News
KD Funds calls out to bold teams across Slovenia for the second year running!
We at KD Funds have this year organised a competition entitled Everything=Possible! for the second year in a row. The winner receives EUR 10,000 to help realise their idea, EUR 5,000 for advertising on Radio Centre, and a tuition fee covering the first year of undergraduate Entrepreneurship studies at Gea College. This year 670 competitors applied, which is twice as many as last year when the number was 333. The competing teams have designed projects, shared them on the KD Funds FB site, and collected badges and likes. Of all the ideas, our 8-member jury selected six of the most original projects, whilst the overall best project was decided by people via online voting.
We have experienced 82 exciting competition days: final voting closed on 21 November, and on Monday, 24 November 2014, we announced the winner at a ceremony held at the Vivo Catering premises in Ljubljana. The winner of the Everything=Possible! competition is the Calypso project, and the winning idea of the Enterprise challenge, rewarded by the company Si.Mobil with EUR 5,000 worth of products and services, is the project BrightLes, or BrightWood in English. A lucky winner was also selected among those who voted for the project, and was rewarded with 6-months’ use of a Fiat 500c leased by the competition partner Veit Team.
The competition organiser, KD Funds, together with its partners and the 8-member jury has for the second consecutive year motivated Slovenia to think in terms of inspiring projects, set daring goals and create great teams. Luka Podlogar, the President of the Management Board, commented upon the announcement of the competition winner: “We at KD Funds are aware of our engagement with the local and global environment. We know that in addition to doing responsible business, taking up activities in the field of corporate responsibility is our obligation. We wish to co-shape the environment where bold projects expressing courage, clear goals and inspiration turn into success stories. For us, organising this competition means investing in development. And because everything is possible, we believe that the projects taking part in our competition may have the potential to become the future generators of economic growth in the region. The winners of today’s competition are aspiring researchers who believe that knowledge brings progress and that with every step they take in their projects they are pushing the boundaries of what is possible, millimetre by millimetre. Congratulations to the Calypso team!”.
The winners of the second Everything=Possible! competition are students from the Gimnazija Vič secondary school. For three years they have been working on a submarine that will make it possible to explore the very last undiscovered of our planet hiding deep below the surface of the sea. They called the submarine Calypso and sent it out to explore the Slovenian sea this summer. After the successful trial, the submarine will now be moved to a new hydrodynamic shell. It is the work of 40 courageous students who spend their afternoons in the school workshop, researching, inventing and pushing the boundaries millimetre by millimetre at each session. Miha Majetič, a student representing the winning Calypso project, says: “Of course we are thrilled about the prize. Seeing how many people support us and our work gives us even more enthusiasm to keep creating. We will first complete our Calypso submarine, which we plan to launch in the Slovenian sea in March next year. And then we will go on with new technical projects. We are definitely not running out of ideas, and we are already looking forward to new challenges”.
In addition to the main prize, an extra prize was presented in the Everything=Possible! competition. The Si.Mobil jury selected their own winner of the Enterprise challenge, namely the project entitled BrightWood, and presented the young innovators with a prize of EUR 5,000 worth of products and services. The project is about an innovative wood products line that creates a synergy of wood and light.
For more information about the project, go to http://www.vsejemogoce.si/
