2010 Edition

A biotechnology project and an adventure sports portal win the INNOVADORS ‘10 Awards

As part of this business plan competition, ADI awards €100,000 to each of the business initiatives

Xtremgo, an adventure sports portal headed by Mathieu Lefort, and Andorracell, a biotechnology project, have won the 5th edition of the INNOVADORS Prize, in the categories of Business Development and Creation respectively, with an economic reward of €100,000 each.

ADI, which organises this international business plan competition, will award €100,000 to the Xtremgo project, as the winner of the Business Development category and the same sum to Andorracell in the category of Business Creation.

The INNOVADORS Prize is an international company plan competition organised by ADI —Andorra Desenvolupament i Inversió— which, this year, celebrates its 5th edition. The objective of this initiative is to help develop business projects, thus contributing to strengthening and diversifying the Andorran national economy through creating new business fabric with added value.

The jury of the INNOVADORS ‘10 Prize, made up of experts from Esade Business School Barcelona and HEC Paris and two representatives from Andorra, has recognised the merit of the resident entrepreneur of French nationality, Mathieu Lefort, for XTREMGO in the Business Development category. This project is an online marketplace between suppliers and users of adventure sports that allows bookings to be made directly for groups or individuals. It also permits the social interactions of users of the services (ratings, comments and recommendations).

The jury decided to give the Creation award to ANDORRACELL. It is a project by the French researchers Fabien Prevots and Lin Zeng and the Andorran researcher David Vilanova. Andorracell will be a biotechnology company in which the main activity will be to provide a top-quality service in preparing umbilical cord blood stem cells, with the aim of carrying out research for the benefit of the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and biotechnological industries.

The €200,000 funding will be given when the entrepreneurs have created and registered the company.

The Jury praised the level of the eight finalists in the two categories, proposed by a Technical Committee responsible for selecting them from among the 26 candidates who had submitted their business plan to the fifth edition of the INNOVADORS Awards.

The prizes were awarded as part of the first edition of the 2010 Andorra Economic Forum.

Finalists in the INNOVADORS ‘10 Prize:

1. Project: ANDORRACELL (Winner)
   Entrepreneurs: David VILANOVA - Fabien PREVOTS - Lin ZENG
   Category: Creation
   Description: Andorracell will be a biotechnology company in which the main activity will be to provide a top-quality service in preparing umbilical cord blood stem cells, with the aim of carrying out research for the benefit of the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and biotechnological industries.
   
   
2. Project: CLIENTING ONE
   Entrepreneur: Maria Victòria TURMO
   Category: Creation
   Description: It is based on the creation of a single commercial card “Andorra Shopping Card” for tourist and resident customers in the principality of Andorra that offers advantages for member establishments. The “Clienting ONE” project will provide innovative services for creating loyalty among clients and joint marketing campaigns to encourage new purchases.
   
   
3. Project: MINDWELLNESS
   Entrepreneurs: Joan ARMENGOL - Xavier PIRLA
   Category: Creation
   Description: The creative Mindwellness is the result of an innovative system of multi-sensorial relaxation based on the most advanced techniques of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and latest generation binaural beat frequencies.
   
   
4. Project: TEK 8 ACTITUD
   Entrepreneurs: Eric BEAUTE - Jean-Cristophe QUEYROUX
   Category: Creation
   Description: TEK 8 will manufacture a sports item in the X games range, the TK8. This item is a pogo stick that allows jumps of more than 150 cm to be made.
   
   
5. Project: XTREMGO (Winner)
   Entrepreneur: Mathieu LEFORT
   Category: Business Development
   Description: Xtremgo is an online marketplace between suppliers and users of adventure sports that allows bookings to be made directly for groups or individuals. It also permits the social interactions of users of the services (ratings, comments and recommendations).
   
   
6. Project: IF RENT
   Entrepreneurs: Francesca RUIZ - Carles PORTE
   Category: Business Development
   Description: Opening of a car hire office that aims to make the service offered to customers flexible to adapt to their needs. The project consists of opening an office to cover the Andorra-Lleida route (high-speed train station).
   
   
7. Project: GAIA ENERGETICS
   Entrepreneur: Pierino PUIGSUBIRA
   Category: Business Development
   Description: An integral energy services company that offers turnkey solutions and financing products based on energy savings generated.
   
   
8. Project: LA BONA PASTA
   Entrepreneurs: Angelo GUITART - Daniel MUÑOZ (CIBUS GROUP)
   Category: Business Development
   Description: To provide the catering sector with work systems and procedures that allow for the efficient, simple management of different kinds of restaurants, professionalising the sector and proposing new concepts of catering.