After a thorough process reviewing so many strong applications to our RG Challenge19 accelerator programme, we’re excited to finally meet the successful start-up teams when the programme starts in London next Tuesday 25th June. We selected 15 teams from the wide range of applications we received from start-ups around the world. Applications were judged on a set criteria looking at each startup’s idea, their team and their Reload Greece factor, the socio-economic impact the business will have on Greece.
RG Challenge19 Teams
After shortlisting and interviewing a number of inspiring applications, 15 start-ups, from digital and high growth sectors such as Medical, Education, Gaming, Fashion, Energy, and Materials, won a place on the programme. In order to continue to build bridges between Greece with the rest of the world, this year’s RG Challenge programme continues its collaboration with key players of the Greek entrepreneurial scene; three teams will join through our long-term partnerships with the Business Seeds accelerator of the National Bank of Greece and the Egg accelerator of Eurobank. The remaining 12 participating start-ups joined the programme via our global call and our RG YEP Young Entrepreneurs Programme.
RG Challenge19 Educators & Speakers
For this year’s programme we have expanded the breadth of the educational curriculum, including the involvement of over 30 expert mentors and international investors. During the 11 day programme, the fifteen participating start-up teams will work on their business propositions and plans with educators such as Jon Bradford (Founding Partner at Motive Partners and Co-Founder of F6S and tech.eu), Anthony Danon (Early-stage VC at Speedinvest) and Phillipa Stuart (Managing Partner at Joelson).
Our top professional mentors from companies such as Amazon, Smith & Nephew, Notion Capital, Vodafone, BT and Oracle will support the start-ups to refine their business model, strategy and financials and learn how to pitch effectively. Each participating start-up will gain invaluable 1:1 time with a selection of investors who have shown an interest in their businesses.
The programme will support businesses with a connection to Greece to learn how to access the UK market, create sustainable business models and become investment ready. During the programme, entrepreneurs will take part in immersion activities in entrepreneurial locations such as Google backed Tech Hub and they will be inspired by speakers such as Elliott Saba (Silicon Valley Bank), Steve Vranakis (Executive Creative Director at Google Creative Lab), Maria Taylor Dramalioti (Tech Investor and Managing Partner at Beacon Capital) and Xenofon Voudouroglou (Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Beotel Net ISP).
Dragons Den Pitch Event
On Thursday the 4th of July, all start-up teams will pitch their businesses at the exciting final Dragons Den pitch event at London Business School. After 11 intense days developing their propositions, business plans and pitching skills, the fifteen participating teams will pitch to a panel of judges and a room of investors. Three judges will award a prize to the top pitch and the audience will also designate an award to one team. This year the final Dragons Den pitch event will be by invitation only, a range of top international investors will be joining the event and for angel investor looking to invest in innovative young startups, we welcome early stage investors to join the final pitch event. If you are an angel investor ready to commit funding up to £250k, please contact us via info@reloadgreece.com.
Meet the judges
Garry Pratt, Chairman, Kinderly – Garry has been involved in global digital businesses in the UK and US since the early 90’s, and after co-founding a highly successful retail business, in 1999 he founded Teachit, a true ed-tech pioneer and one of the first purely digital content businesses. Since 2013, he runned Edify, a boutique management consultancy offering intelligence, research, content and strategy in education technologies and worked as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the University of Bath and Chairman/NED for a number of innovative digital ventures.
Chrysoula Zervoudakis, Co-Founder, STRIBA Ltd – Chrysoula has been analysing and investing in European companies of all sizes for over 25 years. She has managed highly rated funds in London and Paris for INVESCO and AXA IM. More recently she has been involved in screening and investing in start ups with Angel Academe, promoting women tech entrepreneurs, and has co -founded STRIBA, the strategic corporate governance consultancy, helping companies address the factors that are key to business strategy and sustainable corporate success.
Peter Prince, Senior Vice President, Corum Group International – Peter Prince has spent over three decades involved in starting and growing software companies or large divisions of international software companies. As well as following his entrepreneurial spirit he has held a number of senior roles for both privately held and public companies. He was part of several key acquisitions such as Software Artistry to IBM, Infinium to SSA GT and SSA Global to Golden Gate (Infor). He was President of SSA Global EMEA prior to its sale and then CEO of Cogniti.
We can’t wait to meet the final 15 RG Challenge19 teams in London next Tuesday 25th of June when the intense 11 day programme starts. Hear more about the educators, mentors and speakers taking part in RG Challenge19 and read about the startups who won previous RG Challenge programmes on our RG Challenge webpage.