The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award announces 2014 Winners

June 2, 2014

The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award has announced the four winners of the 2014 award who, in addition to sharing prize funding of up to €700,000, will be assigned an expert mentor and receive a range of business support services. This year the HEA experienced a 67% increase in submitted business ideas with 488 qualifying business plans submitted via the award programme’s website.

The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award is funded and administered by the Libra Group on behalf of The Hellenic Initiative (THI) in order to help experienced and budding entrepreneurs in Greece to overcome economic disadvantage and bring new businesses ideas to fruition.

The winners were chosen on the basis of business plans which demonstrated financial discipline, sustainability, job creation and innovation.

The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award 2014 Winners are:

• ’ΆNNASSA ORGANICS – A new range of premium herbal teas and infusions. Anassa Organics selects the finest quality organically farmed Greek products with exceptional taste and fragrance. The products come with highly creative contemporary branding and unique, engaging presentation packs that turn preparation of aromatic herbal drinks into a ritual. The Anassa Organics range is targeted at international markets.
  Applicants: Afroditi Florou, Yanna Matthaiou.
• e-satisfaction – The first independent platform that records e-shoppers’ entire online shopping experience from browsing through ordering to delivery. e-satisfaction seeks to become a widespread, trustworthy reference and information source for consumers – and a valuable interactive feedback mechanism for online retailers globally.
  Applicants: Stelios Eliakis, Xenia Kourtoglou, Katerina Pramatari.
• Open Circle – A web-based community where visionary entrepreneurs present their business concepts and engage with investors who may wish to participate. Unlike traditional crowdfunding this ‘equity crowdfunding’ provides a clear pathway for equity participation in target companies.
  Applicant: Socratis Ploussas.
  RTsafe – The result of extensive scientific research, RTsafe is designed to optimise the safety and effectiveness of radiotherapy for cancer patients. With RTsafe personalised radiotherapy cycles can be carried out with optimal clinical outcome and reduced treatment side effects.
  Applicants: Evangelos Pappas, Thomas Maris, Nikolaos Stergiopulos. 

“We are very proud that the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award has for a second consecutive year revealed the intrinsic creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Greek nation. We thank all the entrants for participating in the award and wish them every success with their businesses. The consistently high quality of entries this year made the task of the judges extremely difficult”, said Jimmy Athanasopoulos, Director of Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award. “Furthermore, we hope that the existence of the award programme with its simple, online application process will encourage still more entrepreneurs to realise that nothing is impossible for those who have the vision, discipline and determination to turn an idea into a viable business plan”.

Presenting this year’s awards to the finalists and winners, Mr. Notis Mitarakis, the Greek Deputy Minister of Development and Competitiveness, stated: “It is a great pleasure and honour for me to be here with you for a second consecutive year. The Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award is now established as an annual prize for Greek entrepreneurship, which awards excellence and sends a clear message about the dynamism of private enterprise supported by volunteers. The panel of judges deserves our warmest congratulations for their difficult task in choosing the business ideas that will now be established in the Greek market.

Οur country is in the process of a growth trajectory and now, more than ever, we need the support of entrepreneurship, which guarantees strong and sustainable growth, employment and social welfare. In entrepreneurship, as well as in the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award itself, the private sector and the business community is leading, while the Government has the very important obligation of its valuable support”.

The four winners of the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award 2013 are now fully operational and achieving commercial growth in line with their business plans.

The Libra Group has committed over €7 million to the award programme. Other supporters include the Australia-based property investment and development company, Jalouise Pty Ltd, which has contributed US$500,000 to the award and Dimitri Goulandris, who has contributed €250,000. Since 2013, Piraeus Bank has been providing its valuable support to entrants, through its subsidiary, Excelixi Centre of Sustainability and Entrepreneurship.

For more information about the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award please visit www.hellenicaward.com

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