Amferia Marketing Director Saba Atefyekta was awarded the King Carl XVI Gustaf's New Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Årets Nybyggare) at Sweden’s Royal Palace. The award is Sweden’s most prestigious recognition of a talented, foreign-born entrepreneur. Atefyekta received this honour for her contribution to the growth of Amferia, a company developing next-generation antibacterial technology that help reduce the use of antibiotics.
Atefyekta is a co-founder of Amferia, a medical device company that has developed a breakthrough technology using anti-microbial peptides to combat the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and speed the healing of wounds.
Born in Iran, Atefyekta migrated to Gothenburg with her husband 15 years ago.
“I left the country to follow my dreams,” Atefyekta said. “It was difficult there, and I have always had a dream of furthering my education.”
Following inspiration
She arrived in Sweden with a degree in chemistry, an interest that took off during high school due to an inspiring teacher.
At Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, her work caught the eye of another inspirational figure, Atefyekta’s doctoral supervisor, Martin Andersson, a professor of materials science. Andersson encouraged her to pursue entrepreneurship after her studies.
With fellow researcher Anand Kumar Rajasekharan, Atefyekta and Andersson founded Amferia in 2018 with the goal of developing medical products to combat antibiotic resistance. The company is exploring the use of their patented technology in a number of medical and veterinary applications.
