High school students Taavi Puoliväli and Ilmari Raitasalo from Etu-Töölö Upper Secondary School won the FedEx Access Award and placed third in the Innovation category with their company BioAnglers NYT, which develops sustainable, biodegradable fishing baits.
University students Eemeli Ervasti and Robin Gallego from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences earned second place in the Start-Up of the Year category with their company TarjousMatch NYT, a digital service that connects households and housing associations with reliable painting contractors.
In addition, the Tampere Vocational College Tredu was recognized as one of Europe’s top ten entrepreneurship education institutions, receiving The Entrepreneurial School Award (TES Award) for its strong commitment to entrepreneurial learning.
– One of the secrets to our success was presenting our company with emotion and dedication, reflected Ilmari Raitasalo of BioAnglers NYT.
– The journey from a small idea to Athens has been incredible. This has been one of the most valuable experiences of my studies, added Eemeli Ervasti of TarjousMatch NYT.
Gen-E 2025 brought together more than 1,000 young entrepreneurs, alongside teachers, policymakers, and business leaders from over 50 countries. The event showcased Europe’s most promising student-led companies and innovative business ideas. The overall competition winner was VerifyID from Denmark, specializing in smart identity and age verification solutions.
Gen-E is organized annually by Junior Achievement Europe. All competing teams had previously won their national JA Company Programme finals, which engage more than 400,000 students across Europe each year. The next edition, Gen-E 2026, will take place in Riga, Latvia.
Further information and interview requests:
Noora Bergroth
Specialist, international programs
Junior Achievement Finland (Nuorten yrittäjyys ja talous NYT)
+358 50 3221 445 | noora.bergroth@nuortennyt.fi
Mari Lehtonen
Communications Specialist
Junior Achievement Finland (Nuorten yrittäjyys ja talous NYT)
+358 40 450 8307 | mari.lehtonen@nuortennyt.fi
Robin and Eemeli from TarjousMatch founded their JA company as part of their studies in Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.
The Finnish representative teams, their supervising teachers, and the Junior Achievement Finland Gen-E delegation.
Ilmari and Taavi from BioAnglers are in their second year of upper secondary school.
At the Gen-E event, teams take the stage to deliver a sales pitch for their company. They have four minutes to convince the audience.
The students’ Gen-E pitches were polished to perfection. They had also practiced presenting them in front of an audience in Finland.
