Calling all innovation and technology entrepreneurs! If you have a great business idea and are looking for funding, mentoring and more, then it’s time for you to take the plunge and enter the NBG Business Seeds Innovation & Technology Competition for startups.
Applications are now open for the 9th edition of the popular competition, an initiative of the National Bank of Greece (NBG), and you have until Monday 8 October 2018 at 15.00 to submit your proposal for consideration.
The contest aims to encouraging innovation and youth entrepreneurship, as well as to highlight and reward original ideas that will contribute to the development of innovative systems and applications based on the following criteria:
- new technologies
- the integration of the environmental dimension into the design of products and services
- the deployment of new information and communication technologies
- and more generally to promote innovation in Greece
NBG Business Seeds: what’s in it for me?
A lot actually. For starters, the first four ideas to be selected will receive €20,000, €10,000, €6,000 and €4,000 respectively.
There will also be financial guidance, targeted financial support actions in cooperation with The People’s Trust, and lending and shareholder actions. On top of that, the four winners will receive guidance and networking actions in collaboration with Amazon, Google, Grant Thornton, Watson, Farley & Williams, Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI), Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce, Census, MCKinsey, KEMEL, PWC, Higgs, Onassis Foundation and Endeavor Greece.
NBG Business Seeds continues to grow
Over the past eight years, 5,120 people have participated in a total of 3,060 business proposals put forward. With an average annual participation of 400 proposals from 650 participants, the competition has established itself as one of the most important in the technology and innovation ecosystem.
The NBG Business Seeds program offers great opportunities for visibility and funding from key stakeholders and funds within the Greek ecosystem. It is also a private investor in four out of nine of the new Equifund funds of funds.
The program coordinator of the project, Spyros Arsenis, describes NBG Business Seeds as a “startup within a bank”. Spyros, who was also recently a keynote speaker at our first Lean In EU Women Entrepreneurs Pitching Battles event, says the integrated program “is designed to foster innovative and export-oriented entrepreneurship.”
This year’s themes
The proposals which will be submitted under the auspices of the competition must cover one of the following three themes:
- E-business
- Environment and technology
- Culture and technology
Candidates can find detailed information on the content of each topic, as well as all the details of the competition on the NBG Business Seeds website.
Tech heavyweights also joining in
Another element of the competition is that, along with the Athens University of Economics and Business, the representatives of the selected proposals will attend training programs on entrepreneurship and receive free services and products from Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft.
An emphasis will also be placed on the mentoring of the teams and the experienced staff of the National Bank of Greece, who, with professional experience of more than 20 years and in different branches, will propose targeted solutions to improve any innovative effort.
Get applying
There you have it. It’s time to get you act together, prepare your proposal and enter the competition. If not, you may never find out how far your idea can go! Remember, submissions will be accepted from now until Monday 8 October 2018 at 15.00 Athens time.
