Founding and International Expansion of the Awards

The Blue Ocean Awards were founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Alban Eral in partnership with the French Ministry for the Economy and HEC Paris business school. The mission of the awards has gained the support of a wide range of sponsoring corporations from Michelin to Aesio Mutuelle, Veolia, Groupe SEB, Saint-Gobain and Dassault Systemes among others. Forbes France is also the media partner. 

The competition is open to all start-ups and SMEs seeking to showcase their innovative blue ocean companies.

Since its founding in France, the competition has expanded to South Africa and this year to India and Senegal.

The first-ever Indian Blue Ocean Awards, were held in March 2023 in Chennai, India as part of Umagine Chennai 2023, a Technology, Entrepreneurship & Skills Summit organized by the Government of Tamil Nadu that attracted over 18,000 attendees. The Awards were led by George Eapen, the International Director of the Blue Ocean Awards & BlueCity.

Senegal also hosted its first edition of the Blue Ocean Awards in December 2022 at the D-HUB in Dakar with the endorsement of the French Embassy in Senegal and the Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth.