Review of the 1st Blue Ocean Awards ceremony in Senegal on December 19, 2022 at the D-HUB in Dakar & Announcement of the winners
The ceremony of the 1st Blue Ocean Awards Senegal on December 19 at the D-HUB in Dakar is an initiative supported by the French Embassy in Senegal and the delegation for rapid entrepreneurship of women and youth. The 4 winners - African Puzzle, ART Pesoung, Logidoo and Nawali - were presented with their awards by : Mr. Mamadou NDIAYE, Director of Entrepreneurship Promotion of the DER/FJ, Mr. Régis DANTAUX, Counselor for Cooperation and Cultural Action at the French Embassy in Senegal, Mr. Habib MBAYE, President of the HEC Chapter in Senegal and former minister, Mrs. Néné DIALLO Co-founder of Munngano-Connectt, Mrs. Ndeye THIAW Managing Partner of Brightmorecapital, Mrs. Adama Faye TALL Head of Orange Startup Studio, Mr. Ousseynou SOKHNA President of AGEIS and Mr. Stéphane ALIX Partner of Finance Plus
The Blue Ocean Awards are directly inspired by the concept of Blue Ocean Strategy, derived from the work of Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne on value-based innovation. Since 2014, 9 out of 10 winners of the Blue Ocean Awards are financed within 6 months.
The ceremony and all the interviews and reactions of the participants are available in videos on this link
The four winning companies are:
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- Category BABY (company under 2 years old): African Puzzle, the productivity tool for the majority of workers, namely those who are not very literate
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- Category SOCIETAL (company with impact) : ART-PESOUNG, construction and sale of ecological toilets made of compressed earth bricks with methanization pits
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- Category MENTOR (company of more than 2 years) : NAWALI GROUP, accompaniment in the acquisition of real estate in Africa in complete security
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- MENTOR Category: LOGIDOO, a digital solution that makes it possible to transport parcels in Africa with complete peace of mind, which was offered a place at the HEC incubator at STATION F by the French Embassy and HEC Paris
Selected among a hundred applications, the 10 finalists have passed before a jury of international investors, they complete the podium: ApiAfrique [eco-friendly hygiene products and support programs for the well-being of women and babies], ALLO-VETO [remote access to veterinary services to keep your pets in perfect health 24/7], Archives Consulting Group [Archiving as a Service and Document Logistics that allows you to focus on your core business and save space], Kayfo Games [video game studio that designs and produces African mobile games], Ovavitech [manufacture of automatic solar egg incubators], Teralma [a solution that facilitates and digitalizes each step of the organization of ceremonies in Africa].
All the pictures of the event are available on this link
Operational since 2018, the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth has made the support of Senegalese nuggets, its raison d'être in particular through the Innovation Support Fund (ISF) which has funded 230 startups and trained 415 entrepreneurs via various tailored support programs. In the continuity of this dynamic, the DER/FJ is pleased to collaborate with the initiators of the Blue Ocean Awards and thus offer new opportunities to the pool of innovative startups in Senegal.
Dr Mame Aby Seye, Minister Delegate General
General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth (DER/FJ)
The French Embassy in Senegal is pleased to support the first international edition of the Blue Ocean Awards, a prestigious innovation competition initiated by INSEAD and HEC Paris. This edition is fully in line with our wish to support the development of the particularly dynamic innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Senegal. It is also a great opportunity to bring our respective ecosystems closer together.
Philippe Lalliot, Ambassador of France to Senegal and The Gambia
HEC Paris has supported the Blue Ocean Awards since their inception in 2014. Every year, we are happy to see our entrepreneurs highlighted for their ability to think outside the box and create new markets. I am thinking in particular of Agorize, Yogist, Advitam, Tarmac Technologies, Bird Office, Sillages Paris. We continue to develop our HEC Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center to support them. In addition, we are delighted that the Blue Ocean Awards are taking on a strong international dimension this year, with the launch of the first edition dedicated to Senegal, which is a logical step in the school's development on the African continent.
Philippe Oster, Director of International Affairs at HEC Paris
The promotion of entrepreneurship through our ecosystem of networking is one of the leitmotivs of MUNNGANO-CONNECTT. Having developed our business and networking network between France and Senegal, it is an honor for us to participate and contribute to the success of the first edition of the BOA in Senegal. It is a concept that has already proven its worth to startups in the French ecosystem and this opening to the international scene, especially in Senegal, only reinforces our mission to create synergies between different actors and ecosystems. The BOA will contribute to this dynamic, and it is with pleasure that we congratulate this initiative.
Fatimata Diaw, Co-Founder of Munngano-Connectt
I can do things you can't, you can do things I can't, but together we can do great things.
Néné Diallo, Co-Founder of Munngano-Connectt
It is a great honor for the Blue Ocean Awards to connect the innovation ecosystem of Senegal to our ecosystems developed in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon since 2014 and in South Africa in 2021, before adding India in 2023. Indeed, Senegal, like South Africa, is a land of innovation with a strong societal impact that values responsible and inclusive innovation, relying on a highly educated youth with an entrepreneurial spirit. The Blue Ocean Awards in Senegal were born from the unfailing support of the French Embassy in Senegal and the meeting between the DER and HEC Paris. Just as in South Africa in 2021, the Senegalese innovation fabric seems ready to support an ambitious program like BlueCity to build the inclusive City of Tomorrow.
Alban Eral, Founder of the Blue Ocean Awards and BlueCity
Press contact
Bertrand Espitalier
Director of Communications for the Blue Ocean Awards
+336 63 12 77 44
communication@blue-awards.com
About the Blue Ocean Awards
The Blue Ocean Awards were created in 2014 by Alban Eral, with HEC Paris and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Recovery. The Blue Ocean Awards are the only event in the world that rewards companies that have followed a strategy known as the Blue Ocean Strategy , which aims to create a new market away from the competition.
About HEC Paris
HEC Paris is a leading French business school in Europe whose ambition is to have a positive impact on business and society. Its Center of Expertise, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, contributes to making HEC Paris a benchmark institution in innovation and entrepreneurship. It supports the vocation of the innovators it trains and accompanies them in the development of their project. Its mission is to support and promote innovation - to produce and mobilize knowledge and methods for action - to enable potential - both individual and economic - to be revealed, expressed and realized. To develop with ambition, efficiency and impact! http://www.hec.edu/innovation-entrepreneurship-center
About the Association of Grandes Ecoles and Institutes of Senegal (AGEIS)
The Association of Grandes Ecoles and Institutes of Senegal (AGEIS), which brings together students from the following institutions: IST, ENSAE, ENSA, ESEA, IPSL, ISFAR, EPT, IUT and ESP born on Sunday, February 14, 2021 in the premises of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agriculture (ENSA), is a framework of exchange which will allow to remedy the problems encountered by the Grandes Ecoles and Institutes of Senegal.
Its objectives are to make students of member institutions aware of the opportunities of entrepreneurship, to promote interdisciplinarity by recommending that project leaders form teams with diverse profiles, to support students in the formalization and incubation of their projects, and to promote the Senegalese elite that these schools and institutes contain.
About Munganno-Connectt
In order to respond to the complexity of identifying actors, and to the growing needs of business relations with the African continent, Munganno-Connectt aims to create a community of economic agents (companies, shareholders, organizations, institutions, suppliers...) from different fields of activity, which pursue a common strategic vision and thus promote collaborations, synergies and information sharing.
