Changing Greece

…one newsletter at a time.

INTRO

“Greece will never change.” How many times have you heard this phrase? How many times have you said it yourself? Probably a few thousand — only in the past year.

During the peak of the Greek crisis, someone told me that “Greece is a poor country with a rich set of problems.” That stuck with me for a while. Through the years, I realized the problem was actually inverted: Greece is rich in talented Greeks but poor in meaningful solutions. Mediocrity, ideology, nepotism, clientelism and corruption permeate every level and overshadow excellence, reason, effort, equity and fairness.

Within this sea of terribleness, most good things in Greece get lost. I want to change that by bringing them together and reinforcing them. Build a critical mass of changemakers. Create a virtuous cycle. Amplify our (often hidden) best elements.

This newsletter is dedicated to those who believe that Greece can change. To those helping Greece change, even if not as optimistic. To those who want to inspire change in the country but also be inspired by it. To those who — like most of us — have at times been sad, angry or in disbelief with the state of affairs in the country but had this low-pitched voice at the back of our head saying: “we can be better than this.”

This is a newsletter for the Greek founders, entrepreneurs, technologists, scientists, professionals, academics, policy makers, investors and mentality shifters of our time. The builders of Greece’s future.

So, here we go. Changing Greece. One newsletter at a time.

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🙌 PROOF THAT GREECE IS CHANGING

Greece opens up voting to eligible voters in the diaspora. The Greek parliament has passed a law that removes impediments still blocking eligible Greek voters studying, working or living abroad from voting without having to buy a plane ticket to Greece. The law is expected to build a stronger bond between Greece and its large diaspora. With wide support from many parties across the ideological spectrum (208 out of 300 MPs voted in favor), rarely seen in today’s fragmented Greek parliament, a long-time request of the Greek diaspora has been finally satisfied.

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💰 INVESTMENTS, INVESTMENTS, INVESTMENTS

The Greek stockmarket is at the top of the world this year. Flows of outside funds in Greek stocks and bonds have increased 14% year-to-date. FDI jumped by 20% reaching another historic milestone. Following the electoral result in June, which was viewed favorably by the markets, investors are now banking on Greece returning to investment grade after more than 12 years. Greek central bank governor Stournaras hinted the upgrade is coming soon. Even the State Department has noticed, highlighting “Greece’s aggressive investment and economic reform agenda” in a recent report. But that’s not all. Despite the ongoing glut in VC markets, Greek entrepreneurs and businesses are still raising money…

Greek ML startup Causaly raised $60M from top investors like Iconiq and Index in an an eye-popping Series B round in early July.

Vendora secured a new investment round in the multi-million range for its Greek secondhand goods marketplace this week.

Belgian fund Helenos invested in Karditsas’ Cooperative Bank purchasing <5% of the bank in late June 2023.

J.P. Morgan is investing in Greek talent signaling its continued push in Athens’ technology ecosystem with its new Payments Innovation Lab for Onyx.

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⚓️ MARITIME TECH ON THE RISE

Japanese engineering company Nabtesco has acquired DeepSea, a Greek startup specializing in vessel performance monitoring and optimisation, after leading its €5M funding round in 2021. Based in Athens, DeepSea was founded by (science wiz) Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos and (part-time shipping scion, part-time musician) Roberto Coustas, both Oxbridge-trained AI experts. Today, it has a team of more than 90 people that is expected to grow to 110 as it sets up a center of industrial AI excellence in Greece for the Japanese giant.

Seafair is hiring in Athens, Thessaloniki and Manila in July 2023.

Procureship is expanding in Northern Europe as it reached 60 buyers (representing more than 1,700 vessels and more than 6,000 suppliers) in June 2023.

Kpler acquired Greek scale-up Marine Traffic for an undisclosed sum in Feb 2023.

Harbor Lab raised a €6.1M seed round led by Speedinvest and VentureFriends to reshape port disbursements in Dec 2022.

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🔃 CIRCULAR ECONOMY BECOMES HIP

Greece’s first circular economy impact fund Sporos launched at €30.5M. HDBI is the anchor investor alongside 10 private investors from Greece and Europe. A clever play in the age of EU’s massive Recovery Fund and the European Green Deal, but a lot will depend on execution. I am optimistic.

EU Environment Ministers talked circular economy as well as biodiversity, waste management and carbon emissions in their unofficial meeting in mid-July 2023.

4THCESUST2023 took place in Crete, the fourth symposium on circular economy and sustainability, in June 2023.

RawMat2023 will take place in Athens, making this the 2nd international conference on raw materials and circular economy organized by NTUA in Aug/Sep 2023.

Dianeosis published a deep-dive into Greece’s circular economy full of key insights back in Oct 2022.

Greek government has a national strategy for the circular economy which was first published in Dec 2018 and updated in Nov 2021.

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👩‍💼 GREEK WOMEN CHANGING THE GAME

The wine producing whiz-kid that caught the attention of NASA. Iliana Malihin, whose winery at Melabes village in Crete is already making waves abroad, has managed to give new life to the ancient Vidiano variety and also revive local rare vineyards after a devastating wildfire in 2022.

Female-led startup thymia raised $2.7M seed round to make mental health as objectively measured as physical health. Kudos to founder/CEO Emilia Molimpakis.

Driving diversity in the Greek tech scene is a key focus for Matina Thomaidou (VP, Head of Data Science at Dataseat) and Lilian Balatsou (founder of Greek Girls Code), both female leaders and active participants in the local tech ecosystem.

Female-led startup Morphoses is growing, hiring across a number of roles to strengthen their soft-skills platform for kids and support working parents.

Greece has a new young weightlifting champion in the face of Maria Stratoudaki, who won multiple contests on a national and European level during the past weeks.

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P.S. In the past few weeks, Greece has been ravaged by massive wildfires. If you want to help, consider donating to causes supporting Greek wildlife, animals and locals. This is strictly NOT investment advice so please DYOR before donating anything to anyone, on- or off-line.

Until next time.