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.
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.
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.
