The 10 new startup teams that managed to gather the highest score and were selected by the Jury of the Evaluation & Evaluation Committee Guidance to join the 7th cycle of the Acceleration Program (September 2024 – February 2025), welcomed at its premises, the accelerator of XEE CapsuleT Travel & Travel Hospitality Accelerator on Thursday, 5 September. In the opening event of the 7th cycle, in a special live “Welcoming Event”, first welcomed the startups on stage by the President of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Mr. Alexander Vasilikos and addressing them he said: “You have a lot of work ahead, enjoyable and creative work. You will be pushed, you will be strained, but you have so much to receive from numerous people who have invested and continue to invest and believe. We will not define the way we travel in the future, you will define it. But we will give you the values of hospitality that the hotel industry and this country has in its DNA.”. The President of XEE closing his greeting, thanked both the CapsuleT team and the members of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, but also all the sponsors, mentors and supporters as well as the Jury Committee of the new cycle for their substantial contribution. 
The baton was then passed to Mrs.
Vasiliki Koutsoukou, Secretary General of Tourism and Political Development, who said: “The accelerator’s mission to build an innovative ecosystem in the tourism sector by offering opportunities for the development of start-up technology businesses is in perfect alignment with the Ministry of Tourism’s focus on sustainable tourism development. Today, with the launch of the 7th cycle of this programme, an important step is being taken towards the overall upgrading of the Greek travel experience. An important step towards enhancing the qualitative characteristics of Greek tourism, with the ultimate goal of creating a competitive, modern and sustainable tourism product. We wish every success to the participants of the programme, the tourism businesses of tomorrow”.
Then the baton was passed to the Director of CapsuleT, Ms.
Katerina Saridaki , presented the content and actions of the 7th cycle program that will be implemented in the next 5 months and thanked in turn all the supporters of the accelerator as well as the members of the XEE who support the actions of CapsuleT, but also the older startup teams that attended the event.
She concluded by saying: “We feel so familiar with most of you, we have been with you since the very first moment, since 2019 when the accelerator started. So we are a family. Thank you all so much for your participation, interest and support to build together an active community of innovation in tourism.”
After the presentations, the floor was given to the 10 new startups that joined the programme, which had the opportunity to briefly present their business proposal to the members of the CapsuleT community that were present in the venue. The main part of this event was, of course, the meeting and the first face-to-face contact of the new teams with representatives of the state and the Hellenic Tourism Board, with mentors and judges of the program, strategic partners & sponsors of the accelerator, but also with other members of the Greek tourism ecosystem, with whom they exchanged views, while clarifying the content of the 5-month program.
The teams of the 7th cycle In particular, the teams that joined the new acceleration cycle are the following:
- Algomo
- Epivatis L.P.
- GRS (Green Room System)
- Hype ™️
- iSPACE
- MENUFI PC
- SmartRep
- snapjob
- Wastecloud
- WeTip
What the Acceleration Programme has to offer In particular, the Acceleration Programme is offered to the selected teams free of charge and without any other financial requirements (e.g. equity or shares from their company).
Its duration is 5 months, during which time the selected start-ups – in addition to their participation in the programme – can use the accelerator premises for free, with the possibility of extending their period of use for at least 3 months of additional use after the end of the programme.
The programme includes actions that are continuously enriched according to the current needs and market developments, such as workshops and mentoring meetings, while an important part of the programme is also the presentation opportunities and meetings with tourism executives (meetups), on-site visits to hotels and leading travel agencies, as well as networking activities through the presence in networking events.
In addition, extroverted activities – through conferences and participation in exhibitions and delegations in Greece and abroad – constitute another pillar of the programme, in order to effectively connect startup teams with prominent representatives of the Greek and global tourism market.
Which leading companies will support the startups? Please note that the 7
The 7th cycle ofthe Acceleration Programme will be carried out with the valuable assistance of the non-profit organization
The People’s Trust, which will support for the fourth consecutive year the further development of technology startups in the tourism industry and will support the competitive part of the program by offering the cash prizes for the 3 winners, as well as the Aegean Airlines as the official airline of the teams.
Google will also be on board with CapsuleT, participating with educational workshops and mentoring. Important and active strategic partners of the accelerator’s activities are also:
NBG Business Seeds, Nelios, PwC Greece, TÜV AUSTRIA Hellas, Programize as well as the
Investing For Purpose. At the same time, the Capsule team
T is again joining forces with recognized startups of the tourism market such as Clio Muse Tours, Ferryhopper, Triparound, Welcome Pickups and Wooftogether, which joined the programme as community partners. Finally, a supporter for the provision of coffee products will be Douwe Egberts/Foodrinco. Do you want to be the first to know the news of our startups and the Greek tourism ecosystem as a whole?
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