Equity Investment Forum attracted a record 1,300 participants on its opening day held today in a central Athens hotel.
Representatives of the venture capital market told the Forum that this industry has significantly contributed to supporting and developing Greek enterprises since the start of the specific activity in Greece.
Greek Development Minister George Stathakis and the Israeli ambassador to Greece Ms. Irit Ben Abba addressed the opening of the forum.
Government funding tools
In his address, Stathakis said that “in comparison with the past, the government’s strategy in dealing with innovation and its contribution to export activity of Greek businesses is very different“.
The Greek minister presented the funding sources which the government planned to use for the return of the economy towards innovation and export business activity as follows:
-a community funding programme (2014-2020). “We have achieved more funds while the programme will be more friendly to enterprises,” Stathakis said.
-transforming ETEAN into an umbrella organization to mobilize tools from other European programmes to fund small- and medium-sized enterprises and innovation. “The necessity of such an institution has been agreed with the European Investment Bank and the European Commission,” the minister said.
-the Institute for Growth (IfG), a fund created by Greece, France and Germany and scheduled to begin operations in June 2016.
-a supportive development fund focusing on research and technology. “There will be state money but private capital as well along with funding through European mechanisms,” Stathakis noted, adding that a new development law will be structured very differently, focusing on priority innovative investments, small- and very-small businesses.
50,000 new job positions
More than 600 bilateral meetings have been scheduled for Tuesday, while distinguished Israeli experts in fields such as innovation, research and development, venture capital and patent rights will organize business laboratories presenting issues such as the country’s high technology eco-system, methods of success, encouraging R&D, business tools, corporate innovation and patent rights.
As Yiannis Papadopoulos, chairman and chief executive of Attica Ventures told the Forum, “more than 130 investments in Greek enterprises have been completed by venture capital and private equity funds since early 1990, when the specific market began operating in Greece, channeling more than 1.0 billion euros and creating around 50,000 new job positions.”
Most advantageous markets
Papadopoulos said that the markets presenting the most advantages are agricultural technology and food, value added IT technologies, tourism, energy, infrastructure, pharmaceutical technology and health. Greek venture capital enterprises basically invest in growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, while private equity investments focus on the purchase of enterprises.
The Greek market includes 21 private equity, venture capital, incubators with investments to more than 120 Greek enterprises, many of which listed in the Athens Stock Exchange. A total of 14 new funds have been created since 2004, while TANEO channeled more than 70 million euros to the Greek market.
Three times more business plans
The Equity Investment Forum, is the leading event for all equity financing solutions on venture capital & private equity level, as well as on stock exchange markets level in Greece.
For this year’s event, more than 300 business plans from Greek start ups, developing, small and large companies covering a wide spectrum of business were submitted for evaluation by the 27 Greek, Israeli and international venture capital funds (also more than ever).
Growing interest
The fact that the number of business plans is three times greater than last year’s event and that more than 1,000 delegates have registered, more than twice than those in the last conference, are both indicative of the growing interest in the conference.
The Forum is co-organized by the Athens Stock Exchange, Enterprise Greece, Hellenic Venture Capital Association, New Economy Development Fund (TANEO), and PRAXI Network-coordinator of the Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas, under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy Development & Tourism.
Active involvement
This year’s Forum welcomes Israel as the honored country and appreciates the active involvement of the Israeli Embassy of Athens.
A dedicated delegation of Israeli investors, policy makers and business people will contribute to the success of the event by promoting cross country operations and by enriching the Greek community with valuable expertise and experience.
All involved parties aim at establishing a strong, flexible and mutually beneficial business relationship between our distinguished countries.
Unique opportunity
The Equity Investment Forum is the successor to the International Venture Capital and Private Equity Forum that has been organized annually since 1999, with great success.
It is a unique opportunity for more than 500 participants (entrepreneurs, investment professionals, fund managers, stock exchange executives, investment bankers, admission consultants, policy makers) to network, exchange views and experiences and explore investment funding and business deal opportunities.
On most occasions the Forum has had the honor to have the Minister of Economy as its keynote speaker.
On average over 150 pre-arranged meetings take place, among venture capitalists, private equity investors and entrepreneurs, while also impromptu meetings occur frequently / in numbers.
Expansion capital
During the last Forum organizers received over 100 business plans and distributed them to 17 funds for evaluation, which led to over 150 pre-arranged bilateral business meetings. Of the total business plans, 88% came from Greece, 4% from Cyprus, 4% from Great Britain, 2% from the USA.
Most of the business plans were seeking expansion capital, a fact which underlines the shortage of liquidity even among established companies. Attendance also reached the impressive number of 550 people, a fact that made a lot of ad hoc networking possible.
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