A new Valeo Innovation Challenge to help students create a start-up

The three-part automobile revolution at the heart of the Valeo Innovation Challenge

The fifth annual Valeo Innovation Challenge demonstrates the Group’s commitment to encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives that will shape the car of the future. Leveraging its central role in the three part revolution that is disrupting the auto industry, Valeo is inviting students worldwide to pitch new solutions in one of three categories: powertrain electrification, autonomous vehicles and digital mobility.

As in previous years, teams must be made up of between two and five members and can include a teacher.

A boost for teams in the run up to the final

The structure of the contest is changing too, in a bid to encourage the students to adopt a start-up mindset.

During the first phase, the students will create their project and detail their start-up’s business model. At the end of this phase, experts from the world of entrepreneurship and Valeo will select nine finalists.

A new phase has been added to the contest: the nine finalist teams will receive additional support to help them develop their start-up, as if they were part of an accelerator program. The objective is to give the students the opportunity to share with professionals who can help them understand the automotive market, fine tune the technological content of their innovation and develop their business model and their pitch for the final.

In autumn 2018, the nine finalists will pitch their projects. The students will have five minutes to convince the jury using a video, a prototype, a demonstration, etc.

200,000 euros to share between the top three projects

Following the pitches, the jury – made up of Valeo executives and technology and business leaders – will choose the top three teams and split the 200,000 euro prize money between the winning start-up and the two runners up. In exchange, Valeo will take up a 5% interest in each of the start-ups.

Lastly, as an added bonus this year, the start-ups will be put in contact with investors and the best start-up accelerators in the world.

At the launch of the fifth Valeo Innovation Challenge, Jacques Aschenbroich, Valeo’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Over the last four years, we have met countless passionate and innovative students with whom our experts are still in contact today. We now want to step up our support to students across the world who want to make their idea a reality by creating a start-up that could end up being the technological gem of the future.”

This year, more than 5,000 students worldwide and 1,628 teams from 80 countries and 748 universities and higher education establishments took part in the fourth annual Valeo Innovation Challenge.