Mariia Alipatova, founder and CEO of Solar Optic, pitches in the Rising Stars category at the second INNOVA Europe competition last week in Paris. The competition, featuring nine European business schools, focuses on showcasing startups with impact.
Picture a typical warehouse in the middle of the day. No windows to let in the sunlight.
A European business owner was paying €20,000 a year to light his 1,000-square-meter warehouse. With rising carbon taxes and electricity costs set to triple his bill next year, he was faced with either firing workers or raising his prices.
Enter Solar Optic, a small Ukrainian, deep-tech startup founded by Mariia Alipatova, program lead for Startup Ecosystem at the Kyiv School of Economics. The technology concentrates sunlight on a lens and guides it indoors using polymer optic cables, cutting 80% of electricity usage during daylight hours. Only two other companies currently manufacture similar systems, targeted to more complicated spaces such as offices, schools, and high-end apartments. Their systems cost about €80,000.
Solar Optic’s smaller, proprietary model costs about $1,500. Illuminating 100 average-sized warehouses in Europe will cut more than 7,000 tons of CO2 emissions and 6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
“This amount of power would be enough to supply the city of Paris for one full day,” Alipatova told judges during her 3-minute pitch at the second annual INNOVA Europe competition last week (September 26) in Paris, France.
Nearly 120 students, alumni, professors, and business professionals representing nine leading European business schools converged on Paris’ acclaimed startup incubator STATION F for the competition. Event sponsors include BNP Paribas Company Engagement, BNP Paribas Wealth Management France, and BivwAk!
While there is no shortage of startup pitch competitions and challenges, INNOVA’s is unique in that it brings business schools together around impact.
“INNOVA Europe showcases how entrepreneurship can tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges,” said Roland Siegers, director of external engagement at ESMT Berlin, one of three founding member schools of the competition.
“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.”
DEPLOYING ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR THE PLANET’S BIGGEST CHALLENGES
INNOVA Europe was founded in 2022 by three top business schools: EDHEC Business School in France, POLIMI Graduate School of Management in Italy, and ESMT Berlin in Germany.
POLIMI hosted the first startup competition last year, inviting student and alumni founders to pitch innovative startup ideas focused on environmental transition, empowerment and inclusion, or healthy living. Beyond their business merits, ventures are judged on their alignment with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
STATION F in Paris is the largest incubator in the world housing more than 1,000 startups at a given time.
“Our conviction is that there’s a European way of doing business that’s different from creating a startup in Silicon Valley and it’s different from India or China,” Ludovic Cailluet, associate dean of EDHEC’s Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship, tells Poets&Quants.
“We believe there is a broader perspective on the responsibility of the executive leader, entrepreneur, and founder towards stakeholders and society at large.”
This idea of responsibility isn’t unique to Europe, of course. General management courses at Harvard Business School dating back to the 1920s emphasized the executive’s responsibility to society, not just fulfilling shareholders’ expectations. But the INNOVA competition focuses on startups that create value for society alongside creating business value.
This year, six more European business schools joined INNOVA for the second pitch competition: Aalto University in Finland, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in Ireland, ETH Zürich in Switzerland, Kozminski University in Poland, IE Business School in Spain, and KSE Graduate School of Business in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Founders hope to invite more countries and more schools in the future – maybe from India, or China, or the U.S. – while still showcasing the European business ethos.
Diners at STATION F’s La Felicita – a giant cafeteria-style restaurant with five kitchens and two bars.
THE STATION F DYNAMIC
EDHEC Business School won the first INNOVA competition last year with Dooda, a student startup producing insect-based animal food ingredients. EDHEC also served as the host school for 2024’s event. Despite having campuses in Lille, Nice, and Paris, France, – Edhec chose to host at STATION F, and it’s no wonder why.
STATION F bills itself as the largest startup campus in the world. Situated in a historic railway depot in Paris, it spans 34,000 square meters and houses more than 1,000 startups at a given time. You can feel the energy just walking through the front doors.
When the INNOVA founders arrived at STATION F on competition day, they were surrounded by hundreds of other founders actively building their own ventures. They could see meetings in progress through the glass walls of the rectangular pods that overhang the main floor. Founders lounged in bean bag chairs under the iconic Play Doh sculpture. They ate in groups in refurbished train cars and long communal tables at La Felicita – a giant cafeteria-style restaurant with five kitchens and two bars. And they huddled around work stations in mentorship hubs sponsored by innovative giants such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. Beyond the stamp of legitimacy STATION F provides, the incubator works with more than 500 venture capital funds, providing invaluable proximity to investors.
EDHEC is the second largest partner program at STATION F with 110 work stations nestled between the hubs for ESSEC Business School and Meta.
“I think, at the beginning of the journey, there are very few places where you can find the same dynamic as STATION F. When you innovate, by definition, you’re ahead of the market. You’re surrounded by people trying to change things. That’s super inspiring for us,” says Mehdi Gaieed, founder and CEO of WeatherMind, EDHEC’s Rising Star finalist for the INNOVA competition.
EDHEC’s workspace hub in STATION F’s creator space. The French business school is the second largest EDHEC is the second largest partner program at STATION F with 110 work stations.
WeatherMind is an AI-powered platform that automates the process for home insurance claims after natural disasters, helping customers get claims resolved and paid in a matter of days rather than months or years. The company has been working out of EDHEC’s STATION F hub and was named a STATION F Future 40 in 2023 – a recognition that calls out the most innovative startups at the incubator each year.
Just working at STATION F, Gaieed ran into or was introduced to people that helped WeatherMind through its initial fundraising push. He got tips on approaching and working with big organizations, like insurance companies, that he hopes to attract as customers.
“Because we were part of the Future 40, it gave us great visibility quite early in the venture. They’ve invested in the company, and we’re super grateful for that,” says Gaieed who earned his master’s in management at EDHEC.
AND THE WINNERS ARE …
To get to the STATION F stage, each INNOVA Europe team had to first win their school’s qualifying competitions and work through the school’s incubator and mentorship programs to prepare for the Grand Finale. Startups were judged in two categories, Young Hopes and Rising Stars.
Young Hopes is for startups in the ideation stage, evaluated for their clarity of vision, ability to solve specific sustainability challenges, and the singularity of their value proposition.
Scraps founders Beanie Reis along with Matilda Mingates give their 3-minute pitch at the INNOVA Europe competition at STATION F in Paris. Scraps was EDHEC’s Young Hopes entry.
EDHEC’s Young Hopes entry was a startup called Scraps, founded by EDHEC alum Beanie Reis along with Matilda Mingates. The company aims to connect skilled seamstresses and trades people with customers who want to refurbish or create new clothing items out of worn out clothing that might otherwise be thrown away. It’s their answer to the environmental ravages of fast fashion while also creating work for skilled craftsmen.
ESMT Berlin’s entry won the Young Hope Category and took home the €5,000 prize. Reduco, founded by students Caroline Baltrusch and Hendrik Stotz, is a SaaS platform providing energy efficiency strategies for property owners and managers in order to reduce building CO2 emissions and utility costs.
“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,” judges said of Reduco.
Aalto University also won an honorable mention for their Young Hopes entry, Krishi Krate. The venture cuts down on food waste in South Asia by providing cost effective cooling crates to transport food along the supply chain.
Rising Stars is for ventures actively in the startup stage. These are evaluated on progress, lessons learned, next steps, and team members’ ability to illustrate their product’s viability and market readiness.
In its win, judges praised Solar Optic for its “simple and elegant solution, innovative approach, and potential for massive impact.” Alipatova took home €20,000 to keep building her company, half which will be used on R&D, and the rest on certifications, marketing and customer acquisition. The company is now developing its first proof of concept deal in German warehouses.
Rising Stars winner Mariia Alipatova, founder and CEO of Solar Optic, poses with the team from Kyiv School of Economics and INNOVA Europe hosts and judges after winning the €20,000 grand prize.
For a fledgling venture like Solar Optic, the potential for impact extends beyond CO2 emissions. When the war in Ukraine ends, it will take young entrepreneurs like Alipatova and new businesses like Solar Optic to rebuild the country. And it will take business schools, like Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), to train these entrepreneurs and support their startups.
KSE’s tagline is now “world’s best educational opportunities to rebuild Ukraine,” and it created its Startup Ecosystem to support that mission.
“Now, I feel more responsible than ever, because I’m holding a key for the sustainable and energy efficient Europe,” Alipatova told the crowd upon accepting her award.
“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.”
DON’T MISS: EDHEC LAUNCHES €40 MILLION INVESTMENT FUND TO SUPPORT STARTUPS WITH IMPACT AND THE SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION: ISABELA DEL ALCÁZAR
