The German Enactus team from the University of Münster reached the top four teams in the world at the Enactus World Cup 2025. Photo: Enactus Global, Credit: Tyler Maddigan/David Gaboes

This year’s Enactus World Cup was centered around two significant milestones: the 50th anniversary of Enactus and the 25th edition of the World Cup itself. For the first time, the World Cup was accompanied by the “Sustainability Expo”—the largest sustainability fair in Southeast Asia. In this inspiring environment, the Enactus network was honored with the prestigious “SX Shaper Award.” This award recognizes organizations, authorities, and individuals worldwide who contribute to solving social and environmental challenges through concrete, sustainable action. The accolade highlights the global impact and commitment of Enactus to a more sustainable future.

Since 2020, the Wilo-Foundation has been a board member of Enactus Germany and a supporter of the “Enactus National Cup” in Germany. The family foundation has also been involved in international Enactus competitions in recent years and supported water- and environment-related challenges such as the 1Race4Oceans.

Saint Mary’s University from Canada emerged as the overall winner of the Enactus World Cup, becoming the World Champion 2025. Photo: Enactus Global, Credit: Tyler Maddigan/David Gaboes

Great success for Germany at the Enactus World Cup 2025

The “Seads Solution” project by the Enactus team from the University of Münster reached the top four teams worldwide in the global student competition for sustainable entrepreneurship. This marks the second consecutive year that Enactus Germany has placed a team in the top four (with $2,000 in prize money). Additionally, the Münster project received the “Sufficiency Economy Philosophy” (SEP) Award, presented by Thai Beverage, which is endowed with $9,100.

Seads Solution uses leased robots to plant new seagrass meadows, which not only bind CO₂, but also enhance marine biodiversity and protect coastlines from erosion. The true innovation lies in the development of a second modular, AI-powered robot that harvests seagrass seeds, allowing large quantities of seeds to be collected for planting. Furthermore, the seeds can be sold as sustainable superfood. A pilot project is starting in the community of Heikendorf, Schleswig-Holstein, so this region will actively experience the benefits of new seagrass meadows.

The overall winner of this year’s Enactus World Cup- and new World Champion 2025 - is the team from Saint Mary’s University, Canada. The winning projects, “Square Roots” and “Alaagi” (both Enactus Canada), address two central challenges in Canada: Square Roots operates a franchise model that rescues surplus agricultural produce, while Alaagi is developing algae-based bioplastic alternatives through extensive research on biodegradable materials.

As part of a panel talk, the global competition “Action With Africa” was presented before the final of the Enactus World Cup, highlighting its successful development since the competition’s launch in 2022. Photo: Enactus Global, Credit: Tyler Maddigan/David Gaboes

Presentation of certificates to “Action With Africa” winner teams

Other highlights included the integration of the “Action With Africa” program into the “Global Partnerships Session” just before the eagerly anticipated Top 4 pitches at the Enactus World Cup. Later, the top 6 certificates were handed over in the global competition, which has been running since 2022 and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as the main public sponsor, as well as the Wilo-Foundation and BASF from the private sector. The Wilo-Foundation has been a program sponsor for four years. David Höltgen (Wilo-Foundation) congratulated the top 6 teams during the digital final round on August 19, which was streamed from the RTL studios in Cologne, and together with Evi Hoch (Board Member of the Wilo-Foundation) was part of the internationally composed jury for project evaluations.

This year’s Action With Africa final was held digitally via a livestream from the RTL studios in Cologne. David Höltgen (Wilo-Foundation) was present, congratulating the teams on reaching the final before their pitches and then serving as part of the internationally composed jury to evaluate the projects. Photo: Wilo-Foundation

The winner of this year’s Action With Africa competition was the “EcoGuard” project from the Tunis Business School in Tunisia, awarded a prize of €10,000. The project aims to reduce environmental pollution from plastic waste and raise awareness of recycling in society. Other award-winning projects came from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt, and the United Kingdom. In total, 191 projects were submitted to this year’s Action With Africa Challenge, with prize money totaling €30,000 awarded. All results and winning teams can be found here.

Happy winners: The successful project in this year’s Action With Africa competition was “EcoGuard” from Tunis Business School in Tunisia, which was awarded a prize of 10,000 EUR. Photo: Enactus Global, Credit: Tyler Maddigan/David Gaboes

The next Enactus World Cup will take place in 2026 in São Paulo, Brazil.