Diaspora startups dwarf Greece’s
Boston, London, New York and San Francisco are but a few of the technological hubs where one can find emerging tech companies with Greek DNA, from the biotechnology sector to artificial intelligence.
The critical mass of these startups has a high value, since, as executives who monitor the startup market admit, for every new startup that emerges in Greece, another 5-6 technology companies are born from Greek founders in foreign countries. “From what we have recorded, we conclude that the ecosystem of startups, as it has been developed by Greeks abroad, is 10-20 times larger than that of Greece,” says Panagiotis Karabinis, managing director of Endeavor Greece, an organization for strengthening and networking companies.
Research published by Endeavor Greece in 2022 titled “2021 Greek-Tech Ecosystem Insights & Predictions for 2022,” the capitalization of companies that have been founded abroad by Greek founders without having – for the moment – a significant presence in Greece, had exceeded $100 billion in 2021.
In other words, their value, based on the data of that period, when valuations were moving at much higher levels compared to today, was 13 times greater than that of startups based or present in Greece. On the contrary, the value of the latter is around $8 billion. The “companies of the diaspora,” as the report calls them, numbered 523 in 2021. Of course, due to the shift that occurred in the technology sector, from the record levels of 2021, investments later declined significantly, but without the market shrinking.
According to data from Greece’s Marathon Venture Capital, Greek startup companies in the diaspora raised close to $2 billion in 2022, an amount that dropped to $823 million the following year, due to geopolitical tensions, rising borrowing costs and the consequent restraint shown by investors in channeling capital.
“A number of startup founders gather in England and America, while they also have a large presence in Europe. These are Greeks who have studied at Greek universities, but during the economic crisis they left for abroad. Meanwhile, second- or third-generation Greeks from various foreign countries are also quite active,” says Karabinis.
