Newsletter

Innovate in Greece by SEV & Endeavor Greece

Kyriakos Pierrakakis: How we managed to surpass 700 million digital transactions per year in 4 years

Kyriakos Pierrakakis' favorite subjects in school were math and history. He loves reading biographies of successful people and believes that politics should not be one's main career.

After studying at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Harvard, and MIT, he came back to Greece ready to digitize the Greek public sector. Within 4 years, he and his team managed to grow Greek citizens’ digital transactions with the government from 8 million to 700+ million.

With Marco Veremis they discuss the meaning of life, the Cuban missile crisis, human resources management in the public sector and how ideologies evolve through the years.

* At the time when the podcast was filmed, Kyriakos Pierrakakis was Minister of State and Digital Governance.

We'd like to thank Microsoft for its support in producing the Innovative Greeks Talks series.

Watch on
YouTube

Listen on
Apple Podcasts

Listen on
Spotify

Listen on
Google Podcasts

The "godfather" of biotechnology Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Biogen, was hosted yesterday in SEV’s 5th Healthcare & Life Sciences Meetup - an initiative that aims to strengthen the Greek health and life sciences services ecosystem. Through the Meetup, the 80 members of the community that SEV has created for the Healthcare and Life sciences sector had the opportunity to talk with him about global trends in the field of health sciences and the prospects for the development of the Greek innovation ecosystem.

Poudouleveis.gr achieved late-seed funding of one million euros. The lead investor was Sofia Angels Ventures, an investment fund from Bulgaria. The funding will be used for the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms and for further expansion in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Greek pharmaceutical company PharOS, a portfolio company of Greek fund Deca Investments, is investing in the Greek start-up Purposeful. PharOS is expected to acquire a minority stake in the company.

The Greek Startup Cordella - the 1st online gift list in Greece, has secured its first round of €100,000 pre-seed funding to accelerate its development plan. Angel Investors of HeBAN and other strategic private investors are participating in the funding round.

Exciting News for PNOĒ as it was featured on WebMD. Cameron Yuen PT, DPT, CSCS of Bespoke Treatments, PNOĒ’s affiliate, engaged in a conversation with John Whyte, CMO of WebMD, uncovering the immense potential of PNOĒ. Their discussion revolved around the pivotal role of PNOĒ in the early detection of chronic diseases, including heart, lung, and metabolic disorders.

A new training and professional development programme for students, launched by Pfizer's Digital Innovation Centre (CDI) in Thessaloniki, offers opportunities for connection to the labour market. The new program entitled "Skilling Future Digital Innovators" was launched by the University of the Aegean in Samos and in particular by the Departments of Mathematics, Computer Science and Communications and Statistics and Actuarial - Finance.

Atlas is a guide to local specialisation hubs, as well as to the total talent distribution across Europe. For 14 key engineering skill areas, explore cities with the top volume, or those with outlier per-capita talent density. Whether you’re hiring one remote employee, building an engineering hub or considering where to base your company, this data can help. Atlas also explores evolving trends in areas such as hybrid work, compensation and AI.

The co-founder of Google Maps, Lars Rasmussen describes how the successful app was created, comments on developments in artificial intelligence, talks about Greek startups and explains why he thinks Athens can become one of the most important centres of innovation in Europe.

Deep Tech investor and state advisor Aristos Doxiadis discusses how Greece Modernized Startup Legislation in the recent years, as the startup ecosystem in Greece has achieved significant growth and development. A notable testament to how the ecosystem has developed is the emergence of two unicorns, VivaWallet and PeopleCert in 2022 – and such success stories only serve to showcase the country’s entrepreneurial potential.

TITAN Group announced the completion of the €26 million green investment in its cement plant in Kamari, Boeotia, an important milestone in its carbon reduction programme. The investment involved upgrading the cement production line through the use of new cutting-edge technology and the successful commissioning of a pre-calciner.

The Crete-Aegean Hydrogen Valley, funded by the European project CRAVE-H2, involves the development and operation of innovative hydrogen technologies in Crete and covers the entire hydrogen value chain. The aim, according to an announcement, is to make hydrogen a vital medium on the island of Crete in order to reduce the use of polluting and externally imported fossil resources. Particular emphasis will be placed on the safe use of hydrogen on a large scale as well as on the social and environmental impact of the European project on the local community. Employment opportunities, as well as environmental and health benefits for the island of Crete will be thoroughly explored and optimized.

Tekmon boosts frontline teams’ productivity, through the rapid, no-code digitization of processes. It is an indispensable tool for deskless teams and field workers. We talked with Panos Mitsios, co-founder and COO. Here’s what he told us.

Interested in a job with a fast-growing Greek startup? Are you a Greek startup looking for the right people to hire?

Check IG @WORK

Do you want to get involved in the Greek innovation ecosystem?

Join Innovative Greeks

Tell us what you want us to cover in the next issue, and who to interview or invite to speak at one of our next events. Get in touch at info@innovativegreeks.gr

Want to stop receiving emails from us? You can unsubscribe here.