The startup ecosystem is raising funding, growing and spreading across Greece. But how are startups mapped in the regions? Ioanna Sappho Pepelasi, Professor Emeritus at the Athens University of Economics and Business, presents and evaluates the data as καταγράφονται στο Regional Innovation Scoreboard και στην πλατφόρμα του Elevate Greece. Σύμφωνα με την ανάλυση των αντίστοιχων δεδομένων, που παρουσιάζει το Παρατηρητήριο Περιφερειακών Πολιτικών, η Ελλάδα ταξινομείται ως μεσαίου επιπέδου καινοτόμα χώρα (Moderate Innovator). It is in the 80.2% of the European Union.

However, it is striking that, since 2014, the country has seen an impressive increase. An increase much higher than what was the case for the European Union average. Attica and Crete are the most innovative Greek regions. In contrast, the regions lag behind in innovation (they appear as Emerging rather than Moderate Innovators):

• Ionian Islands
• North and South Aegean
• Peloponnese
• Central Greece
• Western Macedonia
• Eastern Macedonia-Thrace

Greece's place in the world

In 2022, in the international start-up ecosystem, the top three (out of 100 countries) will consist of:

• the USA
• the United Kingdom
• Israel

Greece is 48th in the world, 5th in the Balkans and 18th in Western Europe. The Greek startup ecosystem ranks 17th globally in social and leisure, 33rd in transport and 34th in food tech. Finally, out of 1,000 cities (startup ecosystems) worldwide, Athens and Thessaloniki rank 132nd and 507th respectively. The top three internationally are San Francisco, New York and Beijing.

Starting "almost from scratch" in 2010, it now has 2,100-2,500 businesses. Cumulatively, from 2010 to 2016, around 80% of start-ups were based in Athens, with the periphery accounting for just under 7%. The rest corresponded to startups based outside Greece. In 2021, the share of Athens-based firms had decreased to 51.7% and the share of the periphery had increased to about 30%.

Startups - Η δυναμική των περιφερειών και των κλάδων

November 2022 data from Elevate Greece shows 664 registered companies. Attica is home to 68% of startups in Greece. Second in importance comes Central Macedonia with 14%, third Crete with 6% and fourth Western Greece with 3% of all startups in the country. Fewer than 10 startups per region are recorded in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Epirus, North Aegean, South Aegean, Western Macedonia, Ionian Islands and Peloponnese. The three most important sectors in terms of the number of registered startups are:

• life sciences (Med Tech, Health Tech, Bio Tech)
• Environment (Environment, Energy-Green Tech, Clean Tech)
• Travel, Hospitality, Leisure

In fact, these three sectors account for around 30% of the registered enterprises in the whole sample. Όσο για τη μεταποίηση, την οποία οι χώρες της Δύσης επαναφέρουν ως σημαντικό στοιχείο στην ατζέντα τους για το νέο μοντέλο οικονομικής ανάπτυξης, καταγράφονται στο startup οικοσύστημα μόνο 35 επιχειρήσεις συνολικά σε όλη τη χώρα, δηλ. μόνο το 5% περίπου του συνολικού πληθυσμού τους.

At the territory level, the main instrument used by startuppers to establish a business is self-financing, while(external) financing is used by less than half of the startups. Central Macedonia, Crete and Western Greece, regions on which this analysis focuses, account for 21% of registered startups in the country and almost monopolize manufacturing startups outside Attica.