A new social enterprise app which pays 18-30 year olds £15 an hour to spend time with elderly people in the UK, has won a £20,000 grant in the Ford Family Foundation’s social enterprise competition, Ignite 2025.

Kings College London student Solene Declas, founded the winning social enterprise to connect younger and older generations through paid companionship, support and elderly-youth mentoring.

The platform known as AIBŌ (buddy in Japanese) also looks likely to receive an undiclosed larger sum of equity investment from the foundation in he coming year, subject to due diligence.

The amount of equity investment that might come from the foundation – which works specifically with UK universities to support social entrepreneurship –  has not yet been revealed.

Last year’s finalists were awarded a further £280,000 equity investment between them after receiving grant money at the Ignite 2024 awards.

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Declas aim with her new social enterprise app is to tackle loneliness and the financial pressures faced by young people.

The social enterprise, which works with a relative of the older person to facilitate the connection, charges £22.50 an hour for the service, making around £3.75 per hour after paying VAT tax and £15 to the young person.

The prize money will be used to help the platform scale to become nationwide.

The other five finalists in the competition were: WeDonate, designed to encourage blood donation through community rewards. The founder received £10,000.

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Reporti, an app to keep vulnerable people safe at crowded events, received £7,500. Rephobia was awarded £6,000 to deliver virtual reality accessible therapy for people living with phobias.

A customer relationship management system designed to support homelessness charities with vital data insights, named Harker, was awarded £4,000. And, Braille Forge was awarded £2,500 for its work creating affordable braille technology for students.

The keynote speaker at the London awards event was Giselle Gonzales – founder of freelance marketplace for refugees – EqualReach.

Her business received ‘significant’ equity investment from the Ford Family Foundation after winning the event last year as part of the £280, 000 split between the winners.

Read the full article about AIBŌ by Claudia Cahalane at Alliance Magazine.