The 5th Demo Day was organized in the context of Digital Greece, an initiative taken by the Ministry of Digital Governance and TIF - Helexpo. OK!Thess is involved in this initiative, as well as other startup support structures, universities, research centers and funding agencies across the country.
In the biggest startup and investor networking event in Greece, more than 150 closed meetings were held. Venture capital funds and business angels showed great interest in the startups involved in Demo Day, with further discussions already under way.
OK! Thess 5th Demo Day achieved a record number of startups. Thessaloniki start-up business accelerator has received 79 applications, increased by 60% since the last competition. The teams that were finally selected and stood before the investors to present their innovative idea were 41 and besides Greece they come from Cyprus, Serbia, England and Spain.
Significant was also a big number of investment groups and business angels that participated in this event. A total of 20 investors deriving from Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Serbia selected the groups they wanted to meet individually and listened to their business model.
To date, there have been more than 380 startup meetings with investment representatives from Greece and Southeast Europe at Demo Day events, which have led to risk capital investment of over € 1,500,000.
This great interest from both investment groups and startup teams demonstrates that through the efforts of OK! Thess and other stakeholders in the city, data on the innovation ecosystem in Thessaloniki has begun to change.
OK! Thess network actions through acceleration cycles and events such as Demo Day aims to motivate new teams, researchers and existing small and medium-sized businesses to turn to innovation and leverage it into sustainability-driven business ideas.
Demo Day is an opportunity to network not only between investors and startups but also between investors themselves. During the event, a meeting between OK!Thess network of investors was held to exchange views on the development of the ecosystem in Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans with the aim of expanding the market.
Source: www.ka-business.gr/pages/innovation/22503/ependytikes-eykairies-se-startups-sto-demo-day
