There are undoubtedly many talents of Greek origin, part of which makes up the Greek ecosystem of tech start-ups, which have been spotted by tech talent hunters.
However, the bet of their exploitation has not yet been won. This depends on many factors, domestic and international, involving capital investors who can act like the ‘Midas Touch’, creating wealth and goodwill for themselves but mainly for the startup ecosystem and the country.
According to Startup Blink, 76% of Greek start-ups are based in Athens. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and is best known abroad as a cultural hotspot. StartupBlink estimates that 12% of the country’s start ups are based in Thessaloniki, which is an important center of talent since the city has 11 universities, with a total of 150,000 students and 5,000 researchers.
It is estimated that Ellinikon can also become a pole of attraction for start-up companies, from 2026 onwards.
Ioannina has been included in the location map of technology start-ups, where the German multinationals P&I and TeamViewer have built R&D bases. Next is Patras, which has strong technological institutes and universities.
2022 was the peak year for tech startup ecosystems, while 2023 saw the performance drop considerably. 2024 sees dynamic entries of high value, although a small number of companies, which means fewer exits, but high valuations.
The Greek technological ecosystem is growing, Endeavor emphasized in its recent report entitled “Greeking Out 2.0”, sifted Reports 2024. In Greece, the tech start-up ecosystem in 2021 counted 6 exits worth 200 million dollars (including Moosend and Lenses), 17 exits worth 300 million dollars in 2022 including Accusonus, Pollfish, Transifex, while 2023 counted 10 exits worth also 300 million dollars including MarineTraffic, Augmenta, DeepSea. 2024 has so far seen two exits with a total valuation of 1.24 billion including InAccel and BETA CAE. Over time, the top exits include those of InstaShop, Pollfish, Augmenta, inaccel, ThinkSillicon, Accusonus, MarineTraffic, deepsea, BETA.
