Get €5,000 and Fully Funded to France | Med’Innovant Africa Innovative Solutions Competition for African Entrepreneurs 2019

Application Deadline: September 30th 2019

The MED’INNOVANT AFRICA competition is organised by the urban development agency Euroméditerranée, the largest city-centre urban renewal and economic development operation in Southern Europe.For over 20 years, Euroméditerranée has been designing, developing and building a comprehensive model for the sustainable Mediterranean city. Over an area of 480 hectares right in the centre of Marseille, France’s second city, the development programme brings together public services, retail, housing, transport and parking infrastructures, public parks and more to create a new way of ‘living together’.

To support its ambitious plans, Euroméditerranée looked to innovative companies outside its own borders and over seven years ago created MED’INNOVANT, an innovative solutions competition to meet urban sustainable development needs in the Mediterranean region.

In 2018, Euroméditerranée opened up the competition to international entrepreneurs, in particular looking to that side of the African continent which has historic links with the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis. From among more than 50 applications from African entrepreneurs received and appraised, a jury’s favourite award was presented to a start-up based in Chad.

Impressed by the African tech sector’s interest in the Smart City, this year Euroméditerranée is launching a MED’INNOVANT competition exclusively for African innovators. The purpose of this innovation contest is to identify, promote and accelerate to the next level project developers(start-ups, small and medium enterprises) looking to bring to market innovations (solutions and services) that are in line with the objectives of the Mediterranean and African sustainable city and can be implemented in Euroméditerranée’s catchment area.  

The aims of this competition are to:

• Unearth exciting African innovators with the capacity to test out their innovative solutions in the Euroméditerranée Ecocity;

• Set up these start-ups in Euroméditerranée’s catchment area in view of increasing their market share in Europe;

• Attract contractors, SMEs and European groups looking to develop their business in Africa.

Requirements:

MED’INNOVANT AFRICA is a competition open to African project developers (start-ups, small and medium enterprises) showing strong growth which have developed aninnovative solutionfor a need or issue facing the Mediterranean and African Smart City.

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The competition is reserved for legal persons (start-ups, SMEs) with a head office in Africaand legal persons (start-ups, SMEs) incubated in France but with a head office in Africa.
Benefits:
Two MED’INNOVANT AFRICA 2019 awards will be presented: -1 Jury Award- 1 Jury’s Favourite Award
• €5,000 of funding;• A 5-minute pitch during the MED’INNOVANT AFRICA Awards ceremony as part of the 3rd EMERGING VALLEY summit;
• A test ground for trying out and demonstrating the innovative solution: the Euroméditerranée Ecocity (480 hectares within the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 14th and 15tharrondissements of Marseille);
• A two-hour working session with Euroméditerranée’s CEO to determine the terms and conditions for implementing the award-winning solution within the Euroméditerranée EcoCity’s catchment area;
• A three-week soft landing programme at Accélérateur.M located in the CISAM (Innovation & Knowledge Centre), Aix-Marseille University;
• Legal support from solicitors firm FIDAL equivalent to 4 hours to be used within 6 months from the awards ceremony (intellectual property, information technology, distribution and corporate law);
• Business meetings organised by the regional development agency Provence Promotion;
• A personal tour of the Euroméditerranée catchmentarea with a representative of the development agency in view of assessing the potential scope of application for the award-winning innovation;
• Visibility (press communications, social media, websites, trade fairs, etc.);
• Avideo interview with the winner presenting their innovation, to be broadcast on the Euroméditerranée YouTube channel.
• A 5-minute pitch during the MED’INNOVANT AFRICA Awards ceremony as part of the 3rdEMERGING VALLEY summit;
• A one-hour working session with Euroméditerranée’s CEO to determine the terms and conditions for implementing the award-winning solution within the Euroméditerranée EcoCity’s catchment area;
• A three-week soft landing programme at Accélérateur.Mlocated in the CISAM (Innovation & Knowledge Centre), Aix-Marseille University;
• Legal support from solicitors firm FIDAL equivalent to 2 hours to be used within 6 months from the awards ceremony (intellectual property, information technology, distribution and corporate law);
• Visibility (press communications, social media, websites, trade fairs, etc.);
• A video interview with the winner presenting their innovation, to be broadcast on the Euroméditerranée YouTube channel.Reward for the ‘jury PRIZE’reward for the ‘jURY’s favourite PRIZE’  

Themes
Using digital technologies to enhance urban living:
• Digital urban services, smartphone apps and other tools
• Contactless and connected objects

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Making the city a pleasant, welcoming place to live:
• Personal or collective equipment for homes and places of work that improves lives and well-being
• Services or equipment that enhance public spaces, strengthen the community and make people and property safer
• Urban social and community innovation initiatives
Making the city greener and cleaner:
• Design solutions to shrink the city’s environmental footprint (energy, water, waste, space)
• Urban management and cost-cutting systems or equipment 

Timeline:
1 July to 30 September:Applicants to send their applications to euromediterranée.fr/medinnovantafrica
• 1 to 18 October:Long-listing of 15-20 applications by the technical committee
• 22 to 24 October: Short-listing of 4-5 applications
• 4 – 5 December:Interviewing of short-listed applicants and presentation of awards to the two winners at the Emerging Valley 2019 Forum (**)
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Med’Innovant Africa 2019 Innovative Solutions Competition