EIF IN
GREECE
Investing in the future of Greek SMEs
Small and medium-size enterprises are the heart of the Greek economy.
Representing 99% of all businesses and more than two thirds of the workforce, Greece's 774,000 SMEs are responsible for driving innovation as well as spurring on growth, and their daily routine is what ensures the competitiveness of the Greek economy. But to do that, they often need finance.
At the same time, as the smallest actors in the economy, they are often the hardest hit when the economy encounters turbulence, which is why it is so crucial for them to have financial options in order to maintain and eventually grow their businesses.
At the EIF, our mission is to improve access to finance for small businesses across the EU. In addition to building a sustainable venture capital ecosystem through dedicated financial instruments in Greece, we have been supporting Greek SMEs using a broad range of instruments, including many tailored to the needs of the Greek market and designed with the Greek government and local authorities.
As a result, we've been able to support close to 43,000 Greek businesses, ranging from companies specialising in AI-driven data analytics for international shipping, internet security, and even a citizen engagement platform for local governments, making sure they have the financial fuel they need to pursue their ambitions.
Our intention is to continue to extend this type of support to the Greek market, making access to finance easier as we collectively move towards a greener, digital and more inclusive Europe.
Success stories
Ecce Homo
Success stories
Ecce Homo
“High quality underwear for the LGBTQ+ community simply wasn’t available. If you looked online, the only stuff you found was oversexualised and low-quality,” explains Panos Kapsomanis, founder of the simple yet functional underwear brand Ecce Homo.
“We wanted to make a contribution to efforts against discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community.”
As Stefanos Giotakis, Marketing Director, explains, “We’ve just started the company, but there’s a lot of potential. We want to produce in Greece and take advantage of local artisanship, but the target clientele is all of Europe. With a bit of luck, and some good feedback, we’re hoping to get traction.”
Social responsibility is something that Ecce Homo take very seriously: “That’s why we will ensure that 5% of our returns go to the LGBTQ+ community.” It’s even built into the company’s name: “We chose the name Ecce Homo - ‘behold, the man’ – because we want to get across the message that there’s no need to judge and discriminate. Here’s the human being. Just accept it the way it is.”
Deepsea
Based on their shared passion for artificial intelligence, Roberto Coustas and Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos decided to set up Deepsea, which brings together big data, artificial intelligence, and the shipping industry to improve performance and achieve efficiencies and savings. “We install our hardware on the ships, collect massive amounts of data—more than 400 metrics per minute, and send it to the cloud, helping the user to make sense of it and extract value. Then we will filter it with AI to get insights into what the data depicts.”
But the main impact is route optimisation. Linking the vessel’s characteristics and performance to weather forecasts yields a 5-8% reduction in fuel costs and CO2 emissions, making shipping leaner, greener and cleaner. “We can offer huge accuracy on fuel consumption, taking into account dynamic changes to the environment around a vessel, and based on data specific to the vessel at a specific moment in time. Better maintenance can also play an important role, as can dealing with fouling effectively. Savings can climb to 20%,” he adds.
Novoville
“Our mission is to help make citizen voices heard, and government services more citizen-centric,” says Iraklis Bourantas, COO and co-founder of Novoville, which responds to the growing need for more participatory, accountable, transparent, efficient and inclusive local governance.
Novoville is a comprehensive citizen engagement platform for local governments that covers all sorts of services such as e-frontdesk services, consultation and communication, payments and smart parking. “You can request a birth certificate, pay a parking ticket or utility bills or report problems,” Iraklis says, “and the authorities can use the service to communicate with citizens.”
As Iraklis explains, it all started with a personal frustration: “Like so many people in Athens, we were frustrated by simple things like seeking information or reporting a broken bench. Initially, we set up a problem reporting tool. We tried it, tested it, re-designed it, re-worked it, and within 3 years it grew, we added more functionalities and here we are today. The municipality of Athens is now one of our biggest clients.”
Ellive
“The olive orchards are literally just above the site of ancient Olympia,” says Manolis Zacharioudakis, founder and CEO of Ellive, a company that he set up with his sisters in early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “We had been working on the project for a couple of years, to trade in olive oil and by-products, so the timing was right. My sisters are both agronomists. They perform regular soil analyses to adapt the culture to exactly what the olives need, so that we can ensure low acidity and a delicate fruity aroma, which is what sets our product apart. We want to offer a high-quality product – that’s non-negotiable.”
Despite the challenges, Manolis is glad to be in a good position. “We had some difficult moments, like when a big deal fell through and we took a hit, especially psychologically. But you have to learn from these failures, leave them behind, close the chapter and face the next day. The market won’t allow anything else.” And the company name? It combines El- (from Ellas) and live, which represents both life and the olive.
Hack the Box
“Complex passwords no longer offer any real form of protection. If your protection is just a password, you can pretty much assume someone could be browsing through your data. Today, you need to have two-factor authentication, using things like tokens that produce one-time codes,” explains Haris Pylarinos, CEO and founder of Hack The Box, an online platform that allows users to o test and advance their skills in penetration testing and cyber security.
What started as a community project in 2017 has grown into a very profitable enterprise, offering invaluable training to cybersecurity experts. The environment is controlled, and Hack the Box employs gaming elements like badges, team-play and hall of fame awards. “We even have universities competing against each other on our platforms,” Haris says. “Beyond our 128,000 users, every day we have 300-400 new members joining. Of course, to join, they need to hack the registration code.”
PLiN Nanotechnology
“Back when we started, people didn’t really understand nanotechnology very well. That has since changed,” says Dr. Alexander Tsouknidas, co-founder of PLiN Nanotechnology, which offers practical nano-technological solutions for a wide range of applications, from concept to lab-work and product integration. “Nanotechnology offers a simple and effective way of having an active product with a small amount of active ingredients. For example, silver, copper or gold nanoparticles can be used in things like industrial paint to introduce anti-bacterial or anti-fungal properties.”
A spin-off from the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, building on more than a decade of research, PLIN thrives in its ability to produce nanotechnology solutions at low cost, thus making it attractive for use in consumer products. Alexander admits that, with time, there has been an important shift in mentality: “Initially we were mainly academics. Now we’re focussing more on one the applied perspective rather than the theoretical perspective. Bridging mind-sets between the academic and business worlds was, for me, the most I got out of this effort. It helped me see things differently and that’s invaluable.”
Key figures
Over
of EIF financing
Transactions with financial intermediaries
Equity investments since inception
Guarantees support since inception
made available for
Greek businesses
Mandates in focus
The EIF continues to deploy capital in Greece under a wide range of strategic programmes and mandates. Below are brief summaries of our main initiatives in Greece.
InvestEU
The InvestEU programme provides the EU with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It is helping to mobilise private investments for the EU’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU Programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the EU, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
RCR
The EIB’s Risk Capital Resources (RCR) is the core pillar of the EIF’s equity activity. It has enabled us to pursue our equity strategy in the venture capital and growth segments for more than 25 years. In 2023, RCR accounted for 25% of our equity activity, committing €1.4bn to financial intermediaries.
EFSI
The European Fund for Strategic Investments formed part of the EU’s Investment Plan for Europe, launched by the European Commission in 2015. EFSI addressed market gaps in financing - whether in infrastructure, research, energy efficiency or risk finance for SMEs – and mobilised private investment into these areas. Through EFSI the EIF deployed €10.5bn in resources of the European Commission, the EIB and the EIF to improve access to finance for SMEs and small midcaps.
EGF
The European Guarantee Fund was created by the EIB Group with contributions from Greece and other Member States to protect companies struggling in the crisis caused by COVID-19. With almost €25bn in guarantees, the EGF allowed the EIB and EIF to swiftly offer companies, mostly SMEs and mid-caps, access to loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, capital and other financial instruments. The EGF forms part of the package of recovery measures put in place by the EU, with the objective of providing a total of €540bn to support the hardest hit sectors of the European economy.
ESIF - ERDF Guarantee Fund Greece
The ESIF ERDF Greece Guarantee Fund mandate is funded under the Operational Programme ESIF-ERDF (European Structural & Investment Funds; European Regional Development Fund) and national co-financing resources, for a total amount corresponding to €100m. The initiative’s objective is to provide better access to finance for small businesses. This is achieved through loss protection provided by the EIF to financial intermediaries via capped guarantees for portfolios of newly originated loans or leases in all business sectors in Greece. In total, this programme has generated support to the tune of €400m for Greek businesses.
Equifund
The €260m fund-of-funds programme in Greece, launched in 2016 and managed by the EIF, aims to boost entrepreneurship and create a lasting impact on local businesses, by attracting private funding to all investment stages of the local equity market, ranging from entrepreneurship steps even before the early-stage start-ups up to mature expansion companies. The programme is backed by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and has mobilised investments surpassing €800m for more than 130 innovative businesses in Greece.
REPowerEU
The EU launched REPowerEU in 2022 to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel imports and accelerate the green transition. To support the plan, in October 2022, the EIB Group developed a package of measures focussing on renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity networks and on deepening its engagement in green innovation and breakthrough technologies. Under REPowerEU, the EIF will invest €4.5bn by 2027 through EIF equity products.
ESIF EAFRD – Greece (agriculture)
The ESIF EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) Greece fund-of-funds is supported by the Rural Development Programme of the Hellenic Republic and managed by the EIF. Its objective is to provide better access to finance for final recipients through loss protection provided by the EIF to financial intermediaries via capped guarantees for portfolios of newly originated loans or finance leases in the agricultural and agro-industrial sectors in Greece. This initiative has provided more than 39m in support for the Greek agricultural sector.
RRF Greece – Debt
Under a new contractual framework, the EIF has agreed to manage an additional €400m of Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) investments in Greece to help SMEs in the country. The new support, which represents one of the first contributions to the InvestEU Member State Compartment in Europe, is designed to help Greek SMEs obtain better access to finance while incentivizing investments in climate action and digital transition projects. The framework is comprised of three guarantee instruments: the Sustainability Portfolio Guarantee, which will support financing of investments in climate action, energy efficiency and renewable energy; the SME Competitiveness Portfolio Guarantee which will support the competitiveness and growth of local enterprises; and the Innovation and Digitalisation Portfolio Guarantee, which will enhance access to finance of Research & Innovation-intensive Greek enterprises, and support the uptake of digital technologies and digital transformation.
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