The title of the "Start-up of the Year 2014" has been awarded to Saule Technologies, one of the first companies in the world to work on the commercial application of perovskites (compounds which absorb light and use it to produce energy). It is working on a flexible semi-transparent cell which will be easily combined with products already available in the market. For instance, a tablet device with a perovskite-coated screen will be able to auto-recharge its battery.
The results of the "Start-up of the Year" competition were announced during the final Business Mixer event held as part of the Business Start-up Program of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation and the Academic Business Incubators. Business Mixer is a series of events intended to select the most effective young company among the participants of the Business Start-up Program. The events bring together successful businesspeople, innovators and presidents of multinational companies. Each event ends with a networking session, which facilitates establishing new business contacts. Radosław Sikorski, Speaker for the Polish Parliament, attended the event as a special guest. Speaker Sikorski emphasized, 'Supporting Polish business is among the priorities of Polish diplomacy".
Each of the three start-ups which made it to the final stage had three minutes to make a pitch for its business idea. Having heard from all three contestants, the jury, made up of: Czesław Piasek, Management Board Member at Citi Handlowy; Milan Zika, Management Board Member and Director for Technology and Innovations at T-Mobile and Dariusz Żuk, President of Academic Business Incubators, selected the best candidate.
Czesław Piasek stressed that the "role of Citi Handlowy in supporting start-ups is opening access capital and know-how. However, in the context of the event, it is primarily the provision of financial education".
The Business Start-up is a year-long country-wide program prepared by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation and implemented in cooperation with the Academic Business Incubators. The project aims to kick-start young people's enterprising spirit and help them make their dreams about running their own business come true. It consists of a three-stage support model, which involves assistance with establishing and running a business, support for existing companies and international expansion advice. Its participants take part in workshop sessions and one-on-one meetings with mentors and successful businesspeople. A series of events is also organised to help them showcase their businesses.
In 2014, 350 students and 100 start-ups already operating in the market took part in the third edition of the project.
