Entrepreneurship

Recognizing the need to highlight entrepreneurial ideas that can transform our country into a productive, extroverted, and competitive economy and aiming to provide comprehensive support to innovative scientists, research teams, and start-up entrepreneurial efforts to realize their potential and their vision, the National Bank of Greece has been implementing for 15 years a holistic program to s

The new Library of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EBEA) was inaugurated. According to a related announcement, the inauguration ceremony took place yesterday, Wednesday, September 25th, at the “Konstantinos Michalos” Business Center of EBEA.

Vestbee, Europe's leading platform for startups, VCs, accelerators, and corporates, has just released its VC Funding in the CEE Report for Q2 2024. The latest report highlights a significant increase in venture funding in Central and Eastern Europe, with investments reaching €940 million across over 150 rounds, despite ongoing challenges and persisting market uncertainties.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is betting on the artificial intelligence "assistant" of startup Connectly.ai, as, together with other international investors, it has invested $20 million dollars in the company of Stefanos Loukakos and Yandong Liu.

The government is about to boost Greece's startup environment through a series of measures included in a new National Economy and Finance Ministry bill.

The Municipality of Nicosia is offering a free, two-month business accelerator program designed for individuals, groups and existing businesses in the creative and cultural sectors in Cyprus.

Deputy Foreign Minister George Kotsiras and the head of the Public Employment Service (DYPA), Spiros Protopsaltis, signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at engaging the Greek diaspora on Wednesday. According to an announcement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the memorandum seeks to inform Greeks living abroad about job opportunities in Greece.

They used to be among the protagonists of Greek entrepreneurship, with a powerful presence in industry, construction and retail commerce, and a significant international presence. Yet, overborrowing, poor management and a failure to predict the deterioration of market conditions sent these firms into a tailspin that was followed by the inevitable crash.

Faced with a sharp decline in mergers and acquisitions, the government is providing more generous tax incentives to encourage them. It also wants to reward companies that invest heavily in research and development, as well as angel investors that put up their own assets to finance startups and other small businesses in exchange for equity.

Greek scale-ups, as growing startups are called, are looking for more funding, after a comparatively dry last couple of years.

According to a five-country survey by Deloitte Private, 79% of Greek scale-ups are looking for more funding.

But only 13% are certain they will find the funds they seek, with another 40% saying they are "relatively positive" they will do so.