About the initiators

The initiators of this grant are Marcel van Poecke and his daughter Heleen. In collaboration with Starthub Wageningen and University Fund Wageningen, Marcel and Heleen developed a prize for young entrepreneurs. Originally launched under the name AtlasInvest Entrepreneurship Grant, it has been known as the Wageningen Entrepreneurship Grant since 2024.

Marcel van Poecke graduated from Wageningen University in 1985 with a Master’s degree in Forestry. “My education at WUR laid the foundations for entrepreneurship, a creative mindset and a broad international perspective on society,” says Van Poecke. These ingredients contributed to his successful entrepreneurial career, including his company AtlasInvest.

According to his daughter Heleen, who studied Business Administration at Harvard, success is not only due to yourself, but also to the support of the people around you and the education you have received. Van Poecke therefore wants to give something back to his alma mater and is a member of the Wageningen Ambassadors, a group of successful alumni who support WUR.

In addition to supporting various projects, a new strategic focus of WUR caught his attention: stimulating entrepreneurship among students and young researchers. Heleen observed that at various American universities, the link between business and academia is more strongly developed, and investments in start-ups are much more common. In the Netherlands, however, most universities focus almost entirely on the academic side and offer fewer extracurricular opportunities to prepare students for the business world. This inspired father and daughter to contribute to this important focus area of WUR.

Through a pitch competition, student entrepreneurs can present their creative ideas to a jury and win seed capital to get their business off the ground. According to Heleen van Poecke, seed funding is the hardest to obtain. “This platform should give students the confidence to take the plunge and just go for it.”

Another foundation of entrepreneurship is making use of your network. “Dare to ask!” says Heleen. Networking with fellow participants, attendees, panellists and jury members is therefore central to the award programme. Even if participants do not ultimately secure the seed capital, the prize can still offer significant value in this way.