THE Elevate Greece National Startup Entrepreneurship Awards 2022 were awarded this year for the 2nd consecutive year, during an event organized on Friday, December 2 at the National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR) “Demokritos”, under the auspices of the Ministry of Development and Investment. 10 startups and members of the Elevate Greece National Startup Registry were awarded during the event, having obtained the highest score after evaluation by members of the prestigious national and international innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The Elevate Greece Awards have become a respected institution that recognizes startups, innovation and creativity in general.
The “Startup of the Year” award of the Elevate Greece Startup Entrepreneurship Competition 2022 was won by DIGISEC SA The bird monitoring system, produced by DIGISEC SA, is an innovative system to prevent birds from colliding with wind turbines that combines high-tech hardware and artificial intelligence software and protects wildlife around wind farms .
George Diakomanolis, co-founder and COO of DIGISEC SA, received the “Startup of the Year” award from Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis and the “Environmental Impact Award” from Deputy Minister of Development and Investments Christos Dimas.
The National Documentation Center (EKT) was an official supporter of the competition, while Dr. Evi Sachini, Director of EKT, was a member of the team that presented the award in the category “Harnessing 4th Revolution Technologies industrial” to the company 3DHUB. It should be noted that EKT provides a network of intermediary services to improve extroversion and digital and productive upgrading of all awarded companies. These services focus on networking and developing bilateral collaborations supporting their participation in brokerage events for their subsequent international networking, with the aim of achieving business, technology and research collaborations, as well as participation in communities and knowledge networks.
EKT actions also provide advice on access to European research and innovation programs, technology transfer and diagnostic services for their innovative and digital potential. It offers complementary information and training services on cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital skills.
The winning startups of the 10 categories of the National Start-up Entrepreneurship Awards “Elevate Greece 2022” are as follows:
“Start of the year” | Digisec SA
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“Environmental impact” | DIGISEC
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‘Business development and extroversion’ | Safe size
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‘Tourism and hospitality services’ | Ferryhopper
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‘Science & Health-Pharmacy’ | 2bullMeDiTherapy
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‘Exploit 4th Technologies of the industrial revolution » | 3DHUB Greece
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Spin-off of the year | Aquatic organic products
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Fastest Growing Company | cloudeo Hellas
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Female entrepreneurship | iDNA genomics
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Social contribution | docandu
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Top Start-up in the ecosystem | PC COVARIANCE
The 10 winning companies received cash prizes worth over 200,000 euros as well as high value-added services from all official Elevate Greece supporters.
As part of the event, honorary prizes were also awarded to teams that excelled at the European Young Professionals Competition. The prizes were awarded to the student startup Microgreens – Magicgreens, from the 2nd Experimental High School of Kilkis and to the student startup Drug n’ Drop, from the Athens University of Economics and Business and the National and Kapodistrian University from Athens.
George Diakomanolis, co-founder and CO DIGISEC, winner of the “Start-up of the Year” award, said: “We are very proud and very happy that the committee has chosen us as Start-up of the year. Warm congratulations to the entire Digisec team and special thanks to Deputy Minister Mr. Christos Dimas and the Ministry of Development for their practical support to start-up entrepreneurship.
The relevant Deputy Minister Christos Dimas, presented and analyzed the statistical and analytical data which, following the creation and operation of the Elevate Greece National Start-up Register, are now registered for the start-up ecosystem. During the event, Mr. Ch. Dimas stated that “our goal is to transfer knowledge from research centers, universities and start-ups to the real economy. Elevate Greece is now the reference point for supporting start-up innovation and entrepreneurship in Greece.’
Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Development and Investment, said: “Over the past 3.5 years, Greece has been the fastest growing country in Europe in terms of research and innovation spending, and first in terms of percentage of companies investing in innovation in recent years. A vibrant innovation community has developed in our country. , employing more than 7,000 scientists and researchers. We already have the first companies acquiring larger companies and we have companies receiving funding from international investors. Greece is transforming. And all of you in this room are the protagonists of this transformation and the winners of the awards are examples that emulate this transformation.
Watch the event video
The national register of start-ups Elevate Greece
To date, more than 700 start-ups, employing more than 6,700 employees, have completed their registration in the Elevate Greece start-up register.
Thanks to Elevate Greece, the state now has a clear and mapped picture of the innovation ecosystem and for the first time has the capacity to design policies tailored to the specific needs of the start-up ecosystem. Elevate Greece is an essential tool through which the state offers specialized incentives to start-ups, such as tax deductions for angel investors, a modern tax framework for stock options and even NSRF shares for improve their liquidity in the face of COVID-19. crisis.
The National Startup Register is flanked by a large network of official supporters active in the field of innovation, investment and entrepreneurship, including banks, multinational companies, Greek companies and supporters institutional. EKT is one of the institutional supporters of Elevate Greece.
ΕΚΤ in the innovation ecosystem
EKT maintains a long-standing strategic link with the actors of the national innovation system. In this context, it supports digital transformation and improving the development dynamics of the ecosystem, providing integrated services aimed at meeting specialized development needs and linking research to entrepreneurship. Businesses, academic institutions and research and development organizations have access to networking, mentoring, information and education services.
With combined value-added services, EKT helps the Greek research and business community excel and grow internationally. As a national contact point for Horizon Europe, for the “Health”, “Digital, Industry and Space” and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) clusters, as well as for the European Cancer Mission), supports organizations, businesses , academic and research organizations identify funding opportunities to write and submit proposals, implement projects and exploit research results.
As coordinator of Enterprise Europe Network Hellas, the Greek node of Enterprise Europe Network, the world’s largest business support network, he provides complementary services to those of the national contact points, for international networking and the search for commercial and technological opportunities. collaborations, technology transfer and innovation, access to European funding and search for partners to participate in research proposals. Additionally, EKT is the hub in Greece for EIT Health, one of Europe’s largest public-private partnerships for health innovation.
