A YOUNG "rising star" has won grant funding for his small gardening business through a competition.

Oliver, from East Cottingwith, has been announced as a winner of this year’s Dream Big competition, set up by prepaid debit card and financial education app for kids and teens GoHenry, which is aimed at empowering the dreams of Gen X and Gen Alpha by offering a grant of £1,000 to help make their dreams a reality.

The youngster won the Judges’ choice in the Kidpreneur category with his gardening services idea. Oliver and his friend set up a gardening service over the summer and have turned over £250 by mowing lawns, weeding, washing cars and cutting hedges.

Oliver, 10, said: “I was so surprised when my daddy told me I’d won. I’ve really enjoyed starting my business this summer and this gives me the opportunity to do more during the next holidays and at weekends."

Oliver now wants to set up a website where people in the village can book his services and has plans to print t-shirts and invest in more tools to expand his services. His dream would be to get a push-along paddock cleaner to offer a service to people with horses in his rural area.

"We are going to get our logo sorted and purchase a strimmer, hedge cutter and edger tool next, so that we can do more for our customers. I will need to save up for the paddock cleaner but it feels like something we can do now," he added.

Lead judge, Caspar Lee, a creator and entrepreneur, said: “I believe young people getting into entrepreneurship is one of the coolest things in the world. I’ve been blown away by the passion and talent in all the Dream Big entries and I can’t wait to see what the winners do next."

The competition saw an "incredible outpouring" of creativity and ambition from young people across the nation with over 15,000 entries from kids aged six to 18 across three categories: Community, Talent and Kidpreneur. A shortlist of 25 finalists went to the panel of judges.

GoHenry co-founder and CEO, Louise Hill, said: “Gen Z and Generation Alpha never fail to inspire me with their creativity, compassion and get up and go.

"I always encourage budding entrepreneurs to just give things a go - just like the ‘go’ in our name - so it’s amazing seeing all these young people doing just that and following their dreams. Congratulations to Oliver and all of our winners."