The Road
Entrepreneurship addressing the planet’s biggest problems: INNOVA Europe
In a world in dire need of sustainably-focussed leaders, INNOVA Europe is creating a fast-track for startups determined to make a difference.
By Niamh Ollerton
Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
It is the daring to dream, confidence to fail and learn fast, and innovative mindset that sets entrepreneurs apart from their peers.
Business incubators and competitions within the university environment augment teaching and learning with real-world engagement, enabling students, alumni and staff to advance their ideas in a safe space within a knowledge-rich network, providing a route to create new ventures and develop both the business and themselves.
Today, there are more and more opportunities for business school students to test their big ideas through incubators, ecosystems and competitions across the globe - with INNOVA Europe being one such opportunity.
INNOVA Europe’s second annual competition held its Grand Finale in Paris’s STATION F - the world’s largest startup campus, boasting 1,000 startups and 30+ programmes - offering participants the opportunity to pitch their business ideas in a true entrepreneurial hub surrounded by some of the world’s biggest names.
Although only celebrating its second iteration this year, the competition and its mission has big plans for the future of entrepreneurship.
A competition addressing global challenges
Founded in 2022 by EDHEC Business School, POLIMI Graduate School of Management and ESMT Berlin, the INNOVA Europe competition aims to foster competition between business students and alumni, focusing on environmental transition, empowerment and inclusion and healthy living.
Roland Siegers, Director of External Engagement of ESMT Berlin says: “INNOVA Europe showcases how entrepreneurship can tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges.
“By bringing together talented students from diverse backgrounds, we are fostering innovation that contributes to a more sustainable and inclusive future.
“The international collaboration between leading business schools is crucial, as it enables the exchange of ideas and expertise that help shape solutions with global impact. We are proud to be part of this initiative and witness the incredible ideas shaping tomorrow.”
INNOVA Europe 2024 called for impactful projects that address the challenges of our time, with this year’s competition holding two startup categories: Young Hopes (ideation stage) and Rising Stars (startup stage).
Startups in the Young Hopes category were judged on their clarity of vision, ability to solve specific sustainability challenges and the singularity of their value proposition.
Whereas startups in the Rising Stars category were evaluated on progress, lessons learned, next steps and team members’ ability to illustrate their product’s viability and market readiness.
This year’s edition of INNOVA Europa brought together more schools, challenging students and recent graduates to use their entrepreneurial thinking to solve some of the planet’s biggest challenges.
Tommaso Agasisti, Associate Dean for Internationalisation at POLIMI Graduate School of Management, which hosted INNOVA Europe last year, is pleased with the event’s growth, with six more business schools participating this year: Finland’s Aalto University, Ireland’s UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Switzerland’s ETH Zürich, Poland’s Kozminski University, Spain’s IE Business School, and KSE Graduate School of Business in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Agasti notes that the boost in schools participating reflects the tremendous interest and enthusiasm for this initiative.
“It’s inspiring to witness the dedication of students and young entrepreneurs in applying their skills to make a meaningful impact.”
More than 120 students, alumni, professors and professionals participated - with a myriad of startups from across industries and sectors throwing their hat into the ring to showcase their ideas.
SCRAPS was EDHEC Business School’s Young Hopes offering this year, founded by EDHEC alum Beanie Reis along with Matilda Mingates.
SCRAPS connects skilled seamstresses and trades people with customers looking to regenerate or create new clothing items out of worn-out clothing that might have been thrown away otherwise.
“There are not many startups focussed on fashion, and that is because the fashion business works very differently,” says Reis. “What [SCRAPS] aims to value is the craft behind fashion, and to get back to the roots and degrowth the way fashion works right now.”
SCRAPS is their answer to the environmental ravages of fast fashion while also creating work for skilled craftsmen.
“Awareness of the social impact of the fashion industry has been growing within recent years, and with creativity, especially in our generation, research has found that customisable and one-of-a-kind experiences are what our generation are looking for,” says Reis.
“We want to be unique and create our own thing; fashion as it is today doesn’t really allow the consumer to play with those design options.”
Mingates adds: “And their identity as well.”
SCRAPS prides itself as a collaborative hub that empowers users & designers to co-create upcycled pieces, tackling fashion consumerism by re-establishing an emotional connection to our garments.
But it isn’t just the transferring of skills that make SCRAPS more sustainable, the business also sees the power in the transferring of knowledge across generations, keeping these traditional skills of renewing and regenerating clothing alive for generations to come.
“We believe that connecting generations can be a shared benefit of our startup. We are able to connect those older workers and preserve the craft and connect them with younger generations,” explains Reis.
Startups destined to change the world
There is a buzz in competitions like INNOVA Europe. You can feel ideas brewing, with the cogs of young and seasoned entrepreneurs whirring about the ideas in front of them - and the future ideas they may have.
Reduco (ESMT Berlin) was this year’s Young Hopes category winner, taking home €5,000 in prize money to help make their startup dream a reality.
Founded by students Caroline Baltrusch and Hendrik Stotz, Reduco is a SaaS platform providing energy efficiency strategies for property owners and managers in order to reduce building CO2 emissions and utility costs.
Judges note: “Your solution for energy-efficient buildings stood out for its impact, clarity, teamwork, and scalability. Energy efficiency is critical, and your solution is timely and necessary.”
Aalto University also won an honourable mention for their Young Hopes entry, Krishi Krate, which cuts down on food waste in South Asia by providing cost effective cooling crates to transport food along the supply chain.
However, Solar Optic, a technology that concentrates sunlight on a lens, guiding it indoors through the use of polymer optic cables, cutting 80 percent of electricity usage during daylight hours was the grand prize winner in the Rising Stars category, with the team walking away with €20,000 in prize money and a year of free incubation services at one of the nine participating schools.
Founded by Mariia Alipatova, Programme Lead for Startup Ecosystem at the Kyiv School of Economics, judges praised Solar Optic for its “simple and elegant solution, innovative approach, and potential for massive impact.”
Only two other companies currently manufacture similar systems, targeted to more complicated spaces such as offices, schools and high-end apartments, with their systems costing about €80,000.
Solar Optic’s smaller, proprietary model costs about $1,500, and if Solar Optic was able to illuminate 100 average-sized warehouses in Europe, this would cut more than 6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and 7,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
When accepting her award, Alipatova told the crowd: “Now, I feel more responsible than ever, because I’m holding a key for a sustainable and energy efficient Europe.
“Thank you for the trust from INNOVA. Thank you for my team, and for the whole team of Kyiv School of Economics. Let’s illuminate Europe together.”