The challenge of today is to prepare children’s cognitive skills to create and adapt to an ever-changing world
Jim Yong Kim, President, The World Bank Group
Editors: P. Eteokleous
Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition - News and Events Ahead
The Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition (CyEC) 2020 at a Glance – Fall 2020
The CyEC deadline for the Executive Summaries submission is fast approaching.
CyEC welcomes business plans emerging out of some innovative technology, process, business model, or other innovations that have the potential to be developed into start-ventures or social enterprises and yet create significant competitive advantage as compared to existing solutions. The Competition was launched on 17th June 2020 and the final deadline for the submission of executive summaries is September 14th 2020. It is organized by the Centre for Entrepreneurship with the support of the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry. CyEC2020 is also supported and sponsored by PwC Cyprus, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA), the IDEA Acceleration/Incubator, Navigator Consulting, KAYAK, RISE, CYBAN and the MBA Program of the University of Cyprus.
Successful teams will undergo an acceleration program between October and November 2020 designed towards improving their business plans as well as boosting team members’ entrepreneurial skills. At the final stage of the competition, teams will be submitting and presenting their revised business plans to be evaluated by the panel of judges. An open ceremony will be held during which teams will pitch in front of an audience and the panel of judges will announce the winners of the competition. The awards of CyEC 2020 are the following:
Monetary Awards:
- 1st Prize: €10,000
- 2nd Prize: €6,000
- 3rd Prize: €4,000
Other Awards:
- Hosting in KAYAK facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts or Berlin, Germany, for 1-3 months
- Hosting in RISE - Research Centre on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies facilities, for 6-12 months
- Hosting in Navigator Consulting for up to 6 months in Limassol, including mentoring and business development support
- Participating teams at the business acceleration program will have the opportunity to be selected to join directly the 6th cycle of IDEA Incubator - Accelerator
- The 3 winners of CyEC2020 will pitch their business plan to CYBAN members, in a specially organized CYBAN Company Presentations Event
To find out more you can visit the competition’s website.
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CyEC Info Day – September 2020
The CyEC Info Day was held on September 10th with members of CyEC Steering Committee presenting the spirit and goals of the Competition, the submission and evaluation process, and the Acceleration Program. The aim of the Info Day was to answer questions of potential applicants. Members of the Steering Committee are Professor Marios Dikaiakos (C4E Director), Giorgos Zacharia (Chief Technology Officer KAYAK, USA), Panikkos Poutziouris (Rector, UCLan Cyprus) and Maria Theodorou (Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry).
The Info Day is available on C4E Youtube channel.
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CyEC Acceleration and Mentoring Program – October - November 2020
Selected projects that apply to CyEC will enter an acceleration process composed of a series of workshops blended with mentoring and consultation. Workshops will focus on developing a business model, registering and completing the financial requirements of the start-up company and start-up valuation, to addressing marketing aspects of the business plan, and pitching/ communication. The ultimate aim is for teams to improve and master their initial business plans. During this period each participating team will be assigned a mentor or mentors depending on its field of operations and required assistance/ mentoring. At the end of the acceleration program, teams will receive personal consultation on their draft business plans before submitting them for evaluation by the panel of judges.
Meet CyEC Acceleration Program Trainers
The first workshop of the Acceleration Programme will be given by Dr Giorgos Papagiannakis, research associate and teaching fellow at Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) themed From business idea to business model. Dr Papagiannakis teaches entrepreneurship, business ethics and management at Athens University of Economics and Business and University of Cyprus. He delivers seminars and provides mentoring to early-stage entrepreneurs on how to improve their business ideas. He collaborates with Athens Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is also an evaluator of business plan proposals for e-nnovation and Business Idea contests. His research interests are in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Corporate Sustainability. His work appears in leading academic journals, such as the European Management Review, the Business Strategy and the Environment Journal of Environmental Management.
Michalis Stavrides is a Partner at Tax, Reporting and Strategy Services of PwC Cyprus, responsible for servicing local and international clients across industry groups setting their operations in Cyprus. He is currently driving the provision of finance function and payroll outsourcing services, personal taxation and general company compliance services. He has an extensive experience in various areas of Corporate Finance, such as company valuation, feasibility studies and business planning and in the area of Direct Tax. Michalis was also responsible for a large number of strategy, operational effectiveness and organizational structuring projects. Since 2013 he is responsible for the delivery of finance function and payroll outsourcing services to the Firm’s clients operating across industry groups. Michalis is also the Firm’s responsible Partner for supporting and promoting entrepreneurship activities and has been a jury and business mentor in various start-up competitions. He will deliver the workshop on the Financials of the Company and its Registration.
Philip Ammerman is a consultant, entrepreneur and investment advisor who has advised start-ups, investors and enterprises on digital disruption, internationalization and investment-led growth since 1994. His workshop will focus on start-up valuation. He is founder of Navigator Consulting, Numenor Capital and the Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. He has advised on over 120 investment transactions with a total investment value exceeding € 6 billion. He has multi-sectoral experience in due diligence, business planning and financial modelling, in sectors including digital/tech start-ups and scale-ups, agri-food, manufacturing and hospitality.
Gabriel Colic will present the fourth workshop dealing with the marketing aspects of the business plan. He is a co-founder and General Manager for Cyprus at FlexCar - the flexible all-inclusive car subscription alternative to regular buying, financing and leasing. Prior to FlexCar Gabriel has been working in Business Development at Berlin based tech scale-up Grover, setting up and managing the B2B department and gained initial experience in corporate M&A, Institutional Sales and HR within the German financial sector. Gabriel holds a degree in Economics from Maastricht University and the University of Munich.
The final workshop focusing on The Art of Communication (Pitching/Communication) will be delivered by Andrea Solomonides. She is the co-founder of Cubik-S, a communication agency acquired by Giraffes in the Kitchen in 2018. She now services as the Managing Director of Giraffes in the Kitchen Cyprus. She is also the co-founder of Cypriot Enterprise Link, a youth-led organization aiming to grow the Cypriot entrepreneurial ecosystem since 2011. She has been involved in several projects as a business developer and consulted in major initiatives in Greece and Cyprus (Regeneration, UNDP etc). Additionally, she has co-founded Black Lemon TV, a digital platform for original series created by young artists in Cyprus and abroad, as well as shows and videos services. At the same time, she has co-founded Politica.io, a multisegment innovative platform for reporting, political analysis and data visualization after joining the Hillary for America campaign from the NYC offices. She is a WEF Global Shaper, a Sandboxer, a YTILI fellow and a TEDx speaker.
Andreas Koupparis founder and Chairman of Cyprus Business Angels Network (CyBAN) will provide consultation in one-to-one team meetings on their draft business plans. He has 30 years of international experience in Information Technology. With degrees in Computer Engineering and Business Systems Analysis & Design from the City University in London, he held a number of IT Executive positions in Switzerland, Greece and Cyprus. During 1995 – 2002 he has founded, expanded and finally sold 3 technology startups including Cylink, the first Internet Service Provider in Cyprus.
Following the sale of his third startup, he was recruited by Hewlett Packard’s startup subsidiary in Cyprus, as its first Managing Director. He held this position until he resigned in February 2014. In 2013 Andreas has founded CYBAN, the Cyprus Business Angels Network of which he is currently the CEO. He has since been an active Investor, Mentor and Coach to a number of startups. Andreas is passionate about entrepreneurship, startup investments and mentoring young teams of entrepreneurs. As a full-time Angel Investor, he frequently states that at this stage in his career he can re-live the thrills of entrepreneurship by investing in and mentoring teams of young entrepreneurs.
For the fall semester 2020, C4E will offer two free elective undergraduate courses: C4E101: Series of Lectures on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and C4E 102: Group Project on Entrepreneurship. Planned lectures and workshops include the following: Introduction to Entrepreneurship by Professor Marios Dikaiakos (C4E Director), online lecture on healthcare issues / humanitarian engineering and innovation by Professor Muhammad Zaman (Boston University), PwC Lecture on Negotiations Skills by Marilena Maroudia (Senior Manager & Tutor of PwC’s Academy Cyprus) and Introduction to 3D Design by Odysseas Economides (Founder of Robo.cy) among others. C4E Students will also have the opportunity to access workshops part of the CyEC Acceleration Program.
Get more updates on the program of the Series of Lectures on Innovation and Entrepreneurship here.
C4E is honored to have on board for its Series of Lectures in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Professor Muhammad Zaman. “He is the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University”. His interests also extend to the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Engineering and Refugee Studies in the same University, through which he actively supports students to develop skills in conducting research and developing solutions for combating humanitarian crises. His recent book named “Biography of Resistance” offers us a new perspective on how superbugs become resistant to antibiotics. His lecture will take place online on October 7th, 17.00-18.30.
We are happy to welcome 14 new students in our educational activity awarding students the Certificate in Entrepreneurship. Students from various departments of UCY including Engineering, Psychology, Accounting, Law, Computer Science and Biology have already applied to begin their journey from September 2020 onwards. To obtain the certificate students are required to complete six courses, a practicum and a presentation/pitch in front of an Evaluation Committee. C4E offers the Certificate in Entrepreneurship since September 2018.
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More activities………on Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
A new GUIDE on Research and Innovation for UCY staff
The Research Support Service and the Research Committee of the University of Cyprus have developed and recently published the Research and Innovation Guide. After one year of hard work the guide is available to UCY staff and it will be updated annually. The aim is to include the most recent decisions, policies and process regarding research and innovation-related activities conducted at the University of Cyprus.
C4E participates in the YUFE Alliance project and most specifically, in WP5: Innovation and Entrepreneurship. YUFE stands for Young Universities for the Future of Europe and it is a three-year pilot project (under ERASMUS+, European Universities) started on the 1st of December 2019. The YUFE Alliance is based on the joint vision of ten young research-intensive universities, including the University of Cyprus, and four non-academic partners located all across Europe. Together, the YUFE partners will establish one of the first true European Universities, a single European University with various campuses across Europe offering a European University degree based on a combination of academic, professional and civic skills. YUFE aims to transform European higher education by establishing the leading model of a student-centred, open and inclusive European University. In this way, YUFE makes Europe-wide higher education a reality for local and international students of all backgrounds. It enables them to create their own curriculum and maximizes impact of all universities in the alliance. Find out more on the YUFE Alliance project.
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