HEC Alumni Ventures hosts joint pitch night with Imperial College Business School

For the first time ever, HEC Alumni Ventures and Imperial College Business School held a joint pitch night on June 21st at the London-based school for six promising startups.

The competition involved six handpicked startups from HEC Paris and Imperial College Business School, all of which pushed their business ideas to a committee of professional investors. The six teams – half of which were from HEC Paris – pitched during a ten-minute presentation. They unveiled concepts ranging from devices to monitor your health, to a virtual travel agent that suggests trips via your phone. 

Some 65 Alumni attended the session including current students and investors from both schools. This provided an excellent networking opportunity for graduates and participants with a shared interest in entrepreneurship. Ultimately, it was the audience who had the final say, with a vote deciding the victors.

The eventual winner of the event was the Imperial College startup Ideabatic whose specialized portable refrigerators aim at preventing vaccines from spoiling during transportation. Kitty Liao from Ideabatic said: “We will keep working hard towards reaching every child no matter how difficult the last-mile vaccine delivery journey is.” 

As a prize, the Ideabatic team won a one-hour mentoring session with each jury member to hone their business models and propel their startups forward.

The jury consisted of Kevin Montserrat, Marketing Manager at Microsoft Ventures; Anna Boffetta, Early Stage Investor at Balderton Capital; Maulik Sailor, CEO and Founder of Innovify; and Thomas Terdjman, European Director of Tekton Ventures.

The startup ideas included:

• Ledger Investing: The world's first investing marketplace for insurance. 
• CortiCare: A smart personal care device for salivary diagnostics to quantify and track hormonal levels. 
• Destygo: A personalized travel concierge which uses artificial intelligence to naturally interact with travelers and offer travel suggestions.
• Seaver: Connected objects disrupting the horse equipment market and redesigning horse training.
• FitCat: A community, a device and an app that keeps your cat in top condition.