Solving Greece's demographics

Big problems require bold solutions.

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👨‍👩‍👧 Solving Greece's demographics

Greece is currently experiencing a demographic time bomb.

You do not need to be an expert in Malthusian economics to see that.

The problem today

The gap between births and deaths in Greece has been growing negatively since about the start of the crisis. In 2023, there were 55K more deaths (127K) than births (72K).

Greece is not alone in facing these intense demographic pressures. It is one of many countries around the world. What makes the situation more difficult for Greece is that it experienced a profound economic crisis that made raising a family even harder.

But the problem is not new. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) — the key indicator measuring number of children per parent — has been falling since the early 1980s.

Greece has been below its replacement fertility level of 2.1% for four decades. The rate went up for a short stint during the early 2000s, only to hover around the lowest-low fertility level of 1.3% since then.

The bleak future

There is no way to sugarcoat it — the demographic future of Greece looks bleak.

The country’s population is expected to fall by almost 30% over the next 80 years, from 10.5M today to about 7.2M in 2100.

Is there any hope in the horizon?

Fighting back

Solving the country’s demographic problem is critical, but will not be easy.

The good news? This is well understood both by the current Greek government and all of the opposition parties. The creation of a Ministry dedicated to families and (soon) the establishment of an Observatory for Demographics are positive news.

The government currently hands out allowances between €2,400 and €3,500 per child, depending on the total number of children in the family. It has also improved maternity / paternity policies and legislated a number of other targeted measures.

So, what more can we do? Dianeosis and IOBE share some good policy proposals.

My take? We need to think bigger and bolder. Here are some suggestions.

• Provide aggressive tax incentives to new families. 15% income tax deduction for families with 1 child, 40% for families with two children and 80% for families with three children or more, until all kids reach legal age. (Do it like Hungary)

• Enable pension multipliers for each child. Parents of 1 child should be entitled to a 2% pension increase, 2 children 5% and 3+ children 10%. (Do it like France)

• Introduce family cards with transport discounts. Families should receive heavy discounts (30% off for parents, 60% off for kids) whenever they take the KTEL bus, travel via boat to a Greek island or pass through toll roads. (Do it like the UK)

• Invest more in early-childhood education. Greece should help young women feel that they do not have to sacrifice their careers to become new mothers. Making nurseries more accessible and affordable is a good start. (Do it like Scandinavia)

• Activate the large Greek diaspora. Expedite the notoriously slow citizenship acquisition process for eligible diaspora members to 1 month and double the 50% income tax deduction for families of 2+ coming back to Greece from 7 to 14 years.

Economics is only part of the solution. If we are serious about solving this trend, we will need to leverage culture as well. That will be harder. But it’s necessary.

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💰 Raises and Exits

BETA CAE Systems (simulations) acquired by Cadence for $1.24B.

ScienceIO (healthcare) acquired by Veradigm for $140M.

Entersoft (business software) acquired by Olympia Group.

Ocient (data analytics) raises $49.4M in Series B.

Blueground (proptech) raises $45M in Series D.

Hellas Direct (insurance) raises €30M in Series C.

Kaedim (gaming) raises $15M in Series A led by A16Z.

Ellogon (healthcare) raises $1M in Pre-seed/Seed funding.

Hiveact (interactive fitness) raises its seed round.

Terra Robotics (agritech) raises its pre seed round.

Dinerly (hospitality) raised $30K in fastest Dragon’s Den deal on record.

List above includes both Greek-based founders and those part of the Greek diaspora.

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🤖 Tech & Startups

2024 Q1 Greek Startup Figures: 28 funding rounds, $271M raised, 5 acquisitions.

A national strategy for a society of innovation is necessary in Greece.

Matternet’s role as one of the top 3 U.S. drone delivery players is acknowledged.

The (not so) mythical 10x. What are their characteristics? Skroutz’s CEO chips in.

Meltemi is the first serious Greek LLM, trained by Athena RC.

Do it like Marina, or as I like to say, “Changing Greece”.

MRI in under 5 minutes promises Greek-bred startup Corsmed.

Precision agriculture can help reduce pesticides by 50-80% show Greek tests.

Founder POV on being acquired, and how to get to that $100M+ offer.

REBORRN launches BORRN to help European founders.

Ioannina growing as a digital hub, increasing its tech footprint.

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🏭 Economy & business

Greece raises minimum wage by 6.4% to €830. Some say this is spare change, while others question the economic benefits. I think it’s fine.

M&A deal activity picking up pace, expected to reach €8-9bn in 2024. Last year was record-breaking for Greece, with 2024 expected to be even better.

Greece dominates list of Horizon Europe funding among 16 countries. 6 out of top 10 institutions are Greek (CERTH, FORTH, AUTH, ICCS, NTUA, UPatras).

Greek exports rising for 8 years but starting to stall last year. Greece desperately needs an industrial-fueled, export-oriented culture.

Greece’s banks cap a remarkable comeback, despite their many lingering internal problems and notorious customer service.

Unemployment trends remain positive. Total unemployment, youth unemployment and long-term unemployed are all consistently falling in Greece.

ESI and PMI remain significantly higher in Greece than the EA average for more than a year. Latest manufacturing PMI was also strong.

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🙌 Celebrating Greek Wins

Kostas Apostolidis in memoriam. A towering figure in Greek business and arguably the single greatest supporter of the local tech ecosystem. Learn more about the story of this modern Great Greek from Alexis Papachelas, Panos Papadopoulos, Niko Bonatsos, Alexia Bonatsos, Aristos Doxiadis, Thanos Veremis.

Panagiotis Karaiskos is a winner in life. “I was a junkie and the Marathon saved me.” Once a drug addict, Panagiotis completely turned his life around, becoming the first Greek to finish the 40th Athens Classic Marathon. His story is worth celebrating.

Christos Athanasiou won the NSF 2024 Career Award from the Mechanics of Materials and Structures program. A prestigious award for a young Greek scientist.

Nikos Trichakis appointed Interim Associate Dean at MIT SERC, the unit for Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

Konstantinos Palikaras won the Cells 2023 Young Investigator Award. Prof. Palikaras is a molecular biologist at the University of Athens Med School.

Eleni Chatzi appointed president of European Academy of Wind Energy. Dr. Chatzi is the Chair of Structural Mechanics and Monitoring at ETH Zurich.

Unclaimed and Unclickable are two amazing Greek films that launched at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. Worth watching.

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🗓️ Events

Take Back the City meetup, hosted by Astylab @ Impact Hub Athens (Apr 4)

London Defence Tech Hackathon, co-sponsored by λ Automata @ London (Apr 20)

Devoxx Greece 2024 @ Athens Megaron (Apr 18-20)

Groundbreaking, lecture by Stathis Kalyvas @ Athens Megaron (May 31)

Maritime Informatics & Robotics Summer School @ Syros (Jun/Jul 2024)

2nd Hellenic Impact Investing Conference @ Athens (Sep 2024)

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🤯 Did you know?

AI models are becoming quite advanced. Prof. Dimitris Papailiopoulos asked Anthropic’s powerful Claude 3 Opus model to describe Athens (in Greek) using only A words. The result was pretty wild — and quite frankly, poetic and awesome too.

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