easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is offering £300,000 to promising young entrepreneurs – could you be one of them? Here’s how last year’s winners got on

Imagine getting £150,000 for your start-up. Not as a loan, or investment in return for shares – just a simple cash grant you can spend in any way you want.

That’s exactly what happened to Amelia Christie-Miller, founder of premium beans brand Bold Bean Co, when she won the top prize in last year’s Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs.

Launched by easyJet founder and philanthropist Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the awards are now in their second year and currently inviting applications from entrepreneurs under 34 with a UK start-up generating at least £500,000 of annual revenue (revised turnover requirement due to very high response rate).

Sir Stelios has spent more than three decades creating and nurturing the phenomenally successful easy family of brands, including easyJet.com, easyHotel.com, easyCar.com, easyBus.com and easyStorage.com (www.easy.com, www.easyHistory.info) – creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process.

He now spends a significant proportion of his time giving back to society via the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, which amongst many other charitable work, is organising the awards in the hope of helping this generation of promising young entrepreneurs become the big job creators of the future for the UK economy.

There’s £300,000 of cash on offer in total, including the top prize of £150,000 that Amelia won last year, £100,000 for a runner-up, and £50,000 for third place. The winners will also receive mentoring from Sir Stelios himself.

With this year’s competition closing on March 28, 2025, time is running out to enter your start-up.

So, to give you some extra motivation, we’ve caught up with Amelia and her fellow 2024 winners – Tom Ushakov, of the London Pregnancy Clinic, and Charlotte Stavrou, of Sevensix Agency – to hear how they’ve made the most of Sir Stelios’s support.

+7
View gallery

Amelia Christie-Miller, founder of premium beans brand Bold Bean Co, won the top prize in last year’s Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs

+7
View gallery

easyJet owner Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou launched the awards in the hope of helping this generation of promising young entrepreneurs become the big job creators of the future

‘It’s been a total game-changer that’s helped us scale up our operations’

Amelia Christie-Miller first heard about the Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs in an email forwarded on by a friend, and decided Bold Bean Co – which produces premium jarred beans for home cooking – would be the perfect fit.

The key details

The Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs is open to entrepreneurs aged 18-34 on the closing date of March 28, 2025.

Applicants must be a director of the company and own shares of more than 50 per cent.

Their businesses must have been registered at UK Companies House in the last five years since 2019, with accounts showing revenues of at least £200,000 per year.

Entry is via a simple online form at www.stelios.foundation

After winning the first prize, she has gone on to enjoy a stellar year that’s seen her beans sold in Tesco for the first time. The 32-year-old has also launched a new range of gourmet baked beans that are already proving a big hit on Instagram.

Revealing how the awards helped to supercharge the growth of her business, she says: ‘It was a total game-changer for Bold Bean Co.

‘The support, recognition, and sheer belief we’ve received since has been instrumental in helping us put beans exactly where they belong – right at the heart of people’s kitchens across the UK.

‘We’ve also expanded our product range, landed exciting new retail partnerships, and made huge strides in our mission to make humble beans a loved and celebrated food staple.’

+7
View gallery

Amelia describes her award win as ‘a total game-changer for Bold Bean Co’

+7
View gallery

The company has launched a new line-up of gourmet baked beans. Pictured is a serving handed out to Londoners from its ‘beanmobile’

Amelia has used her £150,000 winnings to scale up operations to meet the growing demand, while also investing in projects to improve the quality of Bold Bean Co’s sales data and the wellbeing of its more than a dozen employees.

‘There’s no catch to the award money itself, which is so rare and such a gift to a small business,’ she says. ‘The fact that they trusted our mission and what we’re doing was really cool.’

And Amelia insists it’s not only the money that’s made a difference.

‘It’s not just the financial support – though that’s huge – but the validation and exposure that comes with it,’ she says.

‘Sir Stelios has such a great emphasis on brands and building profitable businesses. I find him really inspiring to speak to.’

‘We’ve been able to build an amazing app that would have otherwise taken us years’

Tom Ushakov came second in last year’s Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs

Tom Ushakov grew up in a family of doctors and has childhood memories of his father Fred, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, keeping a large ultrasound machine in their living room.

Thanks to his knowledge of the industry, he was able to spy an opportunity to harness the power of digital technology to help support women during pregnancy, and in 2019 founded his own business, the London Pregnancy Clinic.

Tom came second in last year’s Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs and immediately put the £100,000 prize money to work by opening up a second floor of his company’s City of London clinic, which offers advanced ultrasound scans and genetic testing to expectant women.

The 27-year-old digital whizz has also invested heavily in a new app, Pouch Health, which provides women with a variety of digital tools and resources to support their pregnancy journey.

‘Most of the money we won from the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation went into the app, so it helped us build an amazing product that would have otherwise taken years to develop,’ he says.

‘The prize money gave us the resources we needed to make mistakes and implement our vision.’

Tom also credits the award with propelling his company onto the national stage, with Sir Stelios’s endorsement helping to open doors within the digital healthcare industry.

+7
View gallery

The 27-year-old digital whizz has invested heavily in a new app, Pouch Health – which provides woman with a variety of digital tools and resources to support their pregnancy journey

‘The trust that he’s put in us has helped get our foot in the door for other opportunities, particularly when it comes to building stronger connections with other start-ups within the health tech space,’ he says.

‘We’ve hired seven more people so we’ve got around 25 now – and we’re about to hire even more.

‘Last year we were projected to make £1.4million in revenues and we’re aiming to grow that in the next. It’s an exciting time and we’ve got some really interesting projects.’

Asked for his message to qualifying applicants for the 2025 awards, he says: ‘I would encourage them to enter.

‘I didn’t expect anything from this because there are so many amazing businesses in the UK.’

‘I applied for the award on a whim – it’s now given me the confidence to take important risks’

Charlotte Stavrou (née Williams) applied to the Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs at the last minute and was amazed to win £50,000 to invest in her business, SevenSix Agency.

The 34-year-old launched the London-based influencer marketing agency in 2019 after noticing the lack of diversity in the world of social media.

‘We do all things influencer,’ she says. ‘So we manage influencers and act as their agents, but we also work with brands to pair influencers with their campaigns.’

+7
View gallery

Charlotte Stavrou, founder of SevenSix Agency, says being backed by a business legend like Sir Stelios has given her confidence a big boost

Last year, Charlotte was looking for an injection of cash to help grow her business, meaning her win came at the perfect time.

‘It provided a security blanket that gave me the confidence to take important risks,’ she says.

‘That included making a marketing specific hire, which has been revolutionary for the business. Without the grant I couldn’t have done that.’

SevenSix Agency has grown to a team of seven and has already surpassed last year’s total revenue by 40.73 per cent, with three months remaining in the financial year.

Charlotte is now exploring opportunities to grow the business into different global markets – bolstered by the confidence that recognition from a business legend like Sir Stelios has given her.

+7
View gallery

The Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs are being run by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation (stelios.foundation), which launched in 2011

‘If I wanted to give him a call or ask his advice on something I could, which has put me in a really privileged position – I feel like he’s backing me,’ she says.

‘It’s great to win an award and get a trophy but there’s usually not much that comes after it. In this case, we were given a cash injection and aftercare too, which you don’t usually see.

‘Sir Stelios and his team are fantastic. They actually care and reach out for catch ups.’