Banque Populaire celebrates three innovative start-ups in the 3rd edition of the Next Innov Prize
At the prize-giving ceremony held on September 29 to award the 2020 Next Innov Prizes, Banque Populaire and Maddyness paid tribute to three B2B start-ups for the quality of their innovation and their extremely high growth potential thanks to their ability to boost company performance.
Leeway (legal solutions designed for SMEs), UMI (expertise in evaluating an innovation’s market potential), and Hubtobee (a platform dedicated to business travel) received 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes respectively. UMI also won the International award and the Special Public Prize after gathering 25.9% of the votes cast on the social networks.
The selection panel chaired this year by Olivier Mathiot, Vice-President of France Digital and president of The Camp, paid tribute to these three winners selected from the ten start-ups that made their pitches in July, themselves shortlisted from the more than 200 start-ups that entered for the prize.
“As the leading bank for SMEs for the past 10 years, Banque Populaire knows that innovation is a powerful growth driver. Innovation is a complex, sometimes risky, process but it is a source of future development. Next Innov, an initiative launched three years ago, responds to these specific issues thanks to its ecosystem of experts and partners," explained Sabine Calba, Head of Development at Banque Populaire.
In addition to the financial awards, the 2020 winners will be able to count on the support of Banque Populaire and its Next Innov program dedicated to innovative companies, start-ups or established SMEs in the form, for example, of coaching with Seventure, Groupe BPCE's venture capital subsidiary, or help with international expansion with Pramex, an international consulting firm and another Group BPCE subsidiary.
More information about the finalist start-ups and the Next Innov prize is available here
Photo caption: from left to right, the 3 award-winning start-ups: Hubtobee with Louis de Véron, Leeway with Antoine Fabre, and UMI with Julien Oger. Photo credit: Nicolas Tavernier.