The winner of the Eximbank Award for Export Potential was Ivan Iľko, owner of company Vedou proti komárom company. He received the award from the hands of Igor Barát, Deputy CEO of Eximbanka, during the ceremony of announcing the results of the 19th edition of the Young Innovative Entrepreneur competition, which took place on Tuesday, 16 December 2025. The absolute winner was Lukáš Řezanina, co-owner of Nordics.
The Young Innovative Entrepreneur competition is part of the international Creative Young Entrepreneur Award project, which is organised by Junior Chamber International (JCI) in more than 120 countries around the world. It is aimed at young people aged between 18 and 40 who are active entrepreneurs – as sole traders or owners of small and medium-sized businesses.
The aim of the competition is to support young entrepreneurs in Slovakia, their creativity, innovative approaches and the use of modern technologies to address current market needs. An important evaluation criterion is also the export potential of products and services and the ability to apply on the global market, which is crucial especially from the point of view of Eximbank as one of the main professional partners of the event.
Among the five finalists nominated by the expert jury, Ivan Iľko, owner of Vedou proti komárom company, won the Eximbanka Award for Export Potential.
The company is dedicated to the practical application of the results of scientific research, which originated in the academic environment of the University of Trnava, and links them with experience from the non-profit sector. It focuses on the development and production of innovative technologies for monitoring and controlling mosquito populations, provides expert advice to municipalities, schools and the private sector, and builds data systems with the potential to predict the risks of the emergence and spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
“At Eximbank, we are proud of our young, creative and innovative entrepreneurs who are able to translate their expertise into solutions with real impact. Great recognition goes to all the nominees and winners of the individual categories, who prove that the young generation of Slovak entrepreneurs has a high level and ambition to make it in the international environment. We are all the more pleased that the awarded company Vedou proti komárom was founded in the environment of a Slovak university and successfully links science with practice. We see in this project a significant export potential and the ability to apply on foreign markets,” said Igor Barát, Deputy CEO of Eximbanka.
Photo: Igor Barat, Deputy CEO of Eximbank and Petra Vargova (accepting the award on behalf of Ivan Iľko)