)
Melbourne's founder community is preparing for a night of nights with the judges' votes now cast and trophies engraved for the city's eighth edition of the Young Entrepreneur Awards, which promises to be an evening of celebration, inspiration and recognition for an exciting cohort of game-changers.
W Melbourne will play host to the 2025 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards with a gala dinner for visionary founders under 40, whose ventures range from large and established companies with significant impact through to earlier-stage startups that have crossed important thresholds in the pursuit of excellence.
As the city with the highest combined revenue in the initiative nationwide, Melbourne never fails to showcase its best and brightest from industries ranging from manufacturing to property, health to fitness, marketing to technology and so much more.
2025 also marks a year of transition for founders Dr Reuben Sim and Dr May Chan of Dental Boutique from winning multiple Young Entrepreneur awards to now contributing as judges, passing on the baton to the next generation of business leaders from the Victorian capital.
Former Melbourne Trailblazer award winner Alexander Jannink of Acusensus (ASX: ACE) also joins the judging panel, alongside Vita Group founder Maxine Horne, Greencross founder Dr Glen Richards, Go1 co-founder Andrew Barnes; CitrusAd co-founder Brad Moran, Loanezi founder Renee Tocco, and Business News Australia founder Camilla Westerlund.
For the first time the Melbourne event will include awards in Deep Tech and Beauty & Wellness - both categories that saw outstanding entries, and like so many others will prove very competitive and difficult to predict tonight.
"Quite simply, the purpose of the Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards is to find and recognise young business talent," says Camilla Westerlund. "But what gives it greater meaning is the connections forged, the stories shared, and an incredible community of founders who understand the unique challenges this life entails."
In this industry-agnostic program, all finalists are considered for the most prestigious titles of Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Trailblazer, with the latter recognising an entrepreneur who has achieved exponential growth in a short space of time with the potential for major success.
The 2025 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards would not have been made possible without the support of corporate partners, the Australian Government's Industry Growth Program, RSM and iVvy.
All award winners will automatically go through as finalists to the 2025 Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards, to be held on the Gold Coast on 29 November.
The 2025 Melbourne Young Entrepreneur Awards finalists are (in alphabetical order by company):
Kaley Chu - 100 Lunches
Yesha Patel - After
Grace Brown & Yan Chen - Andromeda Robotics
Alyssa Stevenson - ASM
Harley Cannard - Ausso
Ben Circosta - Bippi Foods
Hyunjung Lee - Boo Beauty Bar
Alex Bodriagin - Book a Test Drive
Ben Simpson - Collective Shift
Yin Ho Fu - Dance Innovation Team
Jamie Marciniak - Electrify Me
Emma Scott - ELS School of Dance
Dinindu Abeykoon - Emera Facility Service
Shoaib Iqbal & Przemyslaw Lorenczak - Esper Satellite Imagery
Joshua Ball & Josh Brooks-Duncan - Farmers Pick
Anna Nedbaylova - FB Ventures, FundBase Group
Thomas Burns & Anabelle Burns - Femme Organic
Olly Hoffman & Matthew Blode - Fingertip
Mariah Loriente - Flawless HR
Natasha Marcello - For Keeps Merch
Daniel Kitay - FUNDAY Natural Sweets
Ali Terai - Future Golf
Nathaniel Diong - Future Minds Network
Trent Scheirs & Lachlan Catanese - Grant Help
Jordan Mylius - Hairification
Dr Jenny Liu - Happy Dentistry
Kyle Hunt - Health Care Providers Association (HCPA)
Yen May Lee & Ronald Sim - Hope Kids OT
Maha Ibrahimi - House Of Pets Delight, Casey Florist Co
Jasmin Hyde - Hyde & Seek Communications
Brendan Jowett - INFLATE AI
Alex Grant & Skye Larson - INTIX
Patrick David - Intune Fitness Studio
Umar Butler & Abdur-Rahman Butler - Isaacus
Jason Maricchiolo - ISO365
Julia Truong - JT. Production Management
Melinda Farley - Kollektive
Manon Beauchamp-Tardieu & Loris Campanile - Little Green Panda
Samuel Levi - LuxeSticks
Micky Ahuja - MA Services Group
James Marshall - Marshall Group
Aron Williams - MERTRA
Mo Hamdouna, Ophelie Mouton & Aiman Hamdouna - Mo Works
Ethan Donati - My Million Dollar Funnels, Ethan Donati Enterprises
Jawwad Aamer Khan & Roshanara Mulla - MyCloud Services, AgRobot
Amanda Choi - Nexus Early Learning
Maria Baker - Nobody's Princess
Adriana Oreskov - OSE Insurance
Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks - Ovum AI
Nathan Yun & Rex Zhang - Paire
Josh Trenerry & George Weng - Pakio
Paris Young - Pascal Satori
Natasha Djung - Peony Beauty Melbourne
Dr Mohammed Al Ebrahimi & Ali Al Ebrahimi - People First Healthcare
Steven Gringlas - Picos Media, Yellow Desk
Natasa Pitra-Grbic - PITRA
Burak Kamit & Dylan Johnstone - Platinum Health Supply Group
Loughlan Dalton de Burgh & Giorgia Adkins - Pretty Privilege
Ellie Vaisman & Giovanni Pino - Procon Materials
Monte Charters - PureFlow Filtration
Josh Trenerry - Purely Gourmet
Jaimen Shamoun & Jemma Shamoun - Ramla Body
Julian Djung & Nathan Djung - RoomingKos
Sam Shaper - Shapers
Stefan Di Benedetto - Solbevi
Jesse Moors & Nicholas Quinn - Spatium Capital
Simon Tuong - Strapify Australia
Michael Ramsey - STRONG Pilates
Harry Sanders - StudioHawk, Kadi
Storm Hassett - The Identity Clinic
Sonny Moshinsky, Joey Moshinsky & Richard Mathieson - Tutero
Michael Laps - VCMO
James Longo - Versa Cocktails
Em Frost - Virago Logistics
Chloe White - Visa Sidekick
Winson Tan - WA Group
Holly Fowler - Wable
Blake Thomson - Xeople Group, SlakeTech, Vertex
)
