Top Ten Innovators
Shell LiveWIRE’s Top Ten Innovators is a global competition that highlights and rewards impactful and innovative LiveWIRE entrepreneurs.
For 40 years, Shell LiveWIRE has strengthened local economies around the world by promoting meaningful employment and entrepreneurship which demonstrates Shell’s commitment to Powering Lives. Today we remain just as committed to supporting the countries and communities where we operate by supporting local entrepreneurs that are making a positive impact.
One important way that we have been able to recognise impactful entrepreneurs is through our Top Ten Innovators competition, which I am delighted to announce will return in 2022.
Top Ten Innovators is a global competition designed to highlight and reward impactful Shell LiveWIRE entrepreneurs who are making positive contributions toward social impact, environmental sustainability, and business innovation.
The competition will be open to LiveWIRE entrepreneurs from around the world whose businesses are helping us to move toward an economy that prioritises these three important themes.
We look forward to your participation!
Charlotte Friedli,
Shell LiveWIRE Lead
VOTE NOW AND HELP US SELECT THE TOP TEN INNOVATORS
We’ve selected the best Shell LiveWIRE entrepreneurs contributing toward social impact, environmental sustainability, and business innovation. Now we're inviting you to vote for the Top Ten Innovators! Check out the entrepreneurs below and cast your vote!
The voting window will be open from 21 September to 28 October, 23:00 CET. Users can vote once for one candidate.
Public votes will contribute to the final selection of winners and runners-up but not exclusively determine them.
Business Innovation
NextPay
Don Pansacola, Philippines
NextPay provides an all-in-one digital banking alternative to small businesses, often seen as too small for traditional enterprise banking services. NextPay offers small businesses tools to help them scale up at a fraction of the cost by automating processes to send, manage, and receive money. The startup has processed PHP1 billion worth of payments for more than 4,000 growing companies and raised pre-seed funding from YCombinator, an established business accelerator on the global startup stage.
Nanotronics Inc.
Dr. Jerome Palaganas, Philippines
Nanotronics Inc. is pioneering the production of nanotechnology materials as a sustainable alternative to plastic packaging for various industrial uses such as bottles and liquid containers for the medical industry and material in additive manufacturing (3D printing) for uses including prosthetics. Nanotraonics solutions reduce plastic waste while averting the use of paper products from trees, often used as an alternative. The localisation of the feedstock and production saves time and costs for customers that often require more design services.
Timogah
Heineken Anak Laluan, Malaysia
Timogah is an e-commerce platform enabling people to buy fresh local produce from rural farmers, groceries, and products from nearby hawkers. Timogah is targeted at the local community by promoting locally sourced seasonal produce through a business model that empowers rural communities and micro businesses. Through a vendor development programme, entrepreneurs are onboarded on the digital platform, organising training on entrepreneurship and digital literacy enabling small businesses to benefit from the tools of the digital economy. Timogah’s ambition is to expand the business and support model throughout Southeast Asia.
Acapat Solutions Limited
Idodo Valiant Blessing, Nigeria
Acapat Solutions is an edutech company that aims to improve the education sector through capacity building, content development, innovative concepts, and information and communication technology. Acapat works with schools and education providers offering e-learning content development, app development and installation of ICT and e-learning facilities including database management, and institutional training and capacity building. Acapat educational services involve the creation of interactive digital content that provides tutoring for college students through the Acapat mobile or browser platform.
EXIT
Naufal Prawironegoro, Indonesia
EXIT offers fishing communities access to finance and clean energy products in remote areas. The business helps rural fishermen finance the purchase of low-cost energy sources by offering financial products and purchasing options that enable them to purchase a clean alternative to fuel. For rural fishermen, the ability to purchase fuel for boats and for cold storage poses a significant challenge to their livelihoods as 14 million fishermen in Indonesia do not have access to proper financial services. To address this EXIT developed and sells an industry-leading battery pack of 50 HP for boats that reduces emissions in the industry. EXIT provides the installation of electric motors that save on fuel and maintenance costs, combined with financial lending and cashflow management consultation in partnership with local organisations.
Egistic
Zhandos Kerimkulov, Kazakhstan
Egistic.kz is a start-up offering agriculture producers solutions for crop production and maintenance. Egistic IoT uses GPS sensors that attach to farm equipment to gather data making satellite images and mapping of crop health and status available for farmers to assess problem areas such as pests and overgrowth of vegetation. The Egistic app allows farmers to monitor the performance of agriculture activity, quality, and maintenance schedule in one place. Egistic aims to develop a super app to serve as a marketplace for the sale of crops, real-time market pricing, and communications, making it easier for farmers in Kazakhstan to turn to cost-saving digital solutions.
Ion Ag+
Marco Ernesto Saldoval Saldaña, Mexico
Ion Ag+ is a social enterprise that solves the need for access to affordable, quality drinking water, especially in remote communities. The business has developed technology and patented products that collect, disinfect, store, and manage the reuse of water in rural Mexican communities and increasingly for rural communities around the globe in India. Ion Ag+ products and services include the installation of rainwater harvesting systems, dry toilets, and facilitation of community workshops on water care, environmental protection, health, and hygiene, to achieve technological adoption. The Ion Ag+ model combines community workshops and the adaptation of water products to homes, schools, health centres, disaster areas and places without piped drinking water or electricity. Ion Ag+ disinfection system has been patented and complies with Mexican quality standards for germicidal equipment.
Environmental Sustainability
TileGreen
Amr Shalan, Egypt
TileGreen produces sustainable construction materials by recycling plastic waste into a cement alternative. Through patented technology, TileGreen converts low-value and unrecyclable plastic waste into pavement tiles that are extremely weather resistant and stronger than cement-based alternatives. Even the most difficult types of plastic to recycle can be made into a concrete alternative. TileGreen’s competitively priced premium product has been validated with sales to Egypt's largest developers and multinationals. TileGreen continues to integrate known unrecyclable plastic wastes into its supply chain on a mass scale and plans to expand operations to serve larger customer segments.
Salty Agricultura Salina
Camila de Araujo Reveles Barreira, Brazil
Salty Agricultura Salina is an agriculture business using the science of salt-resilient plant species to cultivate saline resilient and edible plant species that can grow in uninhabitable high saline environments and coastal areas. Key customers include Brazil’s top restaurants and niche culinary markets in Europe seeking a sustainably produced and climate-resilient ingredient. The business seeks to conduct research to produce a greater variety of edible plants. Salty Agricultura Salina has gained international recognition through media and has showcased its knowledge with farmers in India and commercial farms in Brazil and through platforms such as the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG)/FAO.
Lluvia Sólida
Leonardo Rico, Mexico
Lluvia Sólida uses potassium-based polymer as an irrigation system, turning water into a solid to reduce waste and evaporation for an efficient irrigation alternative to traditional systems. The product, solid rain is an alternative to traditional and costly irrigation systems and addresses challenges of climate change such as infrequent and irregular rainfall, increasing droughts and desertification. It installs on the root zone of any plant, tree, grass, culture, or vegetable, keeping the roots hydrated for weeks without irrigation or rain, reducing water waste, and allowing the plant to have a constant reservoir of nutrients in the root zone. The solution is low maintenance with a capacity to solidify up to 400 litres of water for each kilogram. Only the water taken by the plant is consumed, allowing savings in water, maintenance, and fertilizers, supporting the productivity of seasonal agriculture that can be affected by changes in rainfall. Lluvia Sólida sells its solid rain product to farms in Latin America, the US, and West Africa through regional dealers in nine countries and retailers located throughout Mexico.
Ecolana
Lisseth Cordero, Mexico
Ecolana is a platform that connects consumers, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, and collection centres to make recycling programmes more efficient. Ecolana works with CPGs to communicate and market its recycling campaign through a fee-for-service model. Other services include consultancy to the CPGs to assess their packaging and assess whether it is recyclable in Mexico. The platform charges to connect CPG and consumer contacts to collection centres that develop necessary linkages in the recycling value chain. The app enables traceability of the brand's package from where the consumer purchased the product to where was recycled. Launched in 217, Ecolana seeks to expand its model across Latin America for greater impact. Ecolana has been working on creating the biggest database of collection centres in Mexico. To date, Ecolana has 70,000 downloads in the app and +500,000 recycling searches.
Oro Handmade Innovations, Inc.
Lolita B. Cabanlet, Philippines
Oro Handmade Innovations is a sustainable home accent, packaging and stationary producer that creates high-quality designed products from tree-free indigenous resources such as abaca fibre, pineapple leaves, and wild grass. Products are plastic-free and natural and made from repurposing agriculture wastes and bi-products to prevent the use of trees and deforestation for paper-based products. Today, Oro Handmade Products are being exported to the USA, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, France, Japan, and Turkey. The business model not only promotes sustainable materials in production but also relies on solar energy and provides opportunities for the most marginalised sectors of society through employment and training in craftmanship.
BANANA & Partners
Muhamad Rifqi Al-Ghifari, Indonesia
BANANA & Partners is a start-up that provides waste-to-energy and waste-to-product solutions through recycling innovations and facilities in Indonesia. Through advanced processing of organic and inorganic materials, waste can be converted into recycled products such as biochar/charcoal, disinfectant, fertiliser, pressed plastic into eco-bricks and chopped plastic. Another technology includes recycling used cooking oil to be converted into biodiesel and the by-product in the form of glycerine for use as a disinfectant. The business established a centre for waste processing and production of various products such as composite materials and renewable energy which has expanded to several regions in Kalimantan and Java Indonesia. Clients are provided with recycling services and solutions, resulting in new sustainably produced goods.
Ciro Waste
Riko Riswandha Fahmi Prasetyo, Indonesia
Ciro Waste is a sustainable innovation start-up focusing on waste management technology with a product called Ciroes that is available on the Play Store and App Store. Ciroes is a digital circular economy marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of waste to transact on one platform. By connecting the three main actors of the recycling supply chain, waste producers, waste collectors, and recycling industries, the platform enables greater linkages and transparency in the recycling supply chain to promote buyer linkages. On the platform, waste collectors can sell their supplies to recyclers for a transaction fee on the app. This supports the viability of local waste collectors while increasing the percentage of waste that is recycled by addressing the challenges of sorting and linking players in the supply chain. To date, Ciro Waste has established an MoU with the local government to collect waste reduction data and developed a dashboard for the local government to track recycling progress.
Social Impact
Unexpected Italy
Elisabetta Faggiana, Italy
Unexpected Italy operates an innovative network of carefully selected boutique winemakers, olive farmers, craftsmen, local restaurants, and incredible places to stay. All of them are recommended by locals and verified by Unexpected Italy’s team to guarantee the highest standards in terms of authenticity, quality, hospitality, and sustainability promoting an alternative to mass tourism in Italy. Through its digital platform, travellers can receive curated itineraries suited for those looking to travel sustainably and experience local Italy first-hand. Unexpected Italy has established the first member club for Relational and Responsible Tourism in Italy (The U-Club) with a tech platform that creates bespoke digital maps and itineraries through artificial intelligence and the Internet of things based on an assessment of a traveller’s interest.
Green TAL Social Enterprise
Emin Askerov, Kazakhstan
Green TAL is a manufacturing social enterprise focused on employing the most socially vulnerable groups in Kazakhstan to address the high unemployment rate of persons with disabilities, mental illnesses, former convicts, and community members from other marginalised groups of society. Products produced by employed individuals started with items such as baskets and have since expanded to diversified manufactured products such as toys, cut and sew projects, woodwork, and other quality craft items for customers such as hotels, supermarket chains, and educational institutions. The purpose of the social enterprise produces and sells goods, providing individuals with an opportunity to be trained in professional skills and to pass on their knowledge to others. Green TAL aims to establish a production space and education centre with a co-working community to take their efforts further and equip participants with the foundations of social entrepreneurship to develop their own viable ventures.
Agro-DigitalPH
Henry James Sison, Philippines
Agro-DigitalPH provides an end-to-end digital marketplace that improves helps smallholder farmers organised as cooperatives and associations to make sales, manage their products and fill orders. Agro-Digital leverages organisations to tap into economies of scale, whereas other agri-tech providers operate with individual farmers as their main clients. As part of the model, producers are educated on value chain concepts and the role of organised enterprise before technology or digital tools or skills are introduced. Producers on the app have benefitted from new sales, improved margins, and better forecasts while buyers have benefitted from more stable pricing and logistics coordination.
Dumowongi
Irene Mositol, Malaysia
Dumowongi empowers the lives of stay-at-home women living in remote Sabah, Malaysia through opportunities to generate their own income through natural farming techniques. The organisation also advocates for an environmentally friendly lifestyle and products through sustainable farm management. Dumowongi bulk purchases and aggregates all the farmers’ produce and processes it for the market into goods such as potted herbs, fresh herbs, and dried herbs and seasonings. These goods are currently sold to 13 restaurants, hotels and business owners in Sabah generating income for women in the community through promoting sustainable agriculture.
Atik Global Service
Ilodeipe Ogbokuma, Nigeria
Atik Global Services is an agro-based company that focuses on entrepreneurship development and adding value to African indigenous products through mentoring, motivating and inspiring youth, women and farmers enabling them to become professional entrepreneurs. Youth and women are involved in planting, nurturing, harvesting, and processing from packaging and marketing offering them skills acquisition to leverage indigenous products to become entrepreneurs. Atik includes logistics services for the ease of door-to-door product deliveries from producers to consumers. One goal of Atik is to establish an entrepreneurship development centre with national and international recognition so that it can provide proper branding and packaging of products to export quality and receive certification from export agencies as well as food quality certifying agencies.
Darkpore Media Africa Ltd.
Adefolami Agunbiade, Nigeria
Darkpore offers a platform, FoodNerve to address the challenges of malnutrition and hunger among vulnerable and poor households. The platform connects households to nutritious food using SMS, an urban food app and e-voucher partnerships with local restaurants and markets that provide their surplus produce. The platform includes a produce exchange, data tools and community exchange platform to revive home-gardening traditions, distribute seedlings, and share harvests/surpluses, minimising food waste and digitising their ancestral culinary, gardening, and food preservation wisdom.
The future vision of the model is to channel unsold surpluses as merchandise, charity, and credit to eliminate local hunger through donations and a buy-now, pay-later approach to facilitate meals from unsold food surpluses globally.
Gulang County Sanzhen Disabled Service Centre
Wang Sanzhen, China
The Sanzhen Disabled Service Centre helps disabled people by generating employment opportunities for them through skills development in making handicrafts. The centre provides physically or intellectually disabled individuals with free accommodation, recreational and sports activities, psychological care and a community where they can build confidence to engage in social life and engage in work to generate income. Donations from donors, sales of handicrafts, and ad campaigns generate support for the centre which seeks to enhance its offerings and upgrade the space for community members.