Waking up may soon be easier than ever thanks to a team of teenagers from the southern city of Netivot. Last week, the group of teen innovators won first place in Unistream’s third annual Entrepreneur of the Year competition in Tel Aviv, scoring a cash prize for their creation: the EasyWake mattress.
EasyWake is a smart mattress that wakes sleepers with pleasant sounds and gentle vibration, while interfacing with other smart home devices such as window shades, lights and heaters via Internet of Things (IoT) compatibility.
“In the future, we will incorporate technologies for an ideal wake up for everyone,” said Timur Ben-Aroya, a member of the winning group. “We are working very hard on the development of our product and recently, we even started a business collaboration with the company Polyron.”
Out of more than 100 youth-developed start-ups in the program, the mattress was crowned “Project of the Year 2022,” beating out a smart closet and a fire detection/prevention system in second and third place, respectively.
All of the teen-led start-ups participating are products of the Unistream program, which enables thousands of Jewish, Arab, Druse, secular, religious, at-risk and immigrant youth to develop their entrepreneurial spirits.
Founded by entrepreneur Rony Zarom in 2001, Unistream works to promote entrepreneurial, innovative and technological thinking within the geographical and social periphery to ensure equal opportunities and transform the country’s periphery into Israel’s future growth engine.
Entrepreneur of the Year competition
The Entrepreneur of the Year competition is the culmination of the organization’s annual activity and the largest entrepreneurship competition for teens in the country.
The panel of judges included senior members of the business, government and hi-tech communities, and the final winners were selected by a wider group of businesspeople and hi-tech professionals from Israel and around the world via a dedicated voting website built for the competition.
“It is exciting to see the gathering and support of senior state officials in all sectors in the work of Unistream and in leading the country to become an inclusive Start-Up Nation,” said CEO Ifat Bechor.
“We have amazing youth in the geographical and social periphery of Israel, who with the right tools from Unistream will be an important part of the core of entrepreneurial and business activity in the country,” she said.
“It is exciting to see the gathering and support of senior state officials in all sectors in the work of Unistream and in leading the country to become an inclusive startup nation.”
Unistream CEO Yifat Bechor
Throughout the year, “Unistream brings industry leaders to the periphery to meet the youth right at their home, and in this year’s venture we bring all the youth to Tel Aviv, to Israel’s business center,” Bechor said. “It is this combination that leads to the rapprochement and trend of reducing gaps in Israeli society.”