Sunpower Social Business Startup Pitch was held at IUJ

On Saturday, May 9^th, an on-campus social business pitch sponsored by Sunpower Co., Ltd. was held for the first time, and a total of 7 students from 3 teams from International University of Japan (the “IUJ”) and made presented their social business plans.

This contest was created by the President of Sunpower, Mr. Takuya Kawamura, for the IUJ students for the following purposes:

to convey the entrepreneurial mindset to graduate students of IUJ and support the creation of business
to solve poverty issues and bring peace to the world through social business

Due to the COVID-19 situation, all the participants, judges and visitors joined this contest online.

The judge panel consisted of Mr. Kawamura, Dr. Rafiqul Islam Maruf; Associate Professor of Medical Information Center, Kyushu University Hosipital, Mr. Reiji Yamanaka; Director of Impact Investment Team, KIBOW Foundation, and Dr. YuenLeng Chow; Professor of Graduate School of International Management, IUJ.

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Students started preparing for this contest in January of this year, and on the day, each team responded to a 10-minute Q&A session after a 15-minute presentation.

The first Sunpower Award went to “Makeri Hospitality Services,” which helps young Niger women work as professional housemaids and get the right wages. This social business plan was created by the team of Moutari Nouhou Makeri Daweye and Zanele Penelope Phiri. A prize of 200,000 yen will be presented to the selected team at a later date as a fund for actually starting a business after graduating from the IUJ. The other two teams were also awarded the Grameen Award and the IUJ Award, respectively.

The first contest was held online, but thanks to the cooperation of the judges, the students who participated, and the visitors, we were able to complete it successfully. We plan to continue holding this contest in the future.

We hope that students who participate in this contest will contribute to solving the world’s poverty issues as a global leader in the future.