Having spent time in the tech hubs of New York, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv, Greece was not on the top of my of tech hub bucket list. That said, when I decided to visit Greece  earlier this month, I discovered a burgeoning tech scene in a country famous for its culture and cuisine.

It’s been easy to overlook Greece’s tech scene since the country’s recent economic woes eclipsed most of the other news. The debt crisis sent most businesses reeling, and, despite declared over in 2015, its negative effects still linger today. The rest of Europe still keeps a close eye on the government’s management of the economy and unemployment still is at 23.6 percent in Q4 of 2016.

But despite this grim outlook, I was pleasantly greeted by an energetic tech scene composed of ventures that aim to bring some luster back into Greek entrepreneurship. Greece has at least a couple of major tech success stories that they can be proud of.

You can read the whole article here.

A pivot means that a startup has decided to change their business model. This can be a drastic change (a completely new business model in a different sector) or a slight change (usually a major change in the company’s product to address a larger market opportunity in the same sector).

Read the whole article here

During the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) 2017 that  took place 13-14 February in Istanbul, Turkey, Prof. Panayiotis Ketikidis, co-founder of HeBAN, was appointed as WBAF Commissioner for Greece.

The WBAF honors individuals who have evidently showed their commitment to furthering early-stage investment markets by offering to key individuals the role of WBAF Commissioner.

Becoming a WBAF Commissioner includes embracing certain duties that are designed to serve WBAF members and the global community. Combining regular contributions from many self-motivated WBAF Commissioners around the world means that all forum members benefit from shared knowledge, better networking and increased exposure.

The World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) 2017 brought key players of all markets together to discuss the benefits and challenges for the angel investment community in achieving successful growth for their businesses. More than 90% of the early-stage investments in Europe come from angel investor capital.

Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Time: 17:30-20:00

Venue: Onassis Cultural Center107 Syngrou Avenue, 11745 Athens

Deloitte’s “Scaling up Greece and beyond” event, exclusively for selected technology driven scale-up companies will take place on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 in Athens.

Topics will include:

• Scale-ups Financing Trends
• Global state incentives for Scale-ups and recent developments in Greece
• Upcoming challenges and opportunities for Scale-ups

Among the distinguished guest speakers, Prof. Panayiotis Ketikidis, co-founder of HeBAN, will discuss about the role of Angel Investors in Scaling ups ecosystem. The title of his presentation is “Partnering with Business Angels from Start-up to Scale-up to Exit”.

Below, you can find the event’s full program:

Μετράμε ήδη τα πρώτα εικοσιτετράωρα του 2017 και, όπως συνηθίζεται με κάθε είδους ανασκόπηση στις τελευταίες ημέρες ενός παλιού χρόνου ή στις πρώτες ενός νέου, θα ρίξουμε μία «ματιά» στη χρονιά που πέρασε για ένα πολλά υποσχόμενο και δυναμικό «κομμάτι» της ελληνικής επιχειρηματικότητας: την τεχνολογική, διαδικτυακή και startup.

Μπορείτε να διαβάσετε ολόκληρο το άρθρο εδώ.