LONDON 2 January 2024
Stelios launches new young entrepreneur awards in the UK www.stelios.foundation
New competition with £300,000 in cash prizes will support the best young UK start-up founders on their growth journey to encourage job creation.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is launching a new award focused on young entrepreneurs through the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, his UK registered charity.
The new awards follow the success of his other UK awards for disabled entrepreneurs (run in partnership with Leonard Cheshire, the disability charity), now in its 16th year, which will continue in parallel and will be inviting applications in May 2024.
The new awards have several key criteria that have been carefully chosen to maximise the impact of the awards with the aim of helping to create jobs in the UK with a multiplier effect. The awards will target the best young start-up entrepreneurs who always need a bit of extra capital, but also the recognition of winning the awards, on their journey to scale-up into a successful growth business and create more new jobs in the UK. It also aims to create role models for young people who are dreaming of starting their own businesses and be their own boss rather than working for others. As a result, these new awards are for entrepreneurs who are:
– 35 years old or younger (born in 1988 or later).
– Running a start-up company registered at Companies House (UK) in the last 5 years (registered in 2018 or later).
– In current ownership of more than 50% of the shares of the company and be a director of the company.
– Can demonstrate audited accounts filed with Companies House (UK) showing revenues of at least £1million per annum.
There are three cash prizes for the winners totalling £300,000 (First: £150,000, Second: £100,000 and third £50,000) that must be invested in the business to further its growth and success. For the avoidance of doubt these are cash grants to be paid by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation to the business accounts of the three winners without any other conditions. They are prizes and not an investment in return for shares nor a loan.
To ensure that the opportunity to win reaches all the most deserving entrepreneurs, Sir Stelios will be investing significantly in a paid online advertising campaign (to the tune of another £400,000 in online media budget) so that the awards get maximum visibility amongst the best young start-up entrepreneurs in the UK to encourage them to apply and win. The marketing budget backing the new awards will add kudos to the winners therefore encourage more people to apply to win.
Sir Stelios said, “Over the last 30 years I have a long track record of helping to create tens of thousands of UK jobs both on the for-profit side by creating the easy family of brands (www.easy.com) but also with my charitable foundation and the existing awards for disabled entrepreneurs. With these new awards by targeting the best and the brightest young founders of start-ups I believe we can help create many more new jobs in the UK. More start-ups are the best way to create more new jobs. By the time I was 35 years old easyJet.com was already listed on the London Stock Exchange and having revenues of more than half a billion pounds and employed upwards of 3,000 people. With these awards we are hoping to the find and support the next big business success story. These charitable awards are possible through the profits that easyGroup makes through its ownership and stewardship of the easy family of brands. It is personally important to me that the success I have achieved can be passed on to deserving young founders of UK start-up companies to fuel their further success with create more new jobs with a multiplier effect.”
The award launches on 3 January 2024 and inviting application by email as seen on www.stelios.foundation, applications will close on 29 February 2024 and the winners will be announced by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in early April 2024.
The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation which is launching and funding the award has the stated mission of supporting a very diverse range of good causes but “close to home” i.e., in the local communities in the 4 places that Sir Stelios has lived and worked in his career and of course the UK is one of them. The foundation has been running very successful similar entrepreneur’s awards in Greece and Cyprus supporting job creation in the local economies for many years.
ENDS
For more information, contact:
Robin Tozer
Director, Communications
SEC Newgate
T: +44 7540 106366
E: easygroup@secnewgate.co.uk
About easyGroup Ltd and Stelios Philanthropic Foundation
easyGroup Ltd is the creator and owner of the easy family of brands (see www.easy.com and www.easyHistory.info)
A few facts and figures about the Stelios Philanthropic foundation www.stelios.org. Sir Stelios and easyGroup have donated more than €84,000,000 to the UK charity since 2010
The main projects are:
• Food from the heart: 35,000,000 free snacks given to those in need in Greece and Cyprus since 2013 with a retail value of €35,000,000
• €8,800,000 for about 300 Scholarships at London school of Economics, City, University of London and other academic institutions
• €7,200,000 in cash prizes to entrepreneurs to encourage job creation
• €2,500,000 for the environmental working with WWF and the Prince Albert II Foundation
Over the past 30 years, the easy family of brands have been carefully managed and developed to become the icons they are today. easyGroup, owned by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has created a steady recurring income stream from the “easy” royalties. As a result, easyGroup donates the majority of its profits to the UK registered charity Stelios Philanthropic Foundation www.stelios.org through which Sir Stelios gives back to society. Sir Stelios every year launches new easy branded businesses in partnership with more entrepreneurs who are experts in their own fields, and they have realised that using the easy brand under licence can fast track their own growth.
This investment is justifiably protected by easyGroup on behalf of the easy family of brands by stopping brand thieves who use the easy brand without our permission and without our controls. We want to uphold the rule of law and protect consumers from being misled by these brand thieves that they are a legitimate member of the easy family when they are not. Ultimately, it is this protection that allows the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation to deliver a positive impact, including with this latest young entrepreneur competition.
A list of cases brought against brand thieves can be found at https://easy.com/
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