2017 has been a successful year for Reload Greece; the charity has achieved some important milestones, the number of young entrepreneurs participating in our programmes has increased, we’ve built important new collaborations and our reach and impact has grown. However, this year has continued to be challenging for entrepreneurs all over the world but especially in Greece. 400,000 people have left Greece since the crisis started, mostly aged 25-35, 9 Billion Euros have been lost (the annual cost of human capital which has left Greece making this Greece’s largest export), youth unemployment is at 43% and 49% of employed people want to leave Greece in search of better opportunities.
Throughout the year we’ve been working hard to build a new generation of entrepreneurs to create businesses with a positive impact on their home countries. As we reflect on our progress and impact and plan for the charity’s 6th year, we’re looking back on some of our key highlights in 2017.
The year started with the successful RG YEP accelerate and pitch phases of the pre-accelerator programme. It was great to see so many inspiring young entrepreneurs take part in the programme and we’ve followed their entrepreneurial journeys with interest. George Kalligeras, Founder of Pushme, won RG YEP with a prototype idea. After winning a place on the RG Challenge17 programme, the startup has recently gained extensive funding, they are looking at manufacturing opportunities in Greece and they have recently been featured in Forbes.
Creating a movement of like-minded people
Our community has grown considerably over the year. We now have over sixty high profile mentors from the business, startup and academic sectors supporting and nurturing our entrepreneurs (a 60% growth year on year). We have received significant support from new partners; three large banks and some of the most prevalent foundations in Greece have endorsed the charity and we have gained considerable support from in-kind supporters. Our staff team has also grown; I joined as Marketing and Engagement Manager in March, Marianna Agiostratiti became our Office Manager in May, Veroniki Zerva has been our Community Manager since August and we’ve had invaluable support from a number of interns.
Educating, supporting and nurturing entrepreneurs
Our RG Challenge17 accelerator programme ran in London in July which culminated in a successful Dragons Den event at The Shard. Ten teams of startups completed the 9-day programme and two of these ventures were funded within just 5 months. Our new collaborations with the National Bank of Greece and Eurobank helped to create a bridge between the UK and Greece and immerse Greek entrepreneurs into the UK ecosystem and we’re looking forward to building closer working relationships with our partners in 2018. The winning RG Challenge17 startup, Workathlon, has received funding and has already recruited three people in Greece. You can see Katerina’s journey in our latest video.
In September we reached an important milestone when we moved into our new office next to Tower Bridge. In October we ran our RG Bootcamp17 pre-accelerator programme in Athens, in which international mentors provided 70% of the education. For this programme we continued our partnership with the Alba business school and we also grew new partnerships with NGOs in Greece. It has been inspiring to be a part of the story the winning startup, Koosh, an online radio station for refugees and migrants in Greece, which was founded by a refugee from Afghanistan.
A voice for entrepreneurs
The charity has continued to have great exposure in Greece and the UK. Our voice is being heard across print and online media, our community of social media followers has grown considerably and engagement in our posts, videos and blogs has increased. In October we ran our fourth RG Conference, our flagship event for inspiring debate and discussion. This year’s theme ‘The Unstoppable Generation: Hacking Entrepreneurship into a Culture’ brought together a wide range of stakeholders to explore and debate how a mindset of entrepreneurism can be hacked into a culture to create long term and sustainable change. Prestigious speakers from EIB, EIF, Rothschild and Bloomberg Associates selected our conference as a platform to speak. Four interactive breakout sessions discussed how entrepreneurship could be hacked into the Financial, Tourism, Energy and Corporate sectors and six RG alumni start-ups pitched their business and networked with attendees. This year the event was live streamed so around 500 people watched the event live.
Our latest RG YEP events have been taking place since October and the programme has doubled its reach year on year, with 14 leading UK Universities now taking part. We’ll be announcing the final ideas, which have won a place on the Accelerate and Pitch phase of the programme very soon and we’re excited to announce that we’re launching RG YEP in Germany in January!
It’s been a fantastic year but all of this would not have been possible without the invaluable support of the Reload Greece community. Our partners, mentors, alumni, board members, staff, interns and volunteers have all contributed to the charity’s growth and impact. We have many exciting plans for 2018 and we look forward to working together and supporting more young entrepreneurs. In the meantime, we wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a healthy and successful New Year!