Back in action: Melbourne founders to gather for prestigious Young Entrepreneur Awards

The crème de la crème of the city’s young founders will get together at Zinc at Federation Square, where they will let loose for a ceremony like no other.

The competition will be fierce for the top gong, which was claimed last year by returning finalists Dr May Chan and Dr Reuben Sim, who operate national cosmetic dentistry practice Dental Boutique. Six months ago, the husband-and-wife duo opened a gleaming new clinic in Adelaide, which was followed by a roll out in Sydney, Geelong and Mornington.

Collectively, the Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards finalists boast a combined $387 million in annual turnover and have created jobs for 3,400-plus people both at home and abroad.

All finalists will also be vying for the coveted Trailblazer Award, which recognises a founder that has achieved exponential growth in their business over a short period of time. 

Last year, the prize was taken home by Simon Costello, who co-founded onboarding and anti-fraud platform FrankieOne alongside Aaron Chipper. Used by the likes of Westpac (ASX: WBC), Shopify, AfterPay and Zipmex, the fintech closed a $20 million Series A funding round in October 2021 in a move to grow internationally after seeing strong demand in the market for its services.

Following a comprehensive judging process and hours of interviews with Business News Australia journalists, the winners will be announced across 16 categories at the gala dinner.

Young Entrepreneur Awards founder Camilla Jansen said she was excited to return and celebrate the hard work of Melbourne’s young and talented business community.

“It’s been a while since we last got to gather in person with our Melbourne Young Entrepreneurs. Tonight will be about recognising the enormous effort they have made to thrive in their respective industries despite the challenges throughout the last two years," Jansen said. 

“The quality of the cohort is amazing - we can’t wait to kick the event off.

“I'd also like to give a massive thank you to our corporate partners Go1, VentureCrowd, OSW, Whispir and iVvy."

Aside from the two major awards of Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Trailblazer, the gala will span a range of sectors with 16 different award categories including:

• Arts & Culture
• Digital Disruptor
• Fashion & Design
• Fitness
• Food & Beverage
• Health & Medicine
• Hospitality & Tourism
• Manufacturing, Wholesale & Distribution
• Marketing
• Professional Services
• Property & Construction
• Retail & Services
• Specialist Services
• Startup
• Sustainability & Social Responsibility
• Technology

The finalists in the 2022 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards are as follows (in alphabetical order by company):

Tamara Alaveras – 3 Phase Marketing

Victoria Viti & Jake Viti – Aesthetik Dental

Marcus Kellett & Alex Bottomley – Ampersand Projects

Scott Gavens – ATEO

Breanne Eley – Baby Spa Australia

Cale Donovan & Sam McConkey – Bare

Bianca Roccisano & Bridgett Roccisano – Bianca & Bridgett, Booby Tape

Blair Norfolk – Biome Australia

Sebastien Collier, Keaton Okkonen & Karthik Rajgopal - Black.ai

Gaurav Kawar – Book An Artist

Ishu Singh & Anna Dewan – Burger Road

Michelle Huang & Eleanor Castellani – Butter Butter

Hayley De Angelis – Cleanse and Co, soll. the label

Lisa Teh – CODI Agency, Lisnic, Mooning

Rita Trakhtman – Dental & Skin Clinic

Dr May Chan & Dr Reuben Sim – Dental Boutique

Huy Nguyen – Enabler Interactive

Yong-Li Zhou – Enbacci

Blake Thomson – Entire Software

Marilla Akkermans – Equality Media + Marketing

Costa Vasili – Ethnolink

Susannah Fairley – FAIRLEY

Nikita Fernandes & Dr Sam Donegan – Fora Therapy

Alex Tyson – Found—Space

Nathan Trifonidis – Front Row Entertainment, Frontline Audio

Daniel Kitay – Funday Natural Sweets

Ali Terai – Future Golf

Phillip Kuoch – Goldelucks

Minoo Ghameri – Gorgeous Smiles Dentistry

Lachlan Catanese & Trent Scheirs – Grant Help

Ace Renis & Adam Sarfati – HeapsGood Packaging

Jamie Koufos – Jamie K Enterprises

Paul Jones – Jones Real Estate

Harry Karefilakis – Kare Group, Ethos Electrical Services, All Steel Designs

Anna Ross – Kester Black

Kianna Magelaki – KIANNA

Amber Wilkinson – Kind Is Cool

Melinda Podesta – Kollective, BABYink

Aaron Smith – KX Pilates

David Morgan & Regan Lethbridge – Lemon Tree Music

Rhys Livingstone – Lionstone Physique Coaching

Billy Green – Make-Out Meals

Beau Arfi – Maple Property Group

James Marshall – Marshall Group

Jordyn Evans – Mingle Seasoning

Mo Hamdouna, Ophelie Mouton & Aiman Hamdouna – Mo Works, Hatch Quarter, Karlet

Fergus Creese – My Careers, Go Girls Foundation

Ethan Donati – My Million Dollar Funnels, Iconic Speaker

Ross Hastings – Ne-Lo Group International, Big Space Agency

Jesse King & Anthony Green – Pandr Outsourcing

Ibrahim Hassan – Personalised Support Services

Matthew Aubry & Fernando Berghella – Personalised Support Systems

Daniel Pearson – PingCo

Tom Hunter & Jordan Clay – Pipi’s Kiosk

Jamal Elamsy, Dylan Johnstone, Burak Kamit & Omar De Guise – Platinum Health Supply Group

Elle Vaisman, Sam McGuiness & Giovanni Pino – ProCon Materials

Reever Botha, Vlad Kosovac & Acacia Clarke – PuraU

Jackson Southby – Redline Car Hire

Edwin Low – Secret Sneaker Store

Colin Pudsey – SilVR Adventures

Natasha Giannetti – Snacks With Bite

Trent Torkar & Nathan Torkar – Solid GPS

Ellie Vaisman & Giovanni Pino – Sourci

Michael Ramsey – Strong Pilates

Sacha Guggenheimer & Thomas Hiney – SunButter Skincare

Christina Kotnis & Dimitra Moukas – The Luxx Co

Eugene Cheng – The Sneaker Laundry, The Promenade Docklands, No Sleep Entertainment

Talia Datt – The Social CliQ, The Content CliQ

Nicholas Greco, Michael Christidis, Christian Serrao & Filippo Palermo - Untitled Group 

Yuri Miloslavsky – YMTech Australia, SharePass

Hayden Brass – Zea