SEV along with Endeavor Greece organized the first digital conference “Innovative Greeks” (“Innovative Greeks”), a few days ago in our country. 

This is an initiative aimed at creating an international community, whose members will consist of recognized Greek investors, businessmen, academics and high-ranking company executives. Its main goal will be the exchange of ideas, resources, know-how and connections between the rapidly growing Greek start-ups. Greek start-ups will have the opportunity to discover opportunities, collaborate with leading companies, explore new markets and grow.

The conference was attended by leading Greek and Greek businessmen of the Diaspora, investors, important government officials and the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and SEV President Dimitris Papalexopoulos discussed issues of innovation and development in the post-COVID era. The discussion was moderated by Konstantza Sbokou-Konstantakopoulou, co-Owner & CEO, Phaea Resorts / senior architect, TEMES SA and president of Endeavor Greece. Atthe beginning, Mr.coordinated and made statements Markos Veremis, President, Upstream & Partner, Big Pi Ventures (Co-Chair of the Innovation Committee, SEV).

The main topics of the conference were related to the repatriation of Greek businessmen and investors, the incentives and opportunities that will be offered to achieve this goal, the importance of technological investments in our country and the growth potential they can give to the Greek economy. 

The means that can contribute to the creation of an ecosystem friendly to any kind of start-up as well as the importance of extroversion in terms of exchanging ideas with the international Greek community through the “Innovative Greeks” were also analyzed. 

The goal of all this effort is to have invested 10 billion in capital by 2025 and to have created 50,000 new jobs.

As Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed in his speech, the post-covid era is a “once in generation opportunity” to develop this generation ahead and create a new era of technological development and innovation. An ally in this effort will be EquiFund VC’s, a partnership of private and public sector funds in order to strengthen entrepreneurship in our country. 

According to a study by the research and analysis organization “diANEOsis”, private sector investment in research and development in Greece is at 0.59% of GDP while the corresponding figure for Europe is 1.42% of GDP.

At the end of the conference, however, optimism prevailed regarding the development of entrepreneurship in Greece as well as the technological ecosystem that will frame it. 

Among the speakers who stood out were the president and head of science of the American biotechnology company, Dr. George Giankopoulos, Dr. Nikolas Galakatos, head of Blackstone Life Sciences, Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos, chairman of the board. of Biogen, Dean Dakolias, co-chief investment officer of Fortress Investment Group, Jim Giannopoulos, President and CEO of Paramount Pictures, Niki Trigoni, Professor at the University of Oxford, co-founder and CTO of the start-up Navenio, James Christopoulos, managing director at CVC Capital Partners, Alex Hatzieleftheriou, co-founder and CEO at Blueground, Andreas Stavropoulos, partner at Threshold Ventures, and many others.