EDHEC start-up Dooda wins the Innova Europe competition
Supported by EDHEC Business School on the School’s Jean-Arnault entrepreneurial campus, Dooda – a start-up specialising in insect-based food products and fertilisers – won the final of the Innova Europe competition in Milan on 15 June. This responsible entrepreneurship competition is organised by EDHEC Business School, Polimi Graduate School of Management and ESMT Berlin.
To prepare for the final, the start-up’s founders (Aziz Kaouech, EDHEC 2018, Ali Abassi and Omar Louzir) enjoyed six months of support from EDHEC Entrepreneurs, the entity grouping together EDHEC’s three start-up incubators. “The customised support programme notably included individual coaching sessions on a fortnightly basis”, explains Robin Roublique, Start-Up Programme Manager at EDHEC Entrepreneurs. “We worked together to develop their prototype and to build their pitch. In addition to this close-knit assistance, we put them into contact with experts in our ecosystem in order to help them with their legal issues and financing strategies.”
This lengthy work enabled Dooda to better structure its business and to present a completed project to the jury, particularly regarding the “responsible” aspects that form the basis of its business model. To this end, Dooda’s objectives are notably to fight food insecurity and to improve human health and well-being, while also mitigating the effects of climate change through sustainable agricultural production (low greenhouse gas emissions, limited water and resource consumption, minimal land use).
Following their victory, the founders are due to receive €5,000 in prize money and can choose an incubator run by one of the competition’s partner schools on which to further develop their project for a year.
