The first ever INVEST Entrepreneurship Program pitching event was held successfully on December 13th 2022. In the event, teams representing different INVEST Alliance universities and who had passed the preselection process presented their business ideas and answered questions from the jury. The teams who presented had been selected based on a total of 14 applications submitted by the deadline.

As a result of the pitching event, a total of five teams representing three INVEST partner universities (HVHL, SUA and Karelia UAS) were invited to join the program. The selected teams represent a wide variety of business ideas:

  • New distribution and sales solution for local products, team led by Wajeeha Mabood Shah
  • Plant growing solution for homes and businesses, team led by Minna Ylönen
  • Puffy4U - New brand of textile handicraft products, team led by Kristína Bednárová
  • A localized food delivery solution for families, team led by Rastislav Polak
  • Eco Nutrition - A solution for converting food waste in to animal feed and fertilizers, team led by Yasho Sapkal

The coaching process for each team is planned to begin in January and will last until May 2023. The coaching process will utilize the unique competence and expertise embedded in the INVEST community. This will be done by recruiting subject-matter experts from different universities as assistant coaches and by making certain parts of the coaching open for students and broader INVEST community. The end goal of the process is to help the startup teams to move to the next stage in their starting up process.


Additional information:
SUA, Ondrej Beňuš: ondrej.benus@uniag.sk
Karelia UAS, Heikki Immonen: heikki.immonen@karelia.fi
HVHL, Jitse Schaafsma: jitse.schaafsma@hvhl.nl