La Canopée contest for pleasant innovation surprises!

In late 2019, Forinvest and the ESB (France’s higher school of timber engineering) launched a national innovation contest called La Canopée in the timber and woodworking sector. La Canopée’s original competition format is built on regional phases where competing researchers, start-ups, and SMBs showcase their ideas. For the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the contest stopped off at Eurobois on 5th February, 2020, and that’s where we met François Vulser, the man behind this initiative.

“Democratizing innovation in the sector”

Francois Vulser has always had a fascination for the inventiveness developed in timber matters and the passion it brings forth. A product of the entrepreneurial world, Vulser set out when he joined Forinvest Business Angels to democratize innovation in the sector. “I wanted to develop a comprehensive project for the timber and woodworking sector whose approach has always been rather traditional. The idea was to use the elevator pitch principle, popular with business angels. This La Canopée contest was devised in partnership with the ESB, which also had the idea of launching an innovation-centric contest, as well as with France Bois Forêt, Fransylva, Codifab, Credit Agricole and Xylofutur. The idea was not only to reward the best ideas but also to create solid bridges between project initiators and investors. And this partnership has created a real snowball effect in the scope of the contest, which is placed under the patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture.”

A winning bet despite the pandemic context

Tens of companies, start-ups, and academic stakeholders who develop and propose innovative forest or timber related solutions answered the La Canopée call. Ideas abounded and not always where you’d expect. Vulser remarked “innovative construction systems, biosourced glues, wooden objects like the “Ideation” prize winning hugging chair, whose purpose is therapeutic, along with other solutions related to the “low carbon” label for CO2 emission compensation, and more.”
After touring the French regions, including a stage at Eurobois last February, the judges made their choices at the Grand Final on 3rd November. Initially scheduled for 14th July in Paris, the final transformed into an extraordinary webinar with participants all over the country. Three winners were named out of the 13 candidates. “They each had three minutes to present their project. It was a stiff challenge but they all rose to it superbly and their pitches were enthralling”, concludes Vulser.
After the success of this first edition and the enthusiasm it aroused, the organizers decided to continue the adventure in 2021. Starting October 2021, project initiators can submit their candidacy files. Then between February and April, 2022, the contest will roam the land looking for rare pearls, with the final pencilled in for May, 2022. There are new ambitions for this contest: to reach out internationally while providing closer assistance to candidates throughout the process.