla, as social entrepreneurship, had also been innovative in terms of its business model, which is based in a triple bottom line - meaning it works to create not only economic value, but we also social and environmental value. Today, the company recycles about 10% of Chile's e-waste. Read more about Recycla's success story
"The credibility of my company in front of my clients was significantly improved as soon as my success story was published on iDisc.net. At the EBN Congress, I will share my vision with the rest of the participants, but keep my competitive and entrepreneurial spirit, because as in any competition, the winners will be remembered!"
Dean Krstevski, Founder & CEO, Broker Inc.
Broker Inc., a client company of YES Incubator in Macedonia, will compete in the group on digital models. The company was founded in 2008 and graduated from YES Incubator a year later, in 2009. Founded by 22-year old graduate student Dean Krstevksi, the company currently employs 15 people, with a projected turnover of 400% more than in its founding year. Broker Inc. focuses on providing financial solutions for financial institutions and financial analysis / financial modeling. It is first and only company in Macedonia that offers training courses in financial modeling and financial analysis and also the first company in Macedonia that creates employment opportunities for the best students right after the completion of the training course. Broker Inc. has won the World Summit Award and Youth2Innovation Award. Read more about Broker Inc.'s success story
About EBN
The European Business & Innovation Centre Network was set up in 1984 as a joint initiative of the European Commission, European industry leaders and the first pioneering Business and Innovation Centres. EBN is now the leading non-governmental pan-European network bringing together 200+ Business & Innovation Centres (BICs), and similar organisations such as incubators, innovation and entrepreneurship centres across the enlarged Europe. It provides help and support to these BICs by acting as an interface with other organisations including the European Commission (which officially recognises EBN), by providing expertise in numerous areas including funding and by stimulating the sharing of best practices.