Two EIT Digital Entrepreneurial Academy alumni listed in Forbes 30 Under 30

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30 Apr 2021

Two EIT Digital Entrepreneurial Academy alumni listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 — Source: EIT Digital

Dora Palfi and Abdelhadi Azzouni, two alumni of the EIT Digital Entrepreneurial Academy, are being listed in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list.

Palfi is listed in the category Social Impact together with her co-founders of imagiLabs. This female-founded startup that makes coding more accessible to young girls, has recently raised 250,000 euros in pre-seed funding to further equip the next generation of working women with critical coding skills. The imagiLabs app introduces users to Python programming using gamification.

Dora Palfi

To Palfi, who had done the double degree EIT Digital Master School programme Human Computer Interaction and Design, the listing came as a surprise. “We knew we were nominated, but we didn’t know if we made it to the list when it would be published so it did come as a surprise on Thursday! It is a huge honour to be on the list and we are really happy to be among the great companies on the social impact list! I believe this recognition is important as it further amplifies our message and signals that the conversation about gender equality in tech needs to be addressed on a European / Global level.”

Abdelhadi Azzouni is listed in the category Technology. He has a EIT Digital Doctoral School PhD in computer science from the University of Waterloo in Canada and Sorbonne University in Paris, where he specialized in optimizing IT infrastructures using AI. The company he co-founded in 2019, PacketAI, uses machine learning for predictive monitoring and has raised EUR 2.1M with investors including Aster Capital and BNP Paribas.

“I feel humbled and excited in the same time”, says Azzouni about his ranking on the 30Under30 list. “Being on the list is a great recognition for what my colleagues and I are trying to achieve at PacketAI. This will fuel us even more to serve our customer/ecosystem in the best way possible. It is also a great opportunity to network with an extremely interesting group of people.”

Abdelhadi Azzouni

Roberto Prieto, Chief Education Officer EIT Digital is proud of the listing of the two alumni achievement. “First, I like to congratulate Dora and Abdelhadi on this ranking. They both used their entrepreneurial tech education to successfully turn technology into business while at the same time being meaningful to society. Their success stories show the relevance of our education system to build a strong digital Europe.”

Forbes is having the Under 30 Europe list for the sixth year. According to Forbes analysis, the average age of the 30 Under 30 Europe Class Of 2021 is 27. 67 per cent of the Under30 are (co)founders raising in total nearly 1 billion in funding. 39 per cent is female and the top headquarters locations are in the UK, Germany, Netherlands Sweden, France, Switzerland, and Italy.