Entrepreneurship
OUR PROGRAMS
Annual
funding
target
500 K€
Encourage, support and accompany student and graduate entrepreneurs
With the vocation of training true “entrepreneurial engineers”, CentraleSupélec offers its students an ecosystem of rare quality to innovate and undertake, encouraged and supported by the Foundation thanks to all its donors.
The Foundation, driving force behind the creation of the 21ST by CentraleSupélec program
While the Foundation contributes to the development of the School’s major projects,
it also often helps to initiate them. The 21ST by CentraleSupélec program is a perfect illustration.
Created in 2021 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the CentraleSupélec incubator and to give it a new dimension, this new program is intended to be a real push for CentraleSupélec students, doctoral candidates and graduates who are bringing breakthrough innovations that address the major challenges of the 21st century.
A team built thanks to the Foundation
To launch this program, which brings together the entire ecosystem of the School to innovate and undertake, it was necessary to start by creating a dedicated team. The Foundation’s funding enabled the recruitment of the management team:
Rodolphe Rosier
Deputy Director
of Entrepreneurship
This team has now grown, the program has been structured and now supports about a hundred startups each year, at all stages of their development and up to their change of scale, by offering them :
3 incubation sites
3 incubation sites
> Station F in the heart of Paris for more digital projects
> The Cave, on the Rennes campus, particularly suited to startups specializing in cybersecurity, IOT or AI
An excellent support
An excellent support
> Double mentoring by a CentraleSupélec professor and entrepreneur
> A connection to the network of 45,000 CentraleSupélec alumni and a link to Tech & Deeptech investors
Cutting-edge equipment
Cutting-edge equipment
> The AI Hub, a unique entry point for AI and Data Science
> The virtual and augmented reality laboratory in Rennes
> Le Repaire, a place dedicated to entrepreneurs in Paris-Saclay
Today: a multidimensional support
The CentraleSupélec Foundation supports 21ST through :
- The awarding of a dozen grants to support entrepreneurship each year
- Honorary loans to startups of up to €90K
- Funding for mentoring programs
- The purchase of equipment for the School’s incubators and fablabs
- Funding to create new spaces like the AI Hub or Le Repaire
Le Repaire
Inaugurated in September 2021, this new location in the Bouygues building on the Paris-Saclay campus was entirely funded by the Foundation. A large convivial space, it allows the School’s entrepreneurs to meet and organize events.
In 2022, it will be enriched with 1,500 m2 of office space for startups in the scale-up phase, installed in the Bréguet building.
And tomorrow...
The CentraleSupélec Foundation wishes to go even further by creating an equity investment fund that will allow it, thanks to your donations, to invest up to 2 to 3% of the capital in the School’s startups.
This investment will represent a significant investment for startups in the scale-up phase, and may generate new revenues for the Foundation.
Domnin de Kerdaniel (ECP 1991),
Foundation donor
and member of the
21ST Selection Committee
Entrepreneur support grants
Each year, during two sessions in February and June and in November, the Foundation awards scholarships to students of the School with innovative and promising projects.
At the last session in February 2022, the Foundation awarded five new laureates from the engineering program or the MS Entrepreneurship program co-sponsored with ESSEC.
Emobot
An empathetic social robot to fight the digital divide and the isolation of the elderly.
Congratulations to Tanel Petelot!
QuanTIM
A solution to help doctors better characterize cancer by providing them with image processing tools currently reserved for the research world.
Congratulations to André Guerassimov !
Sonar Vision
A GPS with 3D sound for the visually impaired.
Congratulations to Nathan Daix !
Redivie
A tailor-made second-hand service to transform the fashion industry into a circular economy.
Congratulations to Paola Grès !
DrugOptimal
The first automated drug incompatibility detection software (IPC), which revolutionizes the hospital care process.
Congratulations to Lugan Flacher !
The Start-Up Week
The School has set itself the goal of reaching 10% of entrepreneurs among its student-engineers.
To raise awareness among all students from the first grade onwards and to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, the Foundation supports Start-Up Week, which takes place every year in February.
4 days to create an entrepreneurial project: this is the challenge launched to all 1st year engineering students through this event. On the basis of a project chosen beforehand and in the continuity of their business management course, everyone is divided into teams of 3 and accompanied by professionals to define their project, carry out their market study, build a business plan, learn the technique of the pitch … and convince the jury that will reward the best projects!
At the end of the event, 35 students will be able to join the CentraleSupélec Entrepreneurs program and create their own company from the first year, benefiting from specific pedagogical arrangements and content, while still integrating the elements of the general curriculum.
You too
can support
our student and graduate
entrepreneurs!
In 2020, the CentraleSupélec Foundation devoted €315,000 to supporting student and graduate entrepreneurs, and to all of the programs developed by the School to encourage and support the entrepreneurial spirit among students. Let’s go further together!
