Saint Gobain Start-up competition for housing, energy, environment and cleantech companies

A mail sent by one of our contacts at Saint Gobain:

"Saint-Gobain, a leading manufacturer and distributor of construction products and innovative materials (having 38 B € sales in 2009) is organizing its third global Innovation Competition for start-up companies. Participating start-ups will compete to present their project to Saint-Gobain senior executives for the purpose of pitching a partnership with Saint-Gobain, a world top 100 industrial group. Furthermore, the winner will be rewarded 25 000€ and two runners-up will each receive 10 000€.

NOVA External Venturing, the Saint-Gobain team dedicated to establishing win-win partnerships with start-ups (25 partnerships signed since 2006), is inviting young companies offering innovative products, processes or services in the areas of housing, energy, environment and cleantech to participate.

There will be a pre-selection process and start-up finalists will pitch in front of Saint-Gobain executives during a speed dating session to present their project at the international building trade fair “BAU” in Munich, in January 2011. The NOVA team will work with the participating start-up companies and particularly the winners to assess the possibility of a commercial and/or technical partnership with Saint-Gobain (e.g. licensing, joint development, manufacturing, distribution agreements, minority equity investments). Such partnerships could help boost the start-ups’ development and growth.

If you are working with innovative start-up companies that may have interest to participate in this competition, please distribute the enclosed information accordingly or place the start-up company in direct contact with Saint-Gobain.

Additional relevant information:

- Leaflet about organisational details and timeline (the deadline for submission: Oct 15^th 2010)

- Registration form to be filled out and sent to externalventuring@saint-gobain.com

- Innovation Competition rules

- Saint-Gobain and NOVA website www.saint-gobain.com/en/nova

- BAU building fair website http://www.bau-muenchen.com/"

Don't hesitate to contact them.
The Innhotep team