The process of submitting proposals for participation in the 15th Innovation & Technology Competition of the National Bank has begun with the platform remaining open until Wednesday 09/10/2024.

As announced, this year’s competition marks a new beginning. Its subject matter is fully aligned with the Bank’s priorities.

The new topics are:

– Financial Technology (Fintech)

– Digital Entrepreneurship & Ecosystems (Digital Ecosystems)

– Advanced Technologies & AI

– Environment/Climate Change, Society & Governance (ESG), including Financial Literacy & Financial Empowerment.

The first three winners will share cash prizes worth 40,000 euros while two special Prize categories are introduced:

– Special Award for Female Entrepreneurship with a cash prize of 4,000 euros

– Special Financial Literacy Awards for Empowering Households in their Financial Decisions, totaling up to 10,000 euros.

To submit their proposal and for more information about the competition, those interested can follow the link below: nbg.gr/competition.

NBG Business Seeds Program

A few days ago, with the award ceremony for 10 new innovative businesses, the “Innovation & Technology” Competition, organized for the 14th consecutive year by the National Bank, as part of the NBG Business Seeds program, was completed.

The program aims to encourage and support innovative and extroverted entrepreneurship, with a focus on, inter alia, Fintech, ESG and finance-related technologies (e.g. AI/Gen AI/Blockchain).

In total, in the 14 years of organization of the Competition, the participations have risen to 8,223 with formulated 4,792 business proposals and 686,000 euros have been given in monetary prizes by the National Bank, to the 140 winning teams.

Winners of the competition are many well-known companies in the innovation ecosystem today, such as Avocarrot, Pollfish and Mist.io that have been acquired by international companies, as well as e-table, Ferryhopper, Clio Muse, DoctorAnyTime and many research and student groups. In the 14th competition, 467 people and groups participated, with 280 proposals.

As stated by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Bank, Gikas Hardouvelis, the National Bank created the institution of NBG Business Seeds to support young people and their ideas. In the 14 years of the competition, it has so far committed funds totaling 15 million euros, of which 1/3 (5.6 million euros) has been invested. It is a program that embraces innovative entrepreneurship with targeted actions in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion, informing, guiding and essentially helping research groups and innovative small and medium enterprises

In the 14th “Innovation & Technology” Competition, the first winning team was Genosophy, which was awarded during the event with a cash prize of 20,000 euros.

The GENOSOPHY® research team developed a specialized algorithm based on the analysis of DNA genetic controls and proposes innovative health and wellness solutions aimed at improving the health of the population. The aim is the prevention and management of mainly diet-dependent diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc.