BUSINESS: 471 PRACTICES
Quest Holdings SA is the parent company of the Quest Group, one of the largest groups of companies in Greece, with a strong presence in the sectors of Digital Technologies, E-Commerce, Electronic Transactions, Green Energy, as well as Courier Services and Postal Services.
IQbility focuses on highlighting young talented people and promoting Greek innovation, channeling Greek Value Added into international markets, as well as contributing to society, the labor market and curbing the flow of intellectual capital.
Startups directly connected to technology
From April 2013 until today
IQbility is a technology startup funding and support program created and supported exclusively by Quest Group. The program focuses on and helps in the first steps new efforts, in setting up the business, if it has not already been set up, in product integration, in implementing the first steps in the market and in seeking further capital. The funding comes from both the Quest group's own funds and investments with other venture capital funds or even private investors (angels, seed funds, etc.).
In addition, IQbility covers accounting and legal support services, full office infrastructure, cloud hosting, workstations and various technical infrastructures. In constant collaboration with international technology companies (Microsoft, Rackspace, HP, IBM- Softlayer, Moosend), it offers startups free services to facilitate their first steps. Also important is the contribution of experienced Quest Group executives, as well as entrepreneurs from the domestic and international environment who have time dedicated to mentoring and coaching.
The up-to-date startups supported by IQbility are:
Offerial (2013): An application that connects hotels and prospective customers and offers personalized hosting information.
Captainwise (2013): A system that proposes combinations of hotels and airline tickets to different destinations, according to the amount available and the dates the user wants to travel.
Pollfish (2013): An online service that offers anyone the ability to easily and quickly conduct surveys in the form of questionnaires, without having to find people to complete their survey.
Mist.io (2014): Helps system administrators and developers simplify the management and monitoring of their servers, drastically reduce their response time and increase the uptime of their services.
e-Nios (2014): A computing platform that offers advanced automated, mass analysis of complex gene data, with advanced computational intelligence, for the development of new diagnostic methods and personalized therapeutics.
Panelsensor (2014): An application ideal for conference organizers, which helps interact with the public and provides a wealth of statistics and metrics, as well as a modern sponsorship ROI measurement tool.
Allcancode (2015): A company developing an educational system based on a computer adventure game, in which children 6 to 12 years old learn to program computers.
Reembed (2016): Software for viewing online video content and ads.
Accusonus (2016): Company developing software for the music industry based on artificial intelligence algorithms.
Roadcube (2016): application to buy drivers and pay for mobile products and services
Blendo (2016): application for exporting, managing and downloading data from e-shops and websites
in the form of Software as a Service)
Flexfin (2018): next generation online banking
Novoville (2018): Citizen and Local Government Interface through easy-to-use application
Since its launch in April 2013, IQbility has run four bids, and has also participated in a variety of activities and competitions, workshops, presentations, competitions and provided 1-1 feedback to hundreds of new entrepreneurs.
IQbility is one of the few wholly private initiatives of a Greek business that, along with hatching, systematically finances Greek start-ups in the early stages. In its six years of operation, IQbility has evolved into an important structure supporting, maturing and promoting ecosystem development, as well as promoting innovation and entrepreneurship across society. It has systematically supported 12 teams and invested in 10 of them for an amount of € 1,000,000 helping to raise a total of over € 10,000,000 from other investors. It has contributed to the creation of more than 100 specialist jobs in the Greek market, which are constantly growing, with 9 teams already taking their first steps in international markets.
Greece
IQbility organizes and actively participates in actions that promote youth entrepreneurship and innovation.
Indicatively, 2018:
• Organize 3 meetups - meetings that foster dialogue and interaction between speakers and audiences, aiming to disseminate know-how on topics such as international sales, growth marketing, fundraising etc. IQbility Meetups add even more value to IQbility's work prove productive to all involved.
• Participated in the 83rd TIF (2018) at the Digital Greece booth (Presentation and Panel).
• Participated in presentations and workshops in the startup Lab of the Athens University of Economics and Business.
• Participated in the Startupnow forum.
Specialists of Quest Group companies work as mentors in business teams, contributing to their experience in making the right decisions.
Contributing to the creation of a broader, quality business culture in the country, bringing Greek know-how and implemented innovation to the international business arena and potential business synergies with start-ups are the benefits for Quest Group.
