Unistream 2025 winners: Afula teens invent startup that turns every student into a teacher
Teenagers from across the country presented groundbreaking projects in Unistream’s Project of the Year competition. The winning startup is Havana - a website that allows students to teach each other, by sharing summaries and private lessons. Second place went to StepUp from Netivot and third place to Finteen from Tirat Carmel.
The teenagers from Afula, just 16 years old, who developed an educational startup in the form of a website where students teach each other by sharing summaries and offering private lessons, were named as the winners of the “Project of the Year 2025” competition held by the Unistream Association in memory of Ted and Hedy Orden. The event took place this week at Expo Tel Aviv. The Afula students are third-year participants at the Unistream Afula Entrepreneurship Center, named after Joan and Arthur Weisberg.
According to Leo Nakash Aharoni, 16, from Kfar Yehezkel, who serves as the project’s CEO:
“We decided to develop this because our youth haven’t had regular schooling for years, first the pandemic, then an ongoing war. The traditional teaching method is often lacking, so we wanted to create a change and help students. Our website is live and, with this win, we hope to expand it and reach more youth who need help.”
Second place went to a group of teens from the Unistream Entrepreneurship Center in Netivot, supported by Bank Hapoalim and the Jewish Federation of Philadelphia, with their StepUp project. Third place went to the group from the Unistream Entrepreneurship Center in Tirat Carmel, sponsored by the Koenig family, for their Finteen project.
Other winners were announced across various categories:
- In Unistream’s one-year SUN program, first place went to students from Umm al-Fahm with Ishara; second to Zafit Regional High School with GrandBox; and third to Adiga Middle School, Kfar Kama (in partnership with Chevron), with Lightguard.
- In the SUN Negev category, Elnakhil School in Tel Sheva won first place with Reminder Box; Kochavi Hamidbar School came second with TimeTidy; and Elnor Arara School placed third with Nova House.
Four standout teams were recognized in Unistream’s first-year program:
- Julius Entrepreneurship Center (sponsored by Bank Hapoalim) with MY-FIT
- Altshuler Shaham Entrepreneurship Center with Physio-Cube
- Robert Weiner Jordan Valley Center (Kinneret) with SAFEPIC
- Yemin-Ord Center with Duchipat-Ba.
In the second-year program, first place went to the Amal Safed Center with Hydrelix; second to the Or Yehuda Center with DrinCup; and third to the Rahat Center with Vita Heal.
In the NFTE category, the Amal Zarzir Brigade won first place with BinGo, Ort Arad High School (Group A) took second with Petly, and Or HaHayt “Haredi Technological Yeshiva” in Gan Yavne took third with Feelsafe. The Audience Favorite award went to the first-year team from the Netanya Center, in partnership with eBay Israel, for ViaSafe.
This year, more than 100 teams of young men and women from across Israel, from Misgav Shalom to Be’er Sheva, Ashdot Yaakov, Ramat Gan, and Kiryat Shmona, participated in the competition. Unistream trains youth in business and social entrepreneurship, helping them develop projects that often address real-world needs with a technological focus. Final projects were pitched to judges from Israel’s top business and public sectors.
The 2025 judges included Adi Soffer Teeni (General Manager, Facebook Israel), Itay Raved (Israel Country Manager, Tesla), Sonia Nastase (CEO, Nespresso Israel), Noam Hanegbi (Chairman, Bank Hapoalim), Doron Arbely (Chairman, Israel Electric Corporation), Dr. Alon Stopel (Chairman, Innovation Authority), Tomer Raved (Chairman, Bezeq), and Kalman Shaham (Founder and Owner, Altshuler Shaham).
The Expo Hall looked more like a major high-tech hackathon than a teen event. “You have to see our platform, future investors can’t afford to miss this,” said 17-year-old Tzur Mirkin from Be’er Sheva’s Center. Raya Yosheev from Ofakim stood nearby, pitching investors.
Jonathan Portnikov, their partner, explained their Real Life project: turning farmers’ organic waste into biochar fertilizer, a method inspired by ancient Mayan practices. The project converts waste through a low-oxygen charring process, producing energy and carbon credits. “Our customers are NGOs and governments; farmers benefit but don’t pay directly,” he said.
Nearby, a team from Misgav Shalom pitched a patent for a system that monitors heat and pressure in cooking pots. “Our temperature monitoring system prevents kitchen fires,” explained Amrat Kinda, 17. “You enter the desired temperature into our app. The device uses special heat-resistant, non-stick coatings. For 350 shekels per pot, you’re buying safety, a real revolution.”
Anastasia Smirnoff, 14, from Blich High School in Ramat Gan, introduced NEXLOCK, a personal assistant that checks the safety of internet links in real time. “It’s an app that works like a digital shield,” she said. Her partner, Michal Bychovsky, 15, added, “We know the danger, my Instagram was hacked. We plan to expand to older audiences too.”
According to Rony Zarom, chairman and founder of Unistream: "This year, there is no doubt that we have gone through a period of chaos. If we were talking a month ago, the very existence of the event would have been improbable. Let's not forget that we were under missile attack and organizing such an event is not a trivial matter, but Unistream is not an organization that trains teenagers to give up, it is a calculated form, a way of life. Unistream's teenagers do not give up and we certainly do not give up. This is our peak event and for us this year there is no concession. This year in particular we have graduates who have gone through two difficult years, some of whom were evacuated and in all this chaos we are an anchor. This is of course also reflected in the youth's projects - they have been used to create a normal environment in a chaotic world. For example, one of the projects is an app that allows teenagers to study when they are away from home.
Ifat Bechor, CEO of Unistream, told Calcalist: "This is the most challenging year. Our youth have not experienced a normal life for four years, from the Coronavirus pandemic to today. This specific year is very difficult, of course, it is a year of instability. We work with 85 authorities - each one demands its own attention, its own challenges, and from us it requires a lot of flexibility, a lot of adaptation, and business agility. At the same time, the business community has really mobilized, we have a record number of mentors who accompany the groups all year long. There was a record number of mentors who accompanied our groups in the most thorough way - and the business community also supported - Bank Hapoalim, Amdocs, Altshuler Shaham, Energix, Tnuva, El Al. In addition, we received tremendous support from Jewish federations abroad, a combination of federations and a business company working together. Mainly they supported us from the USA and Canada, despite everything, the largest number of groups arrived, despite the difficulty."
According to Dror Mor, CEO of Netanya Academic College: "This is a collaboration between the college, the municipality and Unistream - we host high school students who have a vision - a desire to develop in a different world and do something different. For example, applications that provide solutions to problems, we accompany projects. The college hosts the project and provides a logistical, academic, and atmospheric envelope. It's not just a school but a place to aspire to. Most of the youth are Netanya residents. I was exposed to two projects: a technological project that reminds people to take their pills on time. It's not just technology, it's also an accessory. And today I learned about a project that is designed to save the lives of two-wheeled riders - if you fall, it transmits directly to the rescue forces and measures initial metrics to send to the rescue forces. "And another project that is very interesting is a platform that allows people to prepare an accurate list of groceries when they want to prepare a meal. There is a culinary application here that allows for a comparison between bringing in food and ordering food. The change made by the guys who created the food application is amazing. On a personal level, I enjoyed it. We also have the high-tech kids, young guys of high school age who are doing a degree, and also combine it with Unistream."
