The Hellenic Development Investment Bank (EATE – pre-TANEO) is implementing a new programme to support innovative Greek start-ups through resources from the Resilience and Recovery Fund, in the context of the activation of the Equity Platform tool of the “Greece 2.0” project.
Through the “InnovateNow” programme, €100 million will be invested in new venture capital investment funds aimed at strengthening the ecosystem of innovative start-ups, mobilising at least as much private capital .
The aim is to attract managers and private investors to make investments, but also to stimulate research and development (R&D) of cutting-edge technologies. Participants must have innovative characteristics and be active in fast-growing sectors of the economy, e.g. IT, biotechnology, microelectronics and contribute to the production process through the development of cyber-physical systems, IoT, on-demand availability of computer system resources, cognitive computing, robotic applications, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, genomics, cyberspace, big data analysis, etc.
This programme also gives a boost to Greek Universities and Research Institutions by promoting not only the development of cutting-edge know-how, but also the country’s export activity.
Deputy Minister of Development and Investment Mr. Yannis Tsakiris said: “With the new InnovateNow financing tool and the contribution of the Recovery Fund, we are laying the foundations for further smart financing of innovative technology start-ups. At the same time we are helping to scale up research activity, while improving the business environment and the venture capital ecosystem. Our aim is to create even more suitable conditions for the repatriation of the highly skilled human resources that left the country during the economic crisis.”
Professor Harris Lambropoulos, President of EATE, stressed that “InnovateNow complements complementary tools that are already in operation, such as Equifund and others already announced by EATE. In this way we are contributing to the creation of a new development framework for start-up innovation in our country”.
The article InnovateNow.
