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After two long years, Melbourne’s top young business minds will reunite tonight to mingle, network and celebrate their outstanding achievements at the 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
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