Cooperative Pitch
Thank you for showing interest. Registrations for Coop Pitch are now closed. We encourage you to apply the next time.
Cooperative Pitch
An integral part of the Asia Pacific Cooperative Youth Summit (APCYS), Coop Pitch Competition is designed to find new and sustainable enterprise ideas on cooperatives. Participants get the opportunity to pitch cooperative business solutions to cater to the needs and aspirations of the youth and community in their country to a panel of judges. The winners are chosen based on a pre-determined evaluation criterion. Some of the innovative ideas which have come out of the Coop Pitch are:
- Youth Engagement in Organic Farm Tourism: Justine Limocon and Kevin Palson from Lamac Multipurpose Co-operative won the first prize at the Coop Pitch in APCYS 1.0. Taking it forward, they created thriving organic farming facilities including cacao production, coir products, rice plantations etc. The Lamac’s Hidden Valley Mountain Resort was the venue for the APCYS 2.0!
- Solar Energy Production and Direct Distribution to Individual Households: Ng Jun Long from Singapore representing Skyla Energy Cooperative won the first prize with this idea at the Coop Pitch in APCYS 2.0.
- Experiential Tourism at the Herbal Cooperative: Trinh Thi Ly of the Sinh Duoc Herbal Cooperative, Vietnam pitched to develop the cooperative ecosystem around their herbal cooperative by adding experiential tourism (herb, place, living).
- Green Drone-enabled Agriculture Network: Mifly Airline Cooperative from China pitched to build an agriculture network using drones for multiple purposes including crop-dusting and spraying seeds.
Sponsors
Competition Format
To Pitch (verb): Make a bid to obtain a contract or other business! A Pitch typically takes the form of an entrepreneur or group of entrepreneurs presenting or describing their ideas to prospective investors. An elevator pitch is a very short pitch that distils the idea into a summary that takes only as long as a short elevator ride.
- Thumb rule: One organization– One pitch
- Communicate to participants from your organization/country and build a team of two to five members.
- All ideas must be driven by cooperative identity. In 1995, the ICA adopted the revised Statement on the Cooperative Identity containing the definition of a cooperative, the values of cooperatives, and the seven cooperative principles. For more information, read here.
- Self Help & Mutual Benefit should be the driving force of the ideas being pitched and should include youth.
- Impact analysis: The Pitch must be able to ascertain at least one innovative element of socio-economic and cultural impact in the enterprise model.
- Participants will be judged based on the simplicity of the coop enterprise model as well as the method of structuring and management of members and staff in a principle- based enterprise.
Guiding questions that may help in firming up the idea.
- How do you see this Youth Summit as a platform to initiate conversations around building youth-led sustainable co-operatives?
- How can your cooperative support youth who have been most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?
- How can your cooperative address the needs of young freelancers and entrepreneurs in the short and long term?
- How can your cooperative promote sustainable development goals? Like SDG -11 SDG-13: Climate Action, SDG-8: Decent work, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities & communities, Responsible Consumption and Production etc?
- How can your business idea be relevant in addressing today’s global challenges?
- How do cooperatives address new ways to ensure production in food systems? How does this contribute to building sustainable, ethical, and inclusive value chains?
- How can your idea help build independent and self-reliant communities?
- Our open democratic system helps us face and overcome health, social and economic crises. What have cooperatives done to emerge from this crisis?
- How can your cooperative help preserve endangered cultures, art forms and other intangible culture heritage?
- How can your cooperative help preserve traditional community values?
Prizes for Coop Pitch Winners
The top 3 winning teams will receive cash prizes worth USD 3,000, organizational support and direct access to key partners to further develop, validate and implement coop models developed.1st prize
USD 1,500
2nd prize
USD 1,000
USD 1,000
3rd prize
USD 500
USD 500
Mentors
Heira Hardiyanti
Heira is a cooperator at the Institute for Indonesian Cooperative Development and Studies, and an educator at IKOPIN where she completed her post-graduation in management study. Currently, she serves as a consultant for the Agency of Cooperative and SMEs in West Java and some institutions. After stepping down from her position as Chairperson of the Women Cooperator committee, she continues her work in women cooperative empowerment and youth movement as a Global Cooperative Entrepreneur (GCE) Mentor. She is a co-founder of mycoolclass.com, a teacher-owned learning platform coop. She is highly skilled in non-profit organization, social enterprise, corporate social responsibility, policy analysis, and youth development and has undertaken numerous international courses.
Dhanaj KM
Since 2018, Dhanaj has been a part of the Kerala Start-up Mission’s (KSUM) Operations Team. He Leads the Accelerator programs’ vertical and engages with Corporates & Partner Organisations to design & run Accelerators for start-ups in Scaleup/ Revenue stage. Before this, he has worked with BAIF Development Research Foundation, where he helped the rural community to adapt technology to enhance their standard of living and quality of life. He is always fascinated by new ideas and therefore, the career switch to KSUM was a conscious choice to work with young entrepreneurs and start-ups.
Moosa Mehar
Mehar is an Indian entrepreneur in the social impact space. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of TinkerHub Foundation, an organisation that solves the technology skill gap in India by creating peer learning communities inside campuses. Mehar has led the Government of Kerala’s start-up & innovation activities in northern Kerala before moving to TinkerHub full time. With Kerala Start-up Mission, he was running Start-up Incubator & Accelerator programmes. He was also one of the minds behind Coopathons (Cooperative Hackathons) and partnered with ICA-AP to run the programme for three constitutive versions. He is a mentor from India for the ICA-led Global Cooperative Entrepreneurship Programme and has taken workshops In global cooperative forums like Global Youth forum 2020.
Risal Steebel
Risal is active on the Board of Indonesian Youth Cooperative (KOPINDO) and the Indonesian Youth Council (KNPI). He was introduced to the cooperatives in 2009 when he joined the student cooperative at the Islamic State University in Makassar and soon became its Chairman. He conducted a lot of cooperative education activities among students. After graduating, he joined DEKOPIN in the South Sulawesi region, Indonesia as the Chairman of (BKPK) Youth Network and Communication Cooperative.
APCYS 3.0 MENTOR Risal Steebel
Representative, The Indoneida Cooperative Council (DEKOPIN)
Judges
H.P. Rathod
H.P. Rathod heads the Cooperative Services & Administration and is responsible for Cooperative Development and Human Resource Management for GCMMF (Amul). With over 28 years of experience in the field, he has implemented various cooperative development programmes and activities, internal consultant development initiatives, animal husbandry and rural development programmes. He is also serving as Director in designated member unions of GCMMF.
Rohan Clarke
Rohan blends a career in investment banking with an ambition to promote community wealth building through cooperatives. As Co-Founder of Incubator.coop, Rohan has run accelerator and incubator programmes with a range of aspiring cooperatives and platforms. He also has hands on experience in building innovative cooperatives and is leading the development of two cooperative platforms in Australia - the Regen Farmer Mutual that enables farmers to access environmental markets, and Wayfairer - a regenerative tourism platform that shares revenue with local communities.
Salonie Muralidhara Hiriyur
Salonie works as a Senior Coordinator at SEWA Cooperative Federation, where she works closely with women-owned cooperatives, across sectors, to enable their viability and sustainability. Her areas of work include research, communications, capacity-building, fundraising, and advocacy. In the past, she has worked in the research department of the International Labor Organisation, Geneva. She graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a degree in Gender and Development.
Tentative Agenda
| Day | Item |
|---|---|
| 23 July, Friday | Coop Pitch orientation session of 30 shortlisted teams with mentors |
| 25 July, Sunday | Coop Pitch mentoring sessions |
| 27 July, Tuesday | Coop Pitch submission |
| 28 July Wednesday | Coop Pitch Finalists shortlisting |
| 29 July Thursday | Coop Pitch Finale |
Frequently Asked Questions
To participate in the Coop Pitch, APCYS 3.0 registration is mandatory.
After registering for APCYS 3.0, the participants are advised to read all the competition details, prepare their answers offline and then apply online for the competition before the deadline. Please do not wait till the last date and apply well in advance.
30 teams of two to five members each are expected to apply for the coop pitch competition. The group can comprise of young cooperators, college students, representatives of ICA members, civil society organisations, and social entrepreneurs. The groups are not limited to these and participants having diverse professional and academic backgrounds and skillsets are welcome. What matters the most is your commitment to making an impact and your willingness to collaborate.
Yes, if you do not have a team yet, we would encourage you to apply individually.
Top 3 winners will receive prize money of USD 3,000 (1st – USD 1,500; 2nd – USD 1,000; 3rd – USD 500), organizational support and direct access to key partners to further develop, validate and implement coop models developed.
Feel free to email us at contact@apyouthsummit.coop if you have any questions or concerns!
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This webpage has been co-funded by the Europian Union. The content of this webpage is the sole responsibility of the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of European Union.