ENVOLVE AWARD GREECE ANNOUNCES ITS 2022 FINALISTS

Program celebrates 10 years supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in Greece and announces finalists in advance of June 8, 2022, awards ceremony, hosted by Sakis Tanimanidis.

ATHENS (June 2, 2022) – Today, Envolve Entrepreneurship (https://greece.envolveglobal.org), a social program of the Libra Group supporting entrepreneurship, unveiled the 10 finalists of the Envolve Award Greece for 2022.

These 10 startups will be considered for a prize of up to €50,000 in interest-free funding, as well as  mentorship, business support services and more to accelerate and scale their business. This year’s finalists represent critical future-focused sectors in Greece, including health and pharmaceutical services, education, sustainable transportation, fintech, retail tech and delivery tech.

This is the tenth year of the program, which was created in 2012 by the Libra Group on behalf of The Hellenic Initiative with the goal to create an ecosystem to advance technology and innovation and support future business leaders. Since that time, Envolve has supported 34 award winners in Greece, representing 19 sectors. These winners have contributed to the Greek economy with the creation of more than 2,000 new jobs and have a combined valuation exceeding €850 million.

The 2022 Envolve Award Greece winners will be announced on Wednesday, June 8 at a live ceremony, hosted by Sakis Tanimanidis, at the Athens College Theater. In addition to the Envolve Award Greece, the public, starting today, can also select and vote for their favorite finalists to win the #GetEnvolved awards by liking each team’s pitch video posted on Envolve’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in Greece (facebook.com/envolveGR and instagram.com/envolveGR). These winners are eligible to win cash prizes to support their businesses.

The event, which is open to the public and will also be live streamed, will feature discussions on Greece’s innovation ecosystem, including conversations and remarks by:

• Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments for the Government of Greece
• George M. Logothetis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Libra Group
• Evangelos Pappas, Co-Founder & CSO, RTsafe
• Barbara Geladakis, Founder & CEO, Rodi Fertility
• Nikos Moschos, Co-Founder & Business Director, PD Neurotechnology
• Kostas Saridakis, Co-Founder & CEO, Collaborate Healthcare
• Apostolos Foteinakis, CFO, blueground
• Marica Labrou, Founder & CEO, CEL, Senior Business Advisor, Writer
• Winners of Envolve’s 2022 Student Panhellenic Competition in Entrepreneurship

The 2022 Awards Ceremony is available to the public, however, registration is required. Limited seats at the theater will be available for the public: https://bit.ly/envolve-award-greece-registration. The event will also be live streamed on Chorus Call Hellas’ webcast platform in both Greek and English.

“Envolve’s work is focused on three main pillars; education, resources, and awards. We are proud to provide education for start-up and early-stage businesses, and to work closely with partners to provide and scale resources available to entrepreneurs across Greece,” said Alexandros Nousias, Country Director of Envolve Entrepreneurship in Greece. “This year’s finalists are strong teams with market knowledge, innovative approach and tenacity, ready to develop inside and outside of the Greek market. Congratulations to them and the hundreds of ambitious entrepreneurs who shared their business dreams with our team. To us, they are all winners.”

The Envolve Award Greece 2022 finalists are:

• Bespot, a company that is unlocking the value of geolocation data and contributes to the digital transformation of the retail experience. Utilizing artificial intelligence and IoT technology, the application offers high accuracy mobility-tracking activity for over 4,000 indoor and outdoor retail venues. It offers personalized content and captures trends to improve the customer experience.
• Coffe-Eco, a company that is creating a zero-waste ecosystem for the collection and recycling of spent coffee grounds. It processes espresso coffee residues into sustainable raw material used to produce skincare cosmetics. This sustainable process transforms the espresso supply chain from a linear into a circular one.
• eVplus, an application which uses artificial intelligence to help electrical vehicle drivers find optimal charging stations and routes. Assessing each driver’s data, including driving style, lifestyle, budget, weather conditions and the desired travel time, it provides recommendations for routes and charging stations.
• Grandmama, an online platform that connects seniors and their relatives with trusted caregivers, for home healthcare all over Greece. Grandmama curates the onboarding process for the caregivers, including background check, reference check, interview, and eligibility to work in Greece. Users also give feedback about caregivers’ services, with a rating system using specific qualitative KPIs.
• Infin8, an application that supports the financial management of individuals and businesses. It offers access to all bank accounts and cards of users, automated transaction categorization for better management of income and expenses, as well as the ability to transfer money from any user account easily and safely. Inifin8’s vision is to use the power of open banking to offer smart leads to merchants, based on transactional behavior. Infin8’s application is available in six countries and supports more than 160 banks.
• Kineo, a company that offers micromobility subscription services. With a fixed monthly fee, riders can select the e-bike or e-scooter of their choice according to their daily needs, as well as technical support, insurance, road assistance, and parking.
• Morphoses, an activity-based e-learning platform designed to cultivate children’s (K12) soft skills and enhance their social-emotional learning, whilst also developing the necessary means for their future with live virtual classes. Through engaging activities and games, they develop skills, such as emotional intelligence, communication, curiosity and time management.
• OptIn, a platform that automizes the planning of Employee Share Option Schemes (ESO), from the design of a bespoke ESO, to the cap-table management, to the education of employees around ESO. Optin’s vision is to support businesses to motivate their employees and offer them tools to do so.
• Pet Explorer, the first Greek online marketplace exclusively for pets. Through Pet Explorer, users can search and rate veterinarians, as well as professionals and services in the pet industry.
• Shiplemon, a platform that connects every delivery service company (couriers) with e-shops in a single system, and offers a shipping management application, for the best and most reliable service to their customers. Shiplemon’s mission is to turn shipping management into a competitive advantage and development tool for the e-commerce sector.

For more information about the finalists, visit: https://greece.envolveglobal.org/envolve-award-greece-finalists-2022/

This year’s event is kindly sponsored by Chorus Call Hellas, Red Bull, Capital.gr, The TOC, Epixeiro.gr, Eventora, Athens Negotiation Tournament and 12Gods.

The award program is supported by many organizations that have stepped forward in support of the Envolve Awards, both in Greece and the US. The network of supporters in Greece includes: Alexandria Innovation Zone, Amazon Web Services, Antidote, Atraktos, Atradius, Epixeiro.gr, I.A.D.R., indima.gr, the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development, Intracom Telecom, Ioannis Vassardanis & Partners Law Firm, Jalouise PTY LTD, LANCOM, Lykourezos Law Offices, Microsoft, People for Business, 1Business World, Performance Coaching, Prisma Consulting, Reed Smith, SAP Hellas, Together In Tech, V+O Communication, Veltio, Verimpact, vestbee and White Room.

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About Envolve Entrepreneurship:

Envolve is an entrepreneurship support organization, founded by the Libra Group in 2012. It provides education, resources, and award programmes for startup businesses globally. The organization encompasses the former Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award (HEA) and the American Entrepreneurship Award (AEA) – programmes which have declared 64 winners since 2012, supporting job creation and economic growth in Greece and the US. Striving for a global society where all business owners can prosper and grow, Envolve is committed to developing and cultivating entrepreneurial ecosystems by ensuring business support services are more readily available to entrepreneurs.

To learn more about Envolve, please visit https://greece.envolvelglobal.org

About Libra Group:

The Libra Group is a privately-owned international business group whose subsidiaries own and operate assets in more than 50 countries. The Group is predominantly active in six sectors, including several vital to the global economy. These sectors include renewable energy, aviation, hospitality, real estate, and shipping as well as selected diversified investments. The Group has also created 10 social responsibility programs that have a positive impact on the lives of many people around the world.

Visit libra.com for more information.

About The Hellenic Initiative:                                                   

Mission: Investing in the future of Greece through direct philanthropy and economic revitalization. We empower people to provide crisis relief, encourage entrepreneur and create jobs. We are The Hellenic Initiative (THI) – a global movement of the Greek Diaspora.

To learn more about THI, visit: http://www.TheHellenicInitiative.org/ & http://onegreece.org

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