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PRIVACY
Enterprise

Young entrepreneurs win Innovate º£½ÇÊÓÆµ backing to build sustainable businesses

Charlotte Ripley and Yuru Guo are among the winners of the Young Innovator Awards from Innovate º£½ÇÊÓÆµ

Award-winning young entrepreneur Yuru Guo(Image: handout from Four communications)

Two young entrepreneurs have been backed by the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ’s innovation agency as they aim to turn their ideas into sustainable businesses.

A total of 63 young people around the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ have won Young Innovator Awards from Innovate º£½ÇÊÓÆµ, including North East women Charlotte Ripley and Yuru Guo.

Ms Ripley, who is 21 and from Gateshead, has developed a wireless bee monitoring service called HiveGuard which aims to help beekeepers keep their hives safe from harm remotely. The system notifies the keeper through a messaging app if anything goes wrong with the hive or there is a potential threat.

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Ms Guo, who is 24 and from Newcastle, has created Hey! Food is Ready, an online marketplace for home-cooked meals which connects culturally inspired home-cooks to people seeking freshly made authentic meals.

The Young Innovators Awards recognise young people from around the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ with business ideas who have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs and future leaders in innovation.

Winners are given support to develop their ideas, as well as a £5,000 grant.

Ms Guo said: “Hey! Food is Ready was inspired during lockdown when I saw people cooking and posting photos of their home-made meals from their native countries and I wanted to try them.