After years by which Greece was virtually as well-known for its monetary woes because it was for its seashores, current offers have highlighted a small however thriving startup scene that has grown up for the reason that disaster.
JP Morgan’s acquisition of a minority stake in fintech Viva Pockets final month valued the funds firm at over $2 billion, giving Greece its first tech “unicorn” after a gentle buildup of the sector over the previous seven years.
That deal is anticipated to be adopted up this month by Fb proprietor Meta’s acquisition of Accusonus, a startup based by a pair of engineers and beginner musicians whose audio software program is utilized by the likes of Bob Dylan and Shakira.
Funding for Greece-based tech startups soared to almost $1 billion final yr, based on a report by Marathon Enterprise Capital, greater than double in 2020 and almost 10 instances that raised in 2015, when Greece confronted chapter and a chaotic exit from the euro zone.
The offers have given a lift to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has constructed on the work of earlier governments and the EU with tax breaks and funding reforms aimed toward diversifying an economic system dominated by tourism and transport.
“Greece is not only a rustic that depends on tourism and its great seashores,” he mentioned as he toured Viva’s workplaces final week, including the federal government was optimistic that expertise could be an “rising half” of the nation’s GDP.
The Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) estimates the startup sector total stands at 6 billion euros, or 3 % of GDP, with out saying how a lot of that’s accounted for by tech startups. It has set a objective for the expertise sector to achieve 10% of GDP throughout the subsequent decade, Markos Veremis, co-chair of its innovation committee, mentioned final month.
Regardless of the optimism, Greece nonetheless languishes close to the underside of the European Fee’s 2021 Digital Financial system and Society Index, scoring low on connectivity, web use and digital public providers.
Nowhere close to different European startup hubs like London, which raised a report $25 billion in funding in 2021 based on a report by Dealroom, it additionally faces stiff competitors from different southern European international locations like Portugal, which hosts Europe’s largest expertise convention, Internet Summit.
However there’s an more and more energetic community of entrepreneurs and buyers in addition to workers with expertise working overseas throughout the disaster years.
“What began as an underground motion of small nerdy communities is now entrance and centre in Greek society,” mentioned George Tziralis, associate at Athens-based Marathon, who sees expertise rising to match transport’s 7% contribution to the economic system over the subsequent few many years.
MOMENTUM
When Viva was based in 2000 below the identify Notice, startups have been just about remarkable. Since then, what started as a software program home grew right into a fintech working in 23 European international locations.
“There’s an excessive amount of momentum for the burgeoning Greek economic system and Greek startups should take benefit,” Makis Antypas, Viva Pockets’s co-founder and Chief Data Officer, instructed Reuters.
The last decade-long disaster that started in 2008 pressured many younger Greeks who anticipated to work for the state or household companies to both depart for wealthier northern Europe or innovate.
Profitable Greece-based startups now vary from taxi-hailing app Beat, e-commerce platform Skroutz, and market analysis startup Pollfish.
Greece had “raised generations of people that dreamed of working in authorities, or declaring themselves profitable entrepreneurs by squandering public cash,” Panos Zamanis, vice-chairman of the Hellenic Startups Affiliation, mentioned. It took a disaster to shatter these stereotypes, he added.
“We aren’t but within the place we deserve … however we should not neglect that our nation was gradual to enter the map of innovation and suffered from a dramatic financial disaster.”
Since taking workplace in 2019, a yr after Greece exited the most important monetary bailout in historical past, Mitsotakis’s conservative authorities has made digital transformation a precedence. It has launched company tax breaks and reforms to simplify establishing an organization and situation inventory choices.
The improved setting has been mirrored in excessive profile overseas investments together with Microsoft’s determination to construct a knowledge centre hub in Greece, and there are hopes for extra.
Tom Smith, founding father of GWI, an viewers focusing on startup which opened workplaces in Athens in 2018, mentioned payroll taxes and nationwide insurance coverage have been “nonetheless method too excessive” however he welcomed strikes to make Greece extra engaging.
“Once you mix altering sentiment, elevated funding, altering tax insurance policies and superb way of life, it’s a really compelling supply,” he mentioned.
(Reuters)