Grand Final: Winners 2023!
On the 21st of September, the Grand Finale of the 2nd Edition of Erasmus University Challenge took place at the Excelsior Stadium and it was bigger than ever. Adding to the existing categories of Ideation and Prototyping was a new Start Up Category, for more established ventures. This year’s competition saw a record number of 74 teams participating, bringing a focus on logistics, energy transition and making societal impact.
Rerun were announced as winners of the Ideation category. Habbi won the Prototype award and for the first time Playfool won the Start-Up award. As Ed Brinksma, President of Erasmus University, said “The finale was a great showcase of our vibrant student entrepreneurial community. All of the 15 finalists presented innovative forward-thinking ideas and I am looking forward to seeing the impact they make.” Other winners included The Audience Award of €1000, voted for live and won by Accuselect. The category winners were awarded cash; Ideation won €3000, Prototype €4000 and Startup €5000.
The 2023 Erasmus University Challenge has been a huge success. For the winners, they have the chance to make an international impact at Berlin’s Stage TWO competition!
This year with double the participants and double the entrepreneurial fun of the 1st edition, it has been a clear demonstration of how bright the future of innovation is.
Workshop: How to pitch & how to get funded? Erasmus University Challenge!
In April the student-teams kicked off with ideas, prototype’s and business plans; now it is time to apply everything they have learned into practice and show you how far they have come. On the event of 7 September there will be two workshops: How to pitch & How to get funded. After, the finalists will be announced and of course we will close the event with celebrations, drinks and pizza!
During the - How to pitch workshop - the coaches get the chance to listen to the pitches from the present teams, after which they can give feedback and help them fine tune their pitch-deck. With their help, if announced as a finalist, they will be ready for pitching to the audience and expert jury during the Grand Final on the 21st of September.
Speeddate event: Erasmus University Challenge!
Since we kicked off in April the teams have been working hard on their ideas, prototypes, business plans and pitches. To validate the progress, they were connected with matching coaches during the Speed Date Event on the 23rd of May. While speed-dating, they were able to pitch their ideas, exchange ideas and gain overall feedback from our valued partners.
Hosted at the beautiful Erasmus University College, Matthew Harvey, Managing Director Erasmus University College, gave an amazing welcome to our students and guests. Afterwards, Oscar van Veen, Director of Innovation at the Port of Rotterdam, told his inspirational story and motivated the teams with his expertise. We ended the successful event with network drinks and some entrepreneurial fun.
What is next?
We will host a prototyping workshop at Yes!Delft on the 13th of June, after that we will focus on the ‘How to pitch’ & ‘How to get funded’ workshop, during which the finalists will be announced!
Why should you participate?
Showcase your idea or startup and let your entrepreneurial journey begin!
Connect and interact with the network and attend workshops and fun events.
Grow both your idea or startup and yourself personally.
Achieve new insights, skills, connection and various prizes!
Business cases get inspired and help partners with their challenges.
Career and internship opportunities with our partner network.
Prizes
Start-up Award
€5.000,-
Prototyping Award
€4.000,-
Ideation Award
€3.000,-
Besides these prizes you can win the audience award (€1000,-) and many more such as co-working spaces, professional coaching to support further developing your idea and a year of free drinks!
Timeline Erasmus University Challenge
Journey Rotterdam - Delft
Kick-off Event
Workshop Idea Validation
Speed Date Event
Workshop Prototyping
Final Workshop
Grand Finale
Kick-off Event
Workshop Idea Validation
Speed Date Event
Workshop Prototyping
Final Workshop
Grand Finale
Stage Two: A huge success
By winning the Prototpying Award during the Grand Finale of the Erasmus University Challenge 2022, team OASYS NOW won entry tickets for the Stage Two pan-European competition for the best startups spinning out of leading universities. Together with Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship they travelled to Berlin and went for the win! They proved themselves once more to be indeed one of the best startups - by winning 100,000 euros from venture capital giant Earlybird Venture Capital, to build their ethical DNA database! A huge success for OASYS NOW.
It’s a wrap for the first Erasmus University Challenge!
WOW! We are still buzzing from the energy in the Excelsior Stadium on September 15th. Thank you to everyone involved - especially to all participants and finalists as well as partners, coaches, jury members and of course the amazing crowd!
CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the category awards of the Erasmus University Challenge 2022: Minus & CO (Ideation) and OASYS NOW (Prototyping). VECTOR platform got the recognition of the audience in the form of the Audience Award – congrats! We also want to thank Shell for awarding team Minus & CO with the Energy Transition Award.
Last but not least, we want to thank the Erasmus University and Erasmus Enterprise for all of their hard work and dedication during the entire time.
In the past months, we went from 35 inspiring projects, to eight amazing finalists. We appreciate that so many students participated with their brilliant and innovative ideas - without your bright minds and ideas, there is no Erasmus University Challenge. We look forward to seeing you grow and wish you all the best in the future!
News
Partners of the Erasmus University Challenge
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