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10 Greek Startups to Follow in 2023, Recommended by VCs

Greek startups for 2023
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Greek founders, both from within the country’s borders, as well as from the diaspora, are increasingly weighing in the development of the European startup ecosystem. Just in 2021, Greek startup funding hit over half a billion euro, triple compared to the previous year.

But what startups differentiated themselves for VC investors in 2022? We asked five Greek VCs for two recommendations of Greek-founded startups (one within the portfolio, one outside of their portfolio) they will be following in 2023. 

Find the resulting list below, developed with support from Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou,  Partner at Velocity.Partners, Apostolos Apostolakis, Co-Founder of VentureFriends, Alex Alexakis, Investor at Marathon Venture Capital, Marco Veremis, Partner at Big Pi Ventures, and Myrto Papathanou, Partner at Metavallon VC. The list is in now particular order.

10 Greek-Founded Startups to Watch For in 2023

Name: Augmenta

Headquarters: Paris, France

Founders: George Varvarelis, Dimitri (Jim) Evangelopoulos

Vertical: Agriculture

Solution: Software and hardware solutions that use edge computing and AI to help automate critical agricultural operations, such as fertilizer application.

Team size: 50-60

Latest funding: $8M Series A round in March 2021, with support from existing investor Marathon VC.

 

Name: instacar

Headquarters: Athens, Greece

Founders: Antonis Zois, Vassilis Damianos, Antonis Samothrakis

Vertical: Automotive, Mobility

Solution: Car subscription service in Greece, founded in 2018 and officially launched in 2019.

Team size: 30-40

Latest funding: $1.3M in debt financing in 2020. The company is backed by Velocity.Partners.

 

“Despite market setbacks and supply delays due to the pandemic, instacar is en route for yet another record year, doubling its growth to levels close to 10m Euro ARR in Greece. The company would look to enter its second market in 2023,” Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou shares.

 

Name: Ferryhopper

Headquarters: Athens, Greece

Founders: Christos Spatharakis, Panagiotis Sarafis

Vertical: Travel Arrangements

Solution: An online ferry booking platform that provides indirect connections and routes around Greece.

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Team size: 80-90

Latest funding: €5M investment round led by Piton Capital, and joined by existing investors Metavallon VC and LAUNCHub Ventures. 

 

Name: TileDB

Headquarters: Cabridge, Massachusetts, US

Founders: Stavros Papadopoulos

Vertical: Data analytics, Dev Tools

Solution: Universal data engine for analytics professionals and data scientists to access, analyze, and share complex data sets with any tool, globally.

Team size: 40-50 

Latest funding: Strategic investment raised from Verizon Ventures to accelerate the development of advanced features of the TileDB universal database. Previously, they raised €13M from both Greek and foreign investors in a Series A round. They are backed by Big Pi Ventures.

Name: Hack The Box

Headquarters: Kent, UK

Founders: Aris Zikopoulos, Haris Pylarinos

Vertical: Cybersecurity

Solution: An online cybersecurity training platform, allowing individuals and professionals to test and level up their offensive and defensive security skills through a gamified learning environment.

Team size: 1000+ (including part-time)

Latest funding: $10.6M Series A round led by the US-based Paladin Capital Group and joined, among others, by existing investor Marathon VC, which has so far financed the startup with nearly $4 million.

 

Name: Lambda Automata

Headquarters: Athens, Greece

Founders: Dimitrios Kottas, Theodoros Ntakouris, Georgios Kontogiannis

Vertical: Military, Defense

Solution: Autonomous technologies for addressing national security challenges in the EU and its allies.

Team size: 2-10

Latest funding: Seed round from Marathon VC in October 2022 to hire key talent and deploy turn-key solutions for the civil protection market.

 

Name: Simpler.

Headquarters: London, UK

Founders: Alexandros Kyriakopoulos, Rania Lamprou, Spyros Mandekis

Vertical: e-commerce

Solution: e-commerce application that aims to streamline the checkout process, by giving shoppers a single digital identity, so that every time they purchase a product, they can do it with 1 click.

Team size: 20-30

Latest funding: Seed round of 1 million euro in the summer of 2021, led by VentureFriends’s third fund. 

 

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Name: Timberhub

Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Founders: Ion Sergis, Dimitris Pagkratis, Giannis Androutselis

Vertical: e-commerce, Forestry

Solution: A digital marketplace for timber trading that actively connects buyers and sellers internationally.

Team size: 10-20

Latest funding: €5.8 seed round in September 2022 from HV Capital and Creandum, after previously raising a pre-seed round of  €1.5M from Speedinvest.

 

“B2B-marketplaces are here to stay, and Timberhub is focusing on digitizing the timber trade, one of the world’s less transparent and hyper-growing market verticals within the construction industry. The team has already launched earlier this year while managing to secure its seed round just nine months after inception,” Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou shares.

 

Name: HOMLI

Headquarters: New York, US

Founders: Antonis Mitropoulos, Nikos Legbelos, Tim Ioannidis

Vertical: Real Estate

Solution: A modern, scalable real estate brokerage that helps European consumers sell, rent, and buy real estate.

Team size: 10-20

Latest funding: Round of an undisclosed amount in January 2022 through convertible notes from Plug and Play.

 

Name: Krotos

Headquarters: Edinburgh, Scotland

Founders: Orfeas Boteas

Vertical: Audio Production

Solution: Develops innovative audio software that improves the way sound is made and performed.

Team size: 20-30

Latest funding: Seed round of an undisclosed amount from Metavallon VC in February 2022.

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Antoanela is a Sustainability Communications Specialist and Deputy Editor at The Recursive media. From these roles, she is helping organizations communicate their latest sustainability goals, strategies, and technologies. She writes about climate tech, ESG, impact investment, sustainability regulation, and related topics.