Three early-stage ventures tackling challenges in food, manufacturing and artificial intelligence receive funding and tailored support to turn their ideas into viable businesses.
What do a reinvented bouillon cube, manufacturing expertise and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) use have in common? They are the starting points for three ventures selected as winners of the 2026 Blue Factory Innovation Prize.
Organised by Blue Factory, ESCP's incubator, in partnership with AGORA ESCP Student Union and ESCP Foundation, the annual competition supports early-stage startups founded by ESCP students and recent alumni.
This year's winners are LOBO, Efestos and SafeSpace AI. Together, they receive €16,000 in funding from ESCP Foundation, alongside tailored support from Blue Factory to help them develop their businesses.
LOBO: rethinking what food waste can become
MARTIN KÄSSER, CLEMENS FRIESE, and FLORA MOLIN-DESWARTE
Food production generates valuable side streams and surplus ingredients. The founders of LOBO saw an opportunity to think differently about what happens to them.
Their venture is developing cooking ingredients from high-quality circular raw materials, starting with a reinvention of the traditional bouillon cube. The aim is to combine convenience with ingredients and flavours that make people want to cook.
“We believe food waste is not only a waste problem, it is a design and perception problem,” the LOBO team explains. “Convenience should not mean compromising on the joy of cooking.”
LOBO received €8,000 and six months of Blue Factory support. For a team currently bootstrapping the business, the financial backing comes at an important early stage.
Their experience developing LOBO has also reinforced the value of testing ideas outside the confines of a business plan.
“You can spend months discussing positioning, business models or product concepts, but putting a real product into someone's hands can teach you more in hours than weeks of internal discussion,” the founders say.
The team credits its experience at ESCP with encouraging an international approach to problem-solving, as well as providing exposure to sustainability, circularity and innovation. Its longer-term ambition is to expand beyond its first product and demonstrate the commercial potential of circular food products at scale.
Efestos: keeping manufacturing knowledge in the business
ANNA BERTOLI and LUDOVICO LA TORA
When experienced employees retire or leave a company, specialist knowledge acquired over many years can leave with them.
Efestos is addressing this knowledge-continuity challenge in manufacturing sales. The venture aims to capture employees' expertise so that manufacturers can retain valuable know-how and speed up their quotation processes.
For Bertoli, developing the business has underlined the importance of understanding customers closely.
“We need to understand our customers as deeply as possible, focus on their needs and acquire new clients fast,” she says.
Efestos received €4,000 and three months of Blue Factory support. Bertoli plans to use the prize to accelerate the company's incorporation and prepare for the product's official launch.
“We're really grateful and proud to win the Prize because it shows recognition of our mission and real support from ESCP,” she says. “The Prize will speed up our incorporation process so that we will soon be ready to officially launch our product.”
She also hopes Blue Factory's expertise and network will help the team navigate questions that emerge as the business develops.
Bertoli sees a connection between entrepreneurship and her own ESCP experience.
“ESCP requires a lot of ownership, dedication and a strong work ethic. That's key to being a founder and will be fundamental for my future career.”
SafeSpace AI: helping businesses govern AI use
VLAD STANESCU, ANDI APARASCHIVEI and STEFAN DUMITRU
Generative AI tools have rapidly entered everyday working life. But when employees use tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Mistral, they can inadvertently enter personal, financial or confidential company information.
That concern prompted the creation of SafeSpace AI. The venture is developing what Stanescu describes as a “Sovereign AI Governance” solution to help European companies use AI securely while retaining greater control over their information and how the technology is deployed.
“Winning the Innovation Prize means a validation of our business idea, and it gives us the confidence to go further,” says Stanescu.
SafeSpace AI received €4,000 and three months of Blue Factory support. Stanescu hopes the combination of funding, expertise and access to networks will help move the venture from concept towards an operational, scalable business.
His experience on ESCP's Executive MBA (EMBA) has played a role in that process.
“The ESCP EMBA has provided me with the essential tools and frameworks to transition SafeSpace AI from a concept into a viable business solution,” he says. He also hopes to draw on relationships developed at ESCP as the company seeks to connect with enterprise clients.
One lesson stands out from the venture's early development: “A good idea alone is not enough and it must be backed by strong execution.”
Supporting entrepreneurship across the ESCP community
Although the three winning ventures address very different challenges, each is confronting a question familiar to early-stage entrepreneurs: how do you move from a promising idea to something that works in practice?
The Blue Factory Innovation Prize is designed for projects at this point in their development. Eligible startups are founded by ESCP students or recent alumni and are typically at prototype or early-concept stage.
Finalists have the opportunity to pitch their projects to a jury bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, ESCP Foundation donors and industry professionals.
Winners receive financial support alongside tailored coaching, expertise and access to Blue Factory's entrepreneurial network.
This year, ESCP Foundation donors Nathalie Balla, Eric Courteille and Cyril Rocke also volunteered their time and expertise as members of the jury, contributing directly to the selection and encouragement of the participating entrepreneurs.
Relevant link
Campuses