Student entrepreneurship: the 32 laureates of the Pépite Prize 2021

The award ceremony of the 8^th Pépite Prize was held on October 7. During the ceremony, the French minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, in cooperation with Bpifrance, bank of entrepreneurs and bank of innovation, took the opportunity to present the 32 winner projects.

These projects relate to the various categories of the contest, and are about fields such as the care towards others, the eco transition, support to professionals, lifestyles, the environment, cultures and “terroirs” (local alimentation and products). According to the minister Frédérique Vidal, these fields “confirm our determination regarding the engagement capacity of our young, and students in particular, before the major challenges of our time”.

The Pépite Prize was launched in 2014 with the official objective to acknowledge the commitment of young entrepreneurs and encourage and support the creation of companies by students and young graduates. The Prize recompenses the best innovative and creative projects from 33 Students Centres for innovation, transfer and entrepreneurship (acronym for “Pépite” in French) divided throughout the territory.

More and more student-entrepreneurs in France and worldwide

Since their creation, the Pépite prizes have supported nearly 21,000 project leaders under the French student-entrepreneur status, a steeply-growing number.

With this status, any student or young graduate can kickstart a project and benefit from support from the Pépite structure and its region.

For the follow-up of these projects, France is the first country to have implemented a national status of student-entrepreneur, whether for students during their students or young graduates. To be noted that the concept of the student-entrepreneur status was since implemented by other countries, says Bpifrance, such as: Belgium, Morocco, and Tunisia, and it is currently being released in Lebanon. And Bpifrance added that “more cooperations are being analysed towards the French-speaking world, in collaboration with the Francophonie University Association (FUA)”. And, in addition, the European Commission is also interested in spreading “this good practice in Europe”.

Audacity, creativity, courage and dedication

“If I am proud of the Pépite Prize laureates, and more generally of all student-entrepreneurs, it’s for what they stand for: the audacity, creativity, courage and dedication, which are critical values to build the France of tomorrow”. This is what the French minister of higher education said to present the laureates, those who “want to build a more inclusive society, those who support our health, who guide us in the ecological transition, who act for the environment”, and those who “add value to the heritage and terroir of their region”.

And the Minister also underlined that this year, the Pépite Prize 2021 shed the light on young entrepreneurs who “walked a peculiar road”. Indeed, they started their project “during the pandemic, and their follow-up by the Pépite network had to work with exceptional conditions”.

France Alumni’s finest

Among all the local laureates who competed for the National Prize, each jury identified the champion who received a 10,000 euro prize during an event which, according to the organisers, was a “rare opportunity to have a national look at a set of projects, carrying strong economic, social, ecological or cultural ambitions”.

Our favourites include:

- in the Taking care of others category (6 winners), the Primeparc project, a hiking backpack that reduces back pain!

- In the Ecological Transition category (5 winners), the Knit Surgery project, to make unique upcycled pieces from second-hand jumpers;

- in the Performance for Professionals category (6 winners), the NEO project to put mathematics at the service of mathematics students (and help them succeed)!

- in the Lifestyle category (5 winners), the Karbikes project, the electric bicycle with bodywork and two tandem seats;

- in the Environment category (5 winners), the ISTYA project which plans to install air quality sensors designed to monitor and raise awareness of indoor air quality;

- In the Culture and Terroirs category (5 winners), our favourite, the Tchoptime project, a platform for discovering the flavours of 54 African countries “through unique and colourful culinary stops of African dishes”!

To know more 

- Presentation of the ceremony 

- Press release of the event (with the full list of projects and laureates)

- The Pépite network

Photo credit: © MESRI