Three Entrepreneurs from Pakistan have been shortlisted for Shell LiveWIRE ‘Top Ten Innovators’ a global competition which highlights and rewards LiveWIRE businesses that demonstrate excellence in innovation.

‘Top Ten Innovators’ is a worldwide competition open to the alumni of Shell LiveWIRE, a Royal Dutch Shell Social Investment Programme, operating in 15 countries, which enables young people to start their own business and create employment. A public vote, of the shortlisted businesses, is taking place between the 1 st – 8 th September, with the results helping to determine the winners. The Top Ten will be announced in November during Global Entrepreneurship Week, 13 th -19 th November.

Joanna Cochrane, VP Social Performance at Shell said “Shell LiveWIRE is very important to Shell, because when we help local entrepreneurs to set up businesses, they create long term sources of income for communities, they create jobs and they help to find innovative solutions to social and economic problems.”

Our Pakistani entrepreneurs have the opportunity to win a top prize of US $15,000, three Runner-up prizes of US $10,000 or seven Merit awards of US $5,000. The programme aims to create role models for other young entrepreneurs, and demonstrate that introducing innovation supports growth and job creation.

You can vote for the organisation you want to win on the website: http://topteninnovators.shell-livewire.com/. Below are the nominations from Pakistan: Sehat Kahani, bridges healthcare inequality, connecting female doctors with low-income groups via a telehealth eco-system. 

SheKab, a subscription based carpooling service connecting women with safe affordable and reliable transport solutions. Wonder Tree, using augmented reality technology to provide a cost-effective education tool for teaching children with special education needs.

For Top Ten Innovators 2015, we had LapPro Solutions from Pakistan receive the runner up prize, their medical innovation simulates laparoscopic surgery, providing a training resource for surgeons to learn and practice the technique at a fraction of the cost of comparable products.

Two merit awards were presented to Kaghaz Kay Karnamay, a craft papermaking and recycling enterprise which repurposes waste to produce a diverse range of paper products, and SK Motor Syndicate a vehicle restoration, modification and repairs company with a used car retail arm.

The global winner for 2015 was Esther Wang, winning the competition was the start of her journey to becoming a global supplier. Her innovation was the toy ‘Rabbit Ray’, which is used to calm young patients undergoing medical procedures. Since the business started in 2012, the product has been used with over 10,400 children in several hospitals.

Esther comments, “The Shell LiveWIRE Global Top Ten Innovators Award strengthened Joytingle’s brand, which enabled Rabbit Ray to support more children worldwide.  “As an Asian company introducing our products overseas, having such a prestigious international award behind us is a fantastic endorsement and tells hospitals worldwide that our product is worth checking out.”