#HDB4ElevateGreece: The “HDB Innovation Challenge” by the Hellenic Development Bank and Elevate Greece has concluded.

On November 24, the final phase of the “Innovation Challenge” took place. This competition, organized for the second consecutive year with selected companies from Elevate Greece – #HDB4ElevateGreece – was held at the offices of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB).

The theme of the competition is the development of a PoC (Proof of Concept) for the creation of an advanced ‘Funding Wizard’ platform, which will automatically collect and provide all kinds of information (continuously updated) on the HDB website. The information will be sourced from electronically accessible global databases and will cover funding options through programs managed by public and private entities, including grants, co-financing, guarantees, or combinations thereof, based on a profile completed by each interested user.

HDB’s goal is to support the creation of a solution that can become a reference point for personalized searches for funding programs, saving time and effort for all interested parties.

The companies from the national startup registry “Elevate Greece” that presented their ideas in the final phase of the competition were:

• Differend Business Solutions IKE
• Quetri IT Solutions IKE

The Evaluation Committee was composed of:

• Panagiotis Leftheris, Director – Business Development and Support, Corporate & Investment Banking, National Bank of Greece
• Dimitrios Verelis, Director – Development and Sustainable Banking, Piraeus Bank
• Spyridon Rendetakos, Director – Small Business Banking Division, Alpha Bank
• Dimitrios Karmiris, Director – Development and European Programs, Eurobank
• Angelos Tsakanikas, Associate Professor of Economic Evaluation of Technology Innovation Systems and Entrepreneurship, School of Chemical Engineering, NTUA; Director of EBEΩ (Laboratory of Industrial and Energy Innovation), NTUA
• Panagiotis Papageorgiou, Director of Business Innovation, HDB
• Michalis Golias, IT Director, HDB

The competition results are expected to be announced in the coming days.