Young entrepreneurs honoured with Futuremakers Award

Standard Chartered Foundation and KIZ SINNOVA announce Germany’s winners of the year 2023

Frankfurt, February 12, 2024 – The winners of the “Futuremakers Award 2023” were honoured for their exceptional and inspiring work and ideas at a ceremony in Frankfurt am Main last Friday for the third time since 2021. The award ceremony is the highlight of the Futuremakers Entrepreneurship Programme in Germany. The winners receive prize money of 1,500 euros each and an individual coaching package. 

The programme, funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation (SCF), was launched at the beginning of 2021 and is part of the global Futuremakers initiative to combat inequality and promote economic inclusion. It supports young entrepreneurs and youth-led SMEs in Germany who have mastered their business projects despite economic challenges. The programme is delivered by Youth Business International (YBI), who leads a global network of enterprise support organisations with a passion for empowering underserved young people, and KIZ SINNOVA gGmbH Offenbach (KIZ) with support from employees of Standard Chartered Bank in Germany.

In the period from 2022 to 2023, the programme supported over 500 young founders through training and mentoring to start and grow their business. Around 60% of the beneficiaries were women; a particular highlight of the collaboration is the Futuremakers Female Training, which is very popular and in high demand.

A jury of representatives from Standard Chartered Bank and the coaches from KIZ have selected the winners from this year’s 25 German Futuremakers award applicants in categories: “Female Empowerment”, “Business Progress”, “Social Impact” and “Visual Impairment”. This year’s winners are:

Marta Pukite from Friedrichsdorf receives the award in the “Female Empowerment” category. Her company QBER develops solutions to determine the financial impact of cyberattacks so that other companies can invest in cybersecurity in a targeted and effective manner.

Soraya Rosadha from Wiesbaden with Aiku Technologies in the “Business Progress” category. Aiku is an IT consultancy that provides artificial intelligence and data solutions, including the automation of data pipelines for healthcare intelligence, software integration and internal enterprise software.

In the “Social Impact” category, Christoph Tippmann from Frankfurt was honoured with 90green solutions. His company uses data-driven greening solutions to bring green spaces into cities and urban areas and makes the sustainable and environmental impact measurable.

Miriana Palermo from Herne was honoured in the “Visual Impairment” category with her project “Coaching without detours – towards your best vision”. She offers all people, regardless of their origin, religion, sexuality, etc. and in particular people with a visual impairment/blindness, the opportunity to receive personalised and tailored coaching in all situations in life.

Nicolo Salsano, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank AG, adds: “I am very impressed by the young founders in this programme and am delighted that we can once again award prizes to outstanding young people and business ideas this year. All of the award winners have made a contribution to our society with their ideas and commitment and are a source of inspiration for my colleagues and me. I am delighted to announce that we will be supporting the Futuremakers programme again in 2024.”

Dirk Luenzer, Managing Director of KIZ SINNOVA gGmbH, on Futuremakers Germany: “My team looks back with great pride on the past three years, during which we have been able to support numerous young entrepreneurs. The Futuremakers Germany community is growing steadily and culminates in the annual award ceremony. I look forward to continuing our joint, impactful work with Standard Chartered in 2024.”

Anita Tiessen, CEO of Youth Business International: “I want to thank Standard Chartered Foundation and our member KIZ SINNOVA for your collaborative partnership approach. Through this dedicated partnership, our programme has successfully empowered women entrepreneurs through essential support, resources and training, helping these women launch successful businesses. It’s not just about shaping a brighter future, but also about making it happen, one entrepreneur at a time.”

Note to Editors

Brief description of the four categories

Female Empowerment – Award for women who have taken the leap into self-employment and through their work inspire and encourage other women to develop professionally or personally – with or without children.

Business Progress – Award for entrepreneurs who seek and see opportunities for themselves and their businesses, and who are constantly adapting and improving. This category includes inspiring examples that motivate others to develop further.

Visual Impairment – Award for visually impaired entrepreneurs who have set up their own business and go their own way despite their visual impairment, as well as sensitising other people to the issue.

Social Impact – Award for entrepreneurs who uncover and address a social problem. Your company creates social/environmental added value and wants to achieve social impact.

Information on the award winners and the jury’s statement

Marta Pukite, Friedrichsdorf – www.qber.de

With her company Qber Marta Pukite makes an important contribution to data security. She founded her company 2.5 years ago to help other organisations understand the financial impact of cyber incidents and thus deploy resources for protection in a targeted and effective manner. From her professional experience, she knew that many organisations still do too little for cyber security and have problems correctly assessing the risk and making cost-benefit considerations. The reason for this is that cyber risks, even though they are now a normal part of almost every business activity, have been difficult to grasp until now, because they could not be quantified and expressed in the context of the business. Qber is therefore developing solutions to close these gaps. The jury was impressed by Marta Pukite’s business idea and the role model she sets for other young women who want to turn their business ideas into reality.

Soraya Rosadha, Wiesbaden – www.aiku.tech/ 

Soraya Rosadha joined her husband in Germany from Indonesia in 2022. Together they founded Aiku Tech GmbH. Aiku is a tech consulting company with a mission to bring out the best in people through technology. Soraya and her husband work with clients to bring their ideas to life by developing customised software and applications using AI. They focus on the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Thus, the founders of Aiku assist healthcare professionals to free up time for strategic activities and support the automation of their work. The aim of the young company is to contribute to a better and healthier society. The jury was impressed by the determination and energy with which Soraya Rosadhe, who spoke no business German when she came to Germany and was also unfamiliar with local customs, has driven her business idea forward.

Christoph Tippmann, Frankfurt – www.90green.com/

With his company 90green, Christoph Tippmann offers cities, companies, and property developers intelligent GreenTech solutions to create as much green space as possible on as little land as necessary in our cities and urban areas and thus actively combat the causes and effects of climate change. Modular lightweight elements equipped with various environmental sensors and an automated irrigation system are the hardware. In combination with a sensor- and data-driven control system with a cloud connection, 90green offers a scalable and low-maintenance system approach. In addition to global and national environmental protection goals, such as the reduction and compensation of greenhouse gases, which are pursued with the GreenTech solutions, the modular greening solutions are suitable for sustainable and more liveable urban development at regional level. The jury selected the project because it makes an important contribution to climate protection in an innovative and efficient way.

Miriana Palermo, Herne – www.ohneumwege-coaching.de  

Miriana Palermo has laid the foundations for her business with her Bachelor of Arts degree in education, specialising in social work, and as a systemic coach. Due to her own visual impairment, she can empathise with the emotional world of people with disabilities and their relatives. She is therefore ideally equipped to help people with disabilities. As there are only few offers for accessible coaching, Mariana Palermo was convinced that inclusion must also be reflected in the coaching programme. With her offer “Without detours! Coaching to your best version”, she wants to help people with disabilities and their relatives to become the best version of themselves and promote inclusion in Germany. The jury sees Miriana Palermo’s programme as an important contribution to the inclusion of people with disabilities, whose special needs are not only considered but also addressed.

About us

KIZ SINNOVA gGmbH

KIZ has been an advisory expert for self-employed people since 1997 and is the German partner of the worldwide YBI network. Futuremakers Germany is a non-profit initiative of KIZ SINNOVA gGmbH, Offenbach in cooperation with YBI (Youth Business International) and the Standard Chartered Foundation (SCF), London.

Standard Chartered Foundation

The Standard Chartered Foundation (SCF) is a charitable organisation that tackles inequality by promoting greater economic inclusion for disadvantaged young people, particularly girls, young women and people with visual impairments. Its programmes focus on education, employability and entrepreneurship, and include projects that support economic recovery for communities impacted by COVID-19.

Established in 2019, SCF is a registered charity in England and Wales (charity number 1184946) and is the lead delivery partner for Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, a global initiative to tackle inequality. www.sc.com/scfoundation

Standard Chartered

We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 52 of the world’s most dynamic markets, and serving clients in a further 65. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good. Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

For more stories and expert opinions please visit Insights at sc.com. Follow Standard Chartered on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Youth Business International

YBI is a global network of expert organisations helping young people around the world to start, grow and sustain businesses, leveraging entrepreneurship to create decent work and drive inclusive economic growth, whilst transforming livelihoods and strengthening communities.  

Our efforts are particularly focused on disadvantaged young people, equipping them to build the skills, confidence and connections they need to beat the odds and become successful business owners. By operating at the crossroads of business and social development, we support the entrepreneurs that are shaping the future, working to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time, and creating opportunities – not just for themselves but for us all. www.youthbusiness.org.