My Mind Matters wins 2026 Young Enterprise Award

The My Mind Matters team won the 2026 Young Enterprise Award during a packed event at Central Hall last Wednesday evening.

Their initiative, a book designed to raise awareness of mental health and help younger readers regulate their emotions, was selected as the overall winner by the judges.

Runner-up was LockIn.Tech, a revision aid app focused on GCSE and A-Level subjects that has already been developed. The initiative also received the Innovation Award.

The judges highlighted the team’s organisation and financial management, including the use of pre-orders and detailed tracking systems for sales and operations.

Young Enterprise Gibraltar chairman Carlos García said the standard of entries had been high and described the judging process as “tough”.

A total of 14 participants were invited to showcase their businesses at stalls during the event, while five teams were selected to present in the final.

The finalists were visited by members of the public, local media and the Governor, Lieutenant General Sir Ben Bathurst.

The judging panel included GBC producer Colin Pons and Albert Rocca from XAPO.

The Minister for Education, Dr John Cortes, highlighted the impact that the Young Enterprise initiative has on young people and the wider community.

Dr Cortes said: “I think that's a fantastic reflection on Gibraltar, on our education, on the way Gibraltarians have such a creative mind and obviously on the calibre of our young people.”
“They dedicate so much to this.”

“It takes them completely out of their comfort zone.”

“It’s not the sort of thing you normally do at school and I always say this, this contributes so much because you add something that once you leave school, if you haven't done this, it hits you all new.”

The winners of the 2026 Young Enterprise Award will now travel to Cardiff to represent Gibraltar at the UK National Finals of Young Enterprise.

The winners

Mr Rocca, as spokesperson for the judging panel, said the winning team stood out for its marketing, community engagement and financial success, adding that the initiative had created a “powerful social movement” to raise awareness of mental health issues.

“This team's performance was, in every respect, outstanding,” the judges said.

According to the panel, the team behind My Mind Matters tackled an important issue with “creativity, passion, and an incredible level” of business execution.

Mr Rocca said: “The amount of professional partners they secured and the amount of work required to achieve this level of partner engagement is a testament to their journey, their teamwork, and passion.”

“They delivered best-in-class performances in business ideas, business innovations, marketing and customer engagement, teamwork and problem solving, learning and reflection, goals, efforts, and achievements.”

The runners-up

The judges described LockIn.Tech as an “exceptional, impressive, and professional early-stage startup”.

Mr Rocca said the project’s profitability reflected “tight cost control and effective monetization strategy”.

“We looked at their industry-standard approach to development for market research and to user-led iteration and it was exemplary,” he said.

The judges also highlighted the app’s market demand, technical development and long-term growth potential.

LockIn.Tech also received the Innovation Award “for developing a complex, algorithm-driven educational approach and application from scratch directly addressing a critical gap for exam-board-accurate study tools”.

The judges noted that the team had developed more than 140,000 lines of code and used professional software development practices.

Journey and Presentation Awards

RegenerAid, described as Gibraltar’s first first aid comic book received the Journey and Presentation Awards after, according to the judges, “being able to tangibly demonstrate via the report, presentation, and interview, perseverance and determination and empathetic creativity in overcoming adversity”.

During the presentation, the team staged a simulated heart attack and demonstrated how to respond using lessons from the comic.

The judges also praised the initiative’s “powerful life-saving mission” and highlighted its business planning and execution.

They noted the project had secured official endorsements, achieved strong market penetration in a short period and generated significant financial returns.

The panel also highlighted the team’s engagement with professionals in the education and medical sectors.

Sustainability Award

Green Steps received the Sustainability Award for what the judges described as a “compelling and well-executed business concept”, a range of eco-friendly products designed for apartments, offices and small spaces.

The judges said the team had identified a market need in Gibraltar and created a practical product supported by a clear operational and marketing plan.

Digital and Social Media Impact Award

The judges said Gibraltar’s Hidden Gems, a set of self-guided walking routes aimed at encouraging people to explore Gibraltar beyond the usual tourist attractions, demonstrated a “highly innovative, resilient company with a sophisticated and well-researched business model”.

“Their digital product is perfectly suited for the modern tourist and their B2B and B2C partnership approach is particularly impressive,” the judges said.

“We're particularly impressed not only by the social engagement statistics, but also by the quality of the social media content.”

Sales and Financial Management Award

Rock Pins, the team that team developed a number of decorative pins featuring Gibraltarian symbols, including monkeys, the campion flower and the levante cloud, demonstrated “the execution of a well researched idea which grows into a successful sales strategy, including the use of innovative sales techniques and market placements showing sound financial control throughout the program which is adequately summarized in the company report,” Mr Rocca said.