Student entrepreneur event sees growth in Europe

Friday, 3 June 2016

Australia's premier student entrepreneur "investor ready" program, the University of Adelaide's Australian eChallenge, will further expand into Europe after a highly successful event in France.

The eChallenge will next move to Hungary, with Hungarian students able to showcase their innovation and entrepreneurial skills in the hopes of gaining invaluable commercial experience – and win a share of a total prize pool of more than AUD$90,000, including a trip to Microsoft's head office in Seattle valued at $20,000.

In partnership with local universities and business schools, the Australian eChallenge Hungary will be modelled on the highly successful event that has been run in Australia for the past 15 years by the University of Adelaide's Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC).

"Our eChallenge provides a competitive environment in which teams showcase their creative business ventures to a panel of experts and an invited audience. For students, this creates a unique, challenging and real-world learning experience that provides them with both personal and professional growth opportunities," says ECIC Director Professor Noel Lindsay.

The eChallenge event was held outside of Australia for the first time in France this year, with the finals of the Australian eChallenge France being staged in Paris just last week.

Student teams represented their home universities and business schools from the cities of Châlons-en-Champagne, Lyon, Nice, Paris, Strasbourg and Troyes. In total, 71 students across 21 teams competed in the Australian eChallenge France, with the winning teams earning more than $97,000 in prizes.

"We've been very impressed with how the eChallenge event has transferred so seamlessly from Australia to France, and with the calibre of the student teams. The success of this French event is something we expect to replicate in Hungary in 2017, and we will consider opportunities to further expand the competition in Europe," Professor Lindsay says.

The winning team from the Australian eChallenge France was GetMySpace (Yann Rousseau and Benjamin Saudreau, from Arts et Métiers ParisTech). Their business concept uses low-cost, trusted and independent agents to confirm that details of overseas accommodation match up to online advertising, offering peace of mind to students planning to leave their country on exchange before arriving at their planned destination.

The GetMySpace team has won prizes valued at more than $70,000. This includes $10,000 in cash and $50,000 of furnished office space and mentoring for one year at the University of Adelaide's ThincLab business incubator.

Second prize was won by PAC3M (from Universite de Technologie de Troyes), and third prize went to joint winners Paulion (EFAP Paris) and Mackal (IPAG Business School, Nice). Team Teedji (École Centrale de Lyon) won the Best App or Software Prize – a trip valued at $20,000 to Microsoft Head office in Seattle, to present to Microsoft executives.

Program dates and application details for the Australian eChallenge Hungary will be announced on the eChallenge website: www.adelaide.edu.au/echallenge

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