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The Junior Chamber International (JCI Luxembourg) is proud to announce the winners of this 15th CYEL Edition

Chambre de Commerce
News institutionnelles
In the picture, the award given by Daniel Haag, Managing Director, Head of Corporate of BIL (on the left), and Aurelien Lalahy, JCI Luxembourg National President.

CYEL awards were presented and leaded at the Chamber of Commerce by Pedro Castilho of Verbalius, in front of a well selected audience representing the corporate and start up ecosystem.   

15th - a special milestone

The Junior Chamber International is very proud of this important milestone, as this competition is one of the oldest in Luxembourg. Being able to perform during the last two years was quite challenging, in line with the difficulties of any entrepreneur to survive in a difficult environment. 

As reminded by Carlo Thelen, CEO of Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, in his welcome speech: "To survive this crisis, which unfortunately is not yet finished, companies worldwide have had to prove two skills: resiliency and creativity. And that is why the CYEL Awards are so unique: we are looking for entrepreneurs who were able to seize their chances during these times and to create, grow or develop their business.“

Having Ilana Devillers as keynote speaker was a cherry on the cake: she is the Coup de Coeur award in 2018, and today she became an inspiration for the new generation. Thanks Ilana for your beautiful words!

Dr. Tahereh Pazouki of Magrid is the winner of the CYEL 2021 edition. Tahereh has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Psychology. During the course of her doctoral study, she has developed an early math learning solution called Magrid. This learning solution is language-free and thus removes the language barrier in learning math education and provides equal educational opportunities to all learners. After finishing her Ph.D., she founded LetzMath to continue the research and development of educational solutions for individuals with special needs for them to enjoy equal opportunities to learn, experience, and excel.

The 2nd award goes to Quentin de Madre and the young fathers's team of Kidola, Jonathan Kindermans and Simon Lelorran.
This application provides an efficient monitoring of children: activities with pictures, naps, meals without forgetting hygiene. Kidola ensures that what happens at the nursery doesn't stay at the nursery.

Mattia Raffaelli of RoomMate and his “blue team” took the 3rd  place. CEO and Co-Founder, he steers the company’s vision to be the proptech that automates the processes for mid-to long-term rental management, with an app for tenants and a SAAS platform for landlords.

Special Coup de Cour 

This year the jury has decided to offer two “coup de coeur”  prizes: 

One award based on the sustainability of the product, and one to award the resilience of an entrepreneur during the very difficult period of Covid. 

  • Award Sustainability goes to Filip Westerlund for his start up OUR CHOICE. For the second consecutive year, a student of the University of Luxembourg is recognised by the jury for his/her values and social impact.  The idea behind OUR CHOICE  is to create a circular business model utilizing sustainable and circular raw materials that are less resource-intensive.

  • Resiliant Award goes to Elfy Pins of Supermiro’. Well known in Luxembourg as entrepreneur and leader, she proved to be resilient and unique during the pandemic, when she had to completely change her business model to survive. This award was created ad hoc for her, to congratulate for her tenacious skill. A great example for all of us!

A winning partnership with University of Luxembourg

After two years of strong relationship with the University of Luxembourg, for this edition we have included Siva Bactavatchalou, Head of Entrepreneurship programme directly inside our committee. 

The partnership with the University of Luxembourg allowed several young brilliant students and alumni the possibility to participate, including among others Dr. Tahereh Pazouki with Magrid  Filip Westerlund  with Our Choice who are here in the room with us today. 

We are grateful to the University of Luxembourg Entrepreneurship Programme and Incubator for their continuous support!

Jury Members

Thanks to all our jury members for their support and engagement

  • BIL -  Daniel Haag, Global Head of Corporate Department
  • Bonn Steichen&P. - Carolina Vasselli, sr Associate,  and Elodie Vincent, Counsel
  • KPMG - Patrick Weis, Partner
  • LALUX - Jerome Wiwinius, Head of Corporate Sales.
  • Microsoft  - Candi Carrera, Country Manager
  • Luxinnovation - Stefan Berendt, Head of Start Up
  • Luxembourg-City Incubator - Bastien Berg, CEO
  • LBAN - Romain Hoffman, Board Director
  • Le Village by Credit Agricole - Amélie Madinier, Director
In the picture, the award given by Patrick Wies, Partner of KPMG (on the left)
In the picture, the award given by Jerome Wiwinius, Head of Corporate Sales of LALUX (on the left) to Mattia Raffaelli, on his side, and to all RoomMate team
In the picture, Candi Carrera, Country Manager of Microsoft in Luxembourg, gives the award to Elfy Pins of Supermiro'
In the picture, from the left: Elodie Vincent and Carolina Vasselli from BSP, giving the award to Filip Westerlund of OUR CHOICE. On the right, Siva Bactavatchalou of University of Luxembourg