New financial instruments are expected to be announced, soon, by the Hellenic Development Investment Bank with the support of the NSRF and the Development Fund. The aim is to continue supporting the innovation sector and the development of startups and dynamic businesses of all sizes.

This is noted by the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments Yannis Tsakiris in his article in "Vima" entitled "Profits for the state, market development and jobs with financial tools for innovation".

In detail, in the article, the Deputy Minister states the following:

JEREMIE

"In the not-so-distant 2012, The startup ecosystem looked practically non-existent in Greece. Nevertheless, our country at that time, managed to become the first EU member country to sign an agreement with the European Investment Fund to implement the JEREMIE initiative which, with the support of the European Structural Funds, provided a wide range of financial tools to support Greek SMEs. Through the JEREMIE initiative, 4 venture capital funds were supported.

These funds were financed 70% from the JEREMIE Holding Fund managed by the European Investment Fund. Private investors contributed to the remaining 30%. Through this initiative, in 2012 in a very immature market in the field of venture capital, the support of JEREMIE from public funds managed to mobilise €21.3 million in private resources; euros –an extremely significant amount when one takes into account the wider economic environment at the time. These Funds managed to support by the end of 2016, 63 startups in which A total of EUR 56 million was invested. euro.

Exits

The positive results did not take long to appear: already in 2016, the first exit of the company Avocarrot was announced. Just recently, other good news was announced: in mid-January, Mantis company announced its merger with Ecovium, a leader in the development of software and hardware for supply chain processes (the company has been part of the Odyssey Venture Partners portfolio since 2015). Ten days ago, the acquisition of Pollfish by Prodege was also announced. Pollfish became known to the general public as it has developed a platform that offers businesses and individuals the ability to conduct market research globally and in real time. Pollfish was supported in its first steps by the PJ Catalyst Fund and Odyssey Venture Partners, both of which come from the JEREMIE family.

In real market terms, the results of JEREMIE to date may not yet be considered sufficient. But beyond the actual lifecycle of related investments, which often exceed ten years in order to deliver results, another dimension of the JEREMIE initiative should be noted. From a budgetary point of view,the State supported JEREMIE with total public funds of EUR 50.3 million. euros through the NSRF 2007/14. EU co-financing for such programmes amounted to 100%. At the same time, the returns of the JEREMIE Fund are expected soon to reach EUR 40 million. euro. Therefore, the Greek State, in fact, has already made a significant profit from this investment. And additional inflows are expected from the rest of the companies that remain in the portfolios of the Funds.

EquiFund

On the other hand, EquiFund is also of great interest. It was promoted and developed in Greece in order to continue and significantly expand the support of the startup ecosystem. An ecosystem that despite the support of JEREMIE, was still in its infancy.

With Total funding of EUR 200 million euros from the operational program of the NSRF "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, Innovation" (EPAnEK) and 60 million euros from the European Investment Fund, this superfund has been able to attract the interest of large institutional investors, including:

• the European Investment Bank (EIB)
• European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD)
• the Hellenic Development Bank
• but also more than 150 institutional and private investors

With total amount already invested at EUR 235 million. euros, out of around EUR 500 million. gathered together with private investors, in a total of 127 companies, EquiFund has managed with its early positive results to put Greece on the map of investment activity in the field of venture capital. Before the completion of the 4-year investment period, fund managers have already announced 6 acquisitions of companies in their portfolio. Each with specific characteristics demonstrating:

• ecosystem dynamics
• the innovation of Greek entrepreneurship
• the specialized know-how of the Greeks
• their resilience to difficult conditions, such as those that arose due to the pandemic

Acquisitions of the NSRF

Characteristic are the acquisition of ThinkSilicon, supported by Metavallon, by Applied Materials, a world leader in the field of materials engineering solutions, but also its acquisition for the record amount (at the date of purchase) of € 360 million. euro. In 2021, the acquisition of 80% of Cosmos Sport by JD Sports, which is one of the largest international retailers in the industry, marked the first good news from the Growth window. But more than EUR 1.5 billion 100% of Viva Wallet was valued by JP Morgan in the context of the agreement for the acquisition of 47% of the European neobank, which is based in Greece, managed to operate in 23 countries.

The economic results of the EquiFund, in terms of GDP, are already very significant for the NSRF

We are now in the planning of the next financial instruments that are expected to come to the market soon. The aim is to continue supporting the Innovation and Development Sector of startups through the NSRF. But also dynamic businesses of all sizes.

These new initiatives for startups are expected to be announced soon by the Hellenic Development Investment Bank. Initiatives that will have the support of the NSRF and the Development Fund.