Responsible entrepreneurship, the driving force for the third edition of INNOVA Europe

On Friday 5 September 2025, the final of the third edition of the INNOVA Europe competition took place at ESMT in Berlin. The competition seeks to foster the emergence of responsible start-ups in Europe.

Created in 2023 by EDHEC Business School, POLIMI Graduate School of Management and ESMT Berlin, INNOVA Europe caters to all start-ups originating in the EDHEC ecosystem (students, alumni or entrepreneurs supported by one of the School’s incubators). In addition to the founding members, the competition is open to institutions like Aalto University (Finland), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), IE University (Spain), Kyiv School of Economics (Ukraine), London Business School (UK), Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands) and University College Dublin (Ireland). And each year, a school outside Europe is invited to take part in the competition. This year’s guest was SPJIMR, a business school located in Mumbai (India).

A double competition

INNOVA Europe sees the selected start-ups compete in two categories. The first, Young Hopes, singles out an entrepreneurial project that is still at the ideation stage. The second, Rising Stars, focuses on start-ups already in the development phase. All the projects in competition responded to the challenges set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), i.e. taking urgent action on climate change and its impacts, promoting gender equality and autonomy for women and girls, or ensuing good health and well-being at all ages.  

All told, 21 projects run by over 45 entrepreneurs were presented to the jury, in front of an audience of close to 120 spectators, comprising students, alumni and professors from the various schools, along with professionals. EDHEC chose two start-ups to represent it in the competition. Tricycle, a start-up specialising in the collection, recycling and re-use of professional waste, in Young Hopes category, and Abiliz, a car leasing service for people with reduced mobility, in the Rising Stars section.

Responsible Entrepreneurship Barometer: the first data

In addition to the competition, the day provided the opportunity to disclose the first results from the Responsible Entrepreneurship Barometer initiated by EDHEC in January 2025. During an exchange, Jonathan Moules, a journalist with the Financial Times, and Juliette Magnient, Programme Manager at EDHEC Entrepreneurs, presented some analyses of the 433 responses received from the European start-ups surveyed. The key figures mentioned notably underlined the now-widespread use of responsible practices in start-ups (93% of respondents) and the gradual introduction of metrics in order to measure these same practices (28% of respondents).  

The two prizewinners were announced at the end of the day. In Young Hopes category, Hovanka (Kyiv School of Economics) was singled out for an app devoted to managing mental well-being. The winning project picked up a €5,000 prize to help further develop this digital tool. And in the Rising Stars category, the winner was AcouBatt from London Business School. Using technology based on acoustic sensors coupled with machine learning, the start-up is able to “listen” to batteries in order to cut scrap rates and thus make large-scale production more sustainable. This innovation won the project €20,000 in prize money and a year’s free support on one of the founding members’ incubators.