A decade ago, Greece was dealing with economic challenges. But now, the picturesque country is building a very different kind of reputation.
Reuters reports the country’s economy looks set to grow by nearly 3% this year, almost recovering to its pre-crisis size — and bounding ahead of the euro zone’s average growth of 0.8%. Alongside the economic boom, founder-friendly tax laws, a boost in homegrown talent and new tech visas mean it’s emerging as a hotspot for up-and-coming startups.
So, what is the appeal of Greece to Europe’s founders and investors?
Bouncing back and welcoming talent
In some ways, says Rob Genieser, managing partner at climate tech VC ETF Partners, the difficulties of Greece's economic crisis have formed part of the country’s current spirit.
“Greece has done so well recently, having come out of some very difficult times. A lot was taken away from [them], and everybody now has to build back in an entrepreneurial fashion,” he says.
[The visas] make it easier and even more compelling and faster for businesses to get started, get set up in Greece.
Part of building Greece back up led to reform.
“The Greek government and its people have done a lot to modernise the infrastructure and the opportunities, whether that is around things like IP ownership, tax regimes, or most recently, the visa for technical talent,” says Nicky Goulimis, cofounder of fintech Tunic Pay.
There are currently two tech-related visas ready to be voted for Greece’s parliament. The Tech Visa allows employees to work for a startup or become self-employed in Greece for one year, with the chance to renew or apply for permanent residency once expired. The one-year Talent Visa, meanwhile, is extended to outstanding graduates from prestigious universities worldwide — even if they don’t have a job secured already. Current visa options can be found here.
The talent influx that these visas hope to encourage are primed to be a positive addition to the ecosystem, says Genieser: “I think every study has shown that when you stop immigration, you do not actually create more local jobs. In fact, you end up with mechanisation.”
It’s also a good thing for startups who are keen to move quickly, adds Goulimis. “[The visas] make it easier and even more compelling and faster for businesses to get started, get set up in Greece and get moving fast,” she says.
Alongside encouraging skilled graduates to consider Greece as a spot to start their careers, the government’s focus has also shifted to nurturing the talent that is already budding within the country.
“We have highly skilled people in our higher education system, and professors who started both in Greek universities and in excellent European and American universities — but we didn't have the strategy and the institutions in place to unleash their potential. So this is exactly what we're trying to do right,” says Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece’s minister of education.
A central part of Europe’s ecosystem
The progress that Greece has made has not only made it attractive for founders right now, but is also positioning it to become a more prominent player within Europe’s tech scene in the future, says Pierrakakis.
One of the beauties of the smaller tech ecosystem in Greece is a real emphasis on mutual support.
Some are already wise to the potential. “The Greek tech ecosystem has had a massive boom in the last few years, partly because it has proved its investability. We've seen fantastic exits [...] but also we've seen big corporations opening offices, [like] Microsoft or Google finding the potential for research in Greece,” says Goulimis. “There are now alumni from these companies who are powering the next generation of startups.”
Dimitrios Kottas, cofounder of Lambda Automata, a defence tech startup building autonomous robots, says that the country will be a central part in the development of Europe’s ecosystem
“I strongly believe that in the next decade, we're going to see a large wave of industrialisation across Europe. We are going to rebuild a lot of our technological capabilities, and I think Greece can play an important role in that,” he says. ““For us, Greece is a unique testbed, a unique sandbox to perfect our products and bring them to the international market of the Western alliance.”
By integrating more business-minded topics into the Greek school curriculum, Pierrakakis hopes to foster that attitude in the next generation and encourage more to consider the country as a place for entrepreneurship.
But there are also unique perks to being part of the ecosystem’s relatively small community, says Goulimis.
“One of the beauties of the smaller tech ecosystem in Greece is a real emphasis on mutual support. All of the founders know each other or have met each other in some context, I think a lot of the investors are the same. And so I think that spirit of ‘let's prove ourselves and help each other’ is really, really strong,” she says.
Looking ahead
What matters most to Greece’s future, says Pierrakakis, is attitudes: “The most crucial element is having the entrepreneurial mindset, and you need to nurture others from very early on.”
What if we actually call ‘brain drain’, ‘confidence gain’?
“[Greece] was not a place where this mindset was present for a very long period of time,” he adds — which is a shortage that George Hadjigeorgiou, cofounder of personalised nutrition healthtech Zoe, also notes.
“Through my experiences abroad, I came to understand that other nations have more top-down cultures: cultures that can be more courageous and take risks, more confident, more willing to take risks and do whatever it takes to build something big,” says Hadjigeorgiou.
By contrast, Hadjigeorgiou’s own upbringing felt like the opposite: “I saw the world in a much more bottom-up way. I was more cautious [and] a bit more risk averse, particularly because of the culture I grew up in in Greece.”
The confidence Hadjigeorgiou learned from colleagues around the world is why he resists the negative connotations of the Greek ‘brain drain’, a term describing the effect of talent moving elsewhere after academia.
“[I learned] I could actually be as confident, as courageous, take risks, be bold, try to do something powerful in the world. What if we actually call ‘brain drain’, ‘confidence gain’?” he says.
To find out more about Greece, join Innovation Nation, an initiative by Endeavor Greece.
