#covidWISE Ideation Awards 2021

On June 10, the first ever #covidWISE Ideation Awards was held and a winner was found

The Ideation Awards has offered hundreds of hopeful, young entrepreneurial students and people with a good idea the chance to submit their plans for a social business aiming to relieve the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among all the project ideas, Abacus Medicine helped select 3 nominees for the final: “LOCAL”, “Tech Balance” and “She-lter”.

CEO of Abacus Medicine Flemming Wagner was part of the jury alongside the Dean of Education at Copenhagen Business School and two former students who are now both successful social entrepreneurs with their own social businesses.

The winning project
The overall winner turned out to be LOCAL.

LOCAL aims to create a new digital platform that connects people in struggling, lockdown restricted cities in India gain access to small local shops selling groceries, disposables and other household items. Many people now lack access to such daily consumables, and the project will benefit both the small, local stores and the communities around them.

“While it was a tough decision for us to make in the jury, we all agreed that LOCAL had the strongest proof of concept as well as a highly scalable solution. For me personally, LOCAL is an idea with a huge global potential that can be continuously developed in new and exciting areas. LOCAL is in the business of creating better access and so are we, so I’m really excited to follow LOCAL in the future,” says Flemming Wagner, CEO Abacus Medicine.

LOCAL walked away with the grand prize of DKK 20,000 to support the development of their idea.

The runners-up
The 2nd place was shared between Tech Balance and She-lter, who both walked away with DKK 5,000 each.

Tech Balance is a social enterprise focusing on “digital wellbeing” and counterbalancing the immense use of digital devices that has only grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tech Balance aims to develop healthier ways for schoolchildren to engage with their digital devices.

The aim of She-lter is to create arrangements between the empty, lockdown-struck hotels and women who are victims of domestic abuse and who need shelter and a place to stay.

Abacus Medicine will continue as the sponsor of #covidWISE in 2021 and 2022. You can read more about the sponsorship on our CSR-section.