Al Amin's journey began with a childhood vision sparked by observing broken cars outside a Police station in his hometown in Bangladesh. In 2019, while still a student, he conceived the idea of converting a traditional engine to an electric motor.
“I thought if I could replace the engine with an electric motor, it would become an electric car. At the time there were no Teslas or anything, so it was just an idea that I got,” said the 35-year-old electrical engineer.
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This early inspiration laid the foundation for Palki Motors, which Al Amin would eventually launch after years of setbacks and learning from previous business failures. He studied electrical engineering at Montana State University, where he supplemented his income by buying old cars, upgrading their parts, and reselling them at a higher price.
After graduating in 2013, Al Amin worked as a software developer on Wall Street in New York before returning to Bangladesh in 2017 to work as Chief Technical Officer at his family's solar power company. In 2021, following the collapse of his cloud services startup during the pandemic, he took a year off to reflect.“My family thought I couldn't do anything with my life,” he recalled.“I spent a lot of time meditating and decided it was finally time to pursue my childhood dream.”
How Palki Motors came to be
Al Amin then took on a remote job in Silicon Oasis for 10 months to pay off his debts. With "only $4,000 in savings", he decided to build an electric car from scratch in his garage. Over the course of four and a half months, he shared his progress on LinkedIn, which caught the attention of over 60,000 viewers and a local newspaper.
When reporters came calling, Al Amin had only a week to finish his prototype.“I worked day and night to finish the car,” he recalled. The first yellow-painted vehicle became the springboard for 16 initial orders, mainly from commercial drivers who were losing most of their income over fuel costs.
Al Amin's vision gained significant momentum after he joined an accelerator program. With guidance and renewed confidence, he approached Tanveer Ali, one of Bangladesh's wealthiest investors, who invested $110,000 in Palki Motors. By July 2023, production had started, with Palki Motors manufacturing 10 cars per month. As of today, the company has sold 76 units, and with the prize money, production is expected to increase.
The electric cars are tailor-made for Bangladesh's roads, featuring cost-effective battery-swapping technology that allows drivers to replace drained batteries in just two minutes. This innovation significantly reduces fuel and maintenance costs for commercial drivers.
“With our cars, fuel costs are 90 per cent cheaper, and maintenance costs drop by 52 percent. Since we produce the cars locally, they don't have to pay for any import fees, so ownership costs 50 per cent lower," he explained.
Thanks to the reduced vehicle costs, drivers are now buying their own cars rather than leasing them. This has enabled them to take home between $35 and $45 per day, compared to just $11 previously. Palki Motors offers an innovative financing model, where drivers pay $2,500 upfront, with the remaining $9,000 financed by investors. Drivers repay $8 daily over three years.
Al Amin reflected on his entrepreneurial journey:“Both my businesses were based on the concept of helping people earn more money. While my first venture failed, I learned from my mistakes. With Palki Motors, I had failed many times before, so I knew exactly what to do to make it succeed.”
With the prize money, Al Amin plans to scale Palki Motors' production to 100 units per month, furthering his mission to make electric vehicles accessible to commercial drivers across Bangladesh.
'Safe water for every child'
In another remarkable win, Dr Rhett Butler, founder of the SkyJuice Foundation, received the prize for his innovative water filtration technology. SkyJuice aims to provide“safer water for every child” as it operates without power and provides low-cost, chemical-free water filtration solutions to impoverished communities across the globe.
The technology, which operates without pumps or external energy, provides a scalable, energy-efficient, and cost-effective alternative to traditional water treatment systems, which often require complex automation and maintenance.
Before initiating SkyJuice, which provides clean water to underprivileged communities in 74 countries, Dr Butler worked as a mechanical engineer in Memtec Membrane Tech, a startup turned into world leader today. It provided a similar water filtration system using pumps and automation for 30 years.
Travelling across underdeveloped countries during his former job, he witnessed the drastic water conditions surrounding children in impoverished communities.
“I saw children swimming in dirty water and drinking filthy water and one day I thought to myself: you really need to something to make clean water easier and more affordable to achieve.”
He started by redesigning his company's low-pressure membranes to rely on gravity without the need for pumps and operating systems. He held out a sample of the membrane, which consists of 20,000 thin straws connected to a base. When any form of non-saline water passes through the straws and through the filtering wall of the straws, it gets rid of all impurities.
The 1.5 metres high and 200mm wide 17kg membrane“can be shipped all around the world from our little cottage factory”, according to the 67-year-old Australian.
“To build one doesn't take long; we typically make up to 300 a year, but we need at least 500 a day to solve the world water problem.”
Dr Butler aims to increase his production using the prize money by automating the manufacturing process of the membranes so he could produce one every 10 minuites.
His project, which started as a free of charge project donating 100 water plants in six months across impoverished areas in Indonesia and Sri Lanka in 2003, took a corporate turn while maintaining its charitable nature two years later, after discovering that it won't sustain without any form of revenue.
Dr Butler registered SkyJuice in 2005 and started selling the membranes to major NGOs including UNHCR, Oxfam and Siemens Foundation to set it up in refugee camps and other areas in need.
Overall winners
Six organisations and six global high schools were also awarded in the presence UAE President Sheikh Mohammed, for their contributions across six categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action and Global High Schools.
In the Health category, India's Periwinkle Technologies was awarded the Prize for its portable, AI-enabled cervical cancer screening device. Operating even without electricity, the device is accessible in remote or underserved area. It provides results at the point of care within 30 seconds, enabling early detection and significantly improving women's health outcomes. Over 300,000 women have been screened across India.
In the Food category, Nigeria's NaFarm Foods won for its innovative hybrid solar food dryers that prevent post-harvest losses, reducing both food wastage and carbon emission. To-date, 80 dryers have been distributed across six Nigerian states, benefiting over 65,000 farmers and lowering carbon emissions by 50,000 metric tonnes annually. It has also empowered over 18,000 women and youth through up-skilling programmes.
In the Energy category, Palki Motors, an SME from Bangladesh, was awarded the Prize for its locally manufactured, affordable, and lightweight electric vehicles, designed specifically for commercial drivers. Priced at $4,990, these vehicles cater to the unique transportation needs of the region. Palki Motors also operates a network of solar powered battery swap stations, which has already benefited over 23,000 people.
In the Water category, SkyJuice Foundation, an NPO from Australia, won for its low-cost, easy to use, gravity-powered, water treatment solution, which uses low-pressure membrane filters to provide clean drinking water without the need for chemicals, pumps, or external energy sources. Their SkyHydrant model provides clean, potable water to entire communities. Over 3 million people have already benefited from their 9,000 installations across 74 countries, which have collectively produced 1 billion gallons of safe drinking water.
In the Climate Action category, OpenMap Development Tanzania won for its innovative mapping solutions, which merge community-driven data collection with advanced technologies such as drones, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. To date, the NPO has benefited 140,000 people, engaged over 1,000 youth in community health efforts, and created 100 jobs.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize also provided unparalleled opportunities for the next generation of sustainability leaders through its Global High Schools category, empowering youth to drive critical progress in their communities. As of 2025, the Prize's 56 Global High Schools winners have impacted the lives of over 56,599 students and 480,660 people across the globe.
The 2025 recipients of the Global High Schools awards are Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos del Mar 07 (Mexico) representing The Americas; Sakafia Islamic Senior High School (Ghana), representing Sub-Saharan Africa; Merryland International School (UAE), representing the Middle East & North Africa; Presidential School in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), representing Europe & Central Asia; Janamaitri Multiple Campus (Nepal), representing South Asia; and Te Pā o Rākaihautū (New Zealand), representing East Asia & Pacific.