Imagine Fellows and Startup Launchpad team up to provide support for people living in exile in France

The HEC Imagine Fellows program has reached a new landmark by taking on a new mission: to provide people living in exile in France with the keys to boosting their own startups. Sumaia Sediqi, who moved to Strasbourg from Kabul in 2023, and Kateryna Holovatska, residing in Bordeaux after leaving Kyiv in 2022, had the opportunity to join the HEC Startup Launchpad from January to April 2025. This flagship program is designed to support students in creating and launching a startup in just 11 weeks. Here's a look back at an unprecedented initiative to promote inclusion and social impact.

"Having these two exceptional young women participate in the Startup Launchpad is a gift for us, but above all an amazing lesson in resilience. They learned as much from the program as we all drew inspiration from their strengths."

Agnès Tourneix, Imagine Fellows Project Manager

Created at the start of the 2022 academic year thanks to an exceptional donation from Adrien Nussenbaum (H.01), co-founder and co-CEO of Mirakl, but also patron of the Launchpad 2025 cohort, Imagine Fellows is based on the conviction that higher education and business can actively contribute to a more peaceful world. Initially, its aim was to support students from war-torn countries by offering them funding for their studies on our Jouy-en-Josas campus. To date, 15 talented young people have benefited from this scheme.

Fostering entrepreneurship and empowerment

To further the School's commitment to a safer world and share its entrepreneurial expertise more widely, Imagine Fellows and the Startup Launchpad decided to join forces to support people in exile (refugees, exiles, temporary protection, etc.) in France. It didn't take long to convince Guillaume le Dieu de Ville, its Executive Director and co-founder of Lingueo, and Sophie Rebouillat-Lesieur, Launchpad coordinator, to join this new adventure, both equally driven by the idea that inclusion comes through innovation and entrepreneurship.

"More than just a program, it was a transformation. As a student in the Launchpad program, I was surrounded by people with big ideas, creating startups, and doing everything that made me think,'Wait, am I even cool enough for this?'"

Kateryna Holovatska, Launchpad 2025 participante

Kateryna and Sumaia were very pleased to join a cohort of 148 students from HEC Paris, NYU and ESA Business School (Beirut), divided into 47 projects. Together, they went through all the emblematic stages that punctuated these 3 months at Station F and Jouy-en-Josas, including the various workshops, the design sprint, the trip to London and its Grand pitch night with Adrien Nussenbaum, etc.

Harrowing stories reflecting today's global realities

Before settling in Paris for three months, the two participants first had to be selected. They responded to the call for applications issued by Agnès Tourneix and Alexandre Commergnat, Associate Director for International Affairs at HEC, who manage the Imagine Fellows program on a daily basis.

To ensure the announcement reached the target audience, they issued the posting through multiple channels, the most effective of which was the network of associations across France.

All in all, they spoke with nearly twenty men and women in exile, each with a unique—and sometimes dramatic—story. Through these conversations, a recurring wish emerged: to play an active role in the future construction of their countries of origin (Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Togo, Bangladesh, etc.).

Kateryna studied tourism in Ukraine and then in Bordeaux, where she settled with her family after leaving Kyiv; she is now working on a tourism project for women. Sumaia, for her part, has launched an online store selling Afghan clothing and jewelry. She designs some of the jewelry herself, modernizing it by embedding precious stones. This project enables her to put several women in Afghanistan to work, and in turn contribute to their empowerment.

"This journey wasn’t just about building my startup. It was about reclaiming a voice, a future, and creating space for other Afghan women to do the same. Because while we are banned, we are not broken. We are still learning, resisting, and rising."

Sumaia Sediqi, Launchpad 2025 participante & founder of #DorAfghanistan

Support, commitment and teaching

Imagine Fellows has been growing steadily since its launch. In addition to financial support, the first pillar of the program, Agnès provides attentive day-to-day support. She also maintains very close ties with the HEC Imagine student club, which brings together the program's laureates, known as “Fellows”, and students who have joined the club. All are committed to being ambassadors for peace. In concrete terms, this means organizing events and conferences on campus, as well as taking part in major international events (International Women's Rights Day at the Eiffel Tower, Paris Peace Forum, Women's Forum, etc.). A third component, an academic one this time, has been set up for masters' students. Courses and an academy on “Business and Peace” and “Business and Human Rights” are now included in the course catalog.

In view of this highly positive outcome for all parties, the ambition for the next session is clear: to continue along this path and bring the benefits of HEC's entrepreneurial know-how to even more of these very distinctive profiles.