Greek Startups Pitch Investors at Hellenic Initiative Event

Ten of Greece’s most promising startups pitched their companies to investors from Greece and around the world at The Hellenic Initiative’s 6th Annual Venture Fair at the Grande Bretagne in Athens on July 11th.

The occasion was billed as the only American-style pitching event of its kind in Greece.
Start-up Feel Therapeutics won the $25,000 prize sponsored by THI and the Public Power Corporation of Greece.

Feel Therapeutics develops digital biomarkers and therapeutics to provide data for the diagnosis and management of mental health. It uses a proprietary mobile device that detects emotions and produces digital interventions to provide mental health support on a real-time basis, the company says. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is led by co-founder and CEO George Eleftheriou, and co-founder and CTO Dr. Haris Tsirmpas.

Investors, Execs Lead Panels at Hellenic Initiative Event

In addition to the competing firms, the even included two panels.

The first, “Global Energy in Transition,” featured Andrew Liveris, former CEO of Dow Chemical and current THI Board Chairman; Alex Patelis, chief economic adviser to the Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis; and Georgios Stassis, CEO of Greece’s largest utility, the Public Power Corporation. The panel’s host was Aris Candris, former CEO of Westinghouse Electric Corporation and a THI Board member.

The second panel addressed entrepreneurship and how to navigate that path within Greece. It featured the CEO and COO of Skroutz—among Greece’s top e-commerce web retailers—George Hadjigeorgiou and Yannis Alivizatos; Miltos Kornaros of the investment firm SouthBridge; and Alex Fotakidis of alternative investment manager CVC. The panel’s host was Marianna Skylakaki, an entrepreneur, who is CEO and editor-in-chief of athyNEA, a Greek online media company.

The event also included an evening reception at the 130-year-old neoclassical hall Zappeion Megaron in the National Gardens. Guests included the new U.S. Ambassador to Greece George Tsunis, Prince Nikolaos, and Princess Tatiana of Greece among others.

THI was founded in 2012 by Greeks of the diaspora and philhellenes to provide direct philanthropy and aid to Greece and Greeks.

In May, the organization launched the campaign, “Plant a Tree In Greece,” aiming to  reforest land and restore livelihoods destroyed in the wildfires of 2021. In response to the crisis in the summer of 2021, THI launched an online campaign for wildfire relief and raised over $600,000 from 4,500 donors in 47 countries.