Quick background on Five Seasons Ventures… This Paris-based VC focused on foodtech can only be described as prescient. With the breakout success of companies like Beyond Meat (which had the most successful IPO since the 2008 recession), it seems everyone has wanted a piece of the sizzling foodtech scene in the past six months. Three years ago, the founders of Five... Continue Reading →
Quick background on BlaBlaCar… Before INSEAD had officially adopted the slogan "Force for Good", Frédéric Mazzella and Nicolas Brusson were wandering the storied of halls of our school's Fontainebleau campus scheming how to launch a transportation solution that was at once more efficient, convenient and connected. The two went on to launch BlaBlaCar, a global... Continue Reading →
Paris: city of love, light.. and now "startup nation". Indeed, the innovation scene in France's capital is quickly proving itself to be more buzzworthy than fashion week. A decade ago, the French government established a new business status making it simpler for startups to register ("the auto-entrepreneur"), and more financially appealing for startups to do... Continue Reading →
Quick background on Shiok Meats… Shiok (“delicious and fantastic” in Malay/Singapore slang) Meats is taking on the global shellfish industry (shrimp, lobster, crab)… one petri-dish at a time. The startup – founded a mere 11 months ago – is the first cell-based food company in Singapore. With Singapore’s pledge to raise domestic food production from 10... Continue Reading →
The team FTS joined Modefabriek, an inspiring fashion trade event based in Amsterdam where several fashion brands and professionals join in a setting where “P2P (People to People) is valued above B2B. We found an exciting mix of brands, from well-known labels to new designers reflecting the current fashion scene and in our pursuit of... Continue Reading →
Over the past few years, we’ve heard a lot about how Open Banking will transform the financial industry and help improve products for consumers. How can open APIs enable third-party developers to build services and apps around financial institutions that help users? The Open Banking space consists of three main parts: access to transaction data,... Continue Reading →
Quick background on Impossible… Impossible is redefining how we make meat: without animals. If you think about it, meat is really just the product of several key components: water, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates – including key vitamins, amino acids, minerals and iron. And all these can be sourced directly from plants (including “heme”, that critical ingredient... Continue Reading →
If you ask anyone whether they want to buy sustainable fashion - or sustainable products for that matter - the answer will most likely be "Yes!". However, how does this look like in practice? Personally, we find ourselves talking about sustainability a lot and then end up buying from a range of brands (that might... Continue Reading →
INSEAD SUMMER STARTUP TOUR 