Politecnico di Milano team triumphs with its project at the Enactus National Competition Investor Day
Award
Thanks to the potential of the project and its innovative approach, the Politecnico di Milano team received recognition that will boost the startup's future development.
The National Competition (NC), held on the 16th and 17th of May, is the most important Enactus event, where university teams from major Italian universities compete with their startup projects to win the title of Champion.
This year, for the first time in the history of Enactus Italy, there was an Investor Day, a session dedicated to Enactus projects that want to enter the market in the short to medium term.
For this event, Enactus Italy and Wda - a venture building company with experience in business acceleration - selected 5 high-impact startups to present their business visions to a group of judges and investors.
Founded in the United States in 1975, Enactus is an international network active in 33 countries. Its mission is to develop leaders who use business as a tool for change, creating a positive social and environmental impact and supporting socially beneficial projects. The organisation provides an opportunity to showcase, evaluate and celebrate the efforts of teams within a global network, creating virtuous connections with like-minded individuals, industry experts and potential collaborators.
Among the five teams selected to present their projects, the Politecnico di Milano team won the prize awarded by Impatta4Equity during the Investor Day with the Oyster2Life project.
This project, coordinated by Alessia Boscarato, Giacomo Pistore, Isabelle Martin and Alice Bertozzi, has developed a new technique for processing oyster waste, transforming it into resources through a circular business model for the shells, and has won a cash prize aimed at the future development of the start-up.
The project's innovative approach to tackling environmental challenges demonstrated the potential of sustainable practices in unexpected sectors, earning the recognition and a cash prize for the startup's future development.
In 2023, Oyster2Life had already won the Enactus National Competition in Trento, winning the opportunity to represent Italy at the Enactus World Cup. On this occasion, the team stood out as the first Italian team in the history of Enactus Italy to reach the global semi-finals.
The project is part of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation, Learning-labs, and Entrepreneurship (SMILE) initiative, of which the Department of Management Engineering is a partner.
SMILE aims to build an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem at the European level, providing high-level solutions to global smart manufacturing challenges. The aim is to promote systemic institutional change, knowledge transfer, skills development and the adoption of the concept of open entrepreneurship at institutional level.
The Innovation Vision Action Plan (IVAP) includes a systemic approach with new interlinked actions for the success of the project. Participants learn from each other and identify the key knowledge to be shared in order to increase the overall entrepreneurial and innovative capacity of the network.
For more details about the Oyster2Life project: Oyster2Life on LinkedIn