KfW Entrepreneurs' Award 2017: successful entrepreneurs honoured in Berlin

• KfW Entrepreneurs' Award presented yesterday at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, with total prize money of EUR 35,000
• Out of the 16 regional winners, Creapaper was the national winner.
• Greta & Starks from Berlin was the winner of the "people's choice" award.

Yesterday evening, this year's KfW Entrepreneurs' Award was presented during the festive award ceremony at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in Berlin; Dr Sabine Hepperle, Head of the SME Policy Directorate at BMWi, and KfW Director Dr Katrin Leonhardt presented the 16 regional winners with their awards together with Dr Irmfried Schwimann, acting Deputy Director-General for Internal Market, Industry and SMEs for the European Commission (cf. press release from 9 October 2017, award: EUR 1,000 EUR/company, an invitation to Berlin and PR activities). They also presented the award to the national winner Creapaper GmbH (endowed with an additional EUR 9,000), the "people's choice" winner Greta & Starks from Berlin (EUR 5,000), and the special award for Social Entrepreneurship (EUR 5,000) was given to the Institute for Inclusive Education in Schleswig-Holstein, www.inklusive-bildung.org. (Note: all award winners and a description of their companies can be found at www.kfw.de/award (only in German language) and in the press release from 9 October 2017"Success stories are encourageing entrepreneurial initiative").

Companies from all industries that were founded from 2012 onwards were eligible to participate in this year's competition. The award winners were selected by a jury of experienced representatives from KfW, promotional institutions, and the world of business, politics and media, who evaluated the business ideas according to their degree of innovation, creativity, and how they assume social responsibility. They also took into account how environmentally-friendly the implementation was and whether trainee positions and jobs were created or maintained.

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You can find further information and photos from yesterday's event at:
www.kfw.de/award (in German only) and www.kfw.de/stories.