HEA announces support for winners and finalists from Microsoft and Kick Athens

February 18, 2015

The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award (HEA) announces support for award winners and finalists from IT giant Microsoft and the Athens branch of global entrepreneurial education program, ‘Kick’. These new pledges will significantly enrich the range of business support services offered to winners of the award. Furthermore the undertaking from ‘Kick’ offers scholarships not only to the winners but to all ten finalists.

Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions. Acknowledging the significant contribution of the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award in stimulating development and prosperity in Greece, Microsoft Hellas (www.microsoft.com/hellas), will now offer innovative software to this year’s award winners, contributing to their sustainable operation through the optimization of their organization and development.

‘Kick Athens’ (www.kickathens.gr) has pledged up to 10 free places on its intensive six week business start-up education courses. The ‘Kick’ program seeks to guide entrepreneurs through the early stages of business creation, equipping participants with the knowledge and insight to create a sustainable business from the outset.

Jimmy Athanasopoulos, Director of the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award, stated: “It is a great honour to see that companies with significant global presence have chosen to support Greek entrepreneurship and have acknowledged our efforts through these valuable contributions to our winners and finalists. Microsoft Hellas and ‘Kick Athens’ are part of our growing family of supporters and are also ambassadors for good business practices and success in entrepreneurship. HEA’s supporters have already helped HEA’s eight previous winners to make a contribution to the Greek economy with the collective creation of many hundreds of direct and indirect jobs.”

The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award was founded in 2012 based on the belief that entrepreneurship is key to Greece’s future prosperity, especially during the economic downturn. The HEA, which is managed and funded by the Libra Group on behalf of The Hellenic Initiative, is open to both experienced and budding entrepreneurs, whose business plans exhibit sustainability, innovation and financial rigour, whilst creating jobs predominantly in Greece.

Each year, the HEA declares between one and five winners, providing them with all the necessary resources to bring their business ideas to fruition. The HEA 2015 Winners will share funding of up to €700,000, provided by the Libra Group and HEA’s Partners. In addition, each winner will receive mentorship from a highly experienced business professional, as well as business support services from – mostly Greek – companies. These span providers of legal, accounting, marketing, IT, communication and HR services.

Entries are welcomed from individuals or groups with a new business idea, whether or not they have prior business experience, as well as established, privately-held companies which can prove that they have an all-new business concept which is not related to their core activities and cannot be funded through existing resources.

The names of the finalists will be announced at the beginning of May 2015.
The winners will be announced at the end of May 2015.

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