Genesis Venture Fund is an ICT focused venture capital fund that will co-invest alongside Business Angels’ to support over 60 pre-seed and very early stage ICT companies in Greece
The EIF is supporting Genesis Ventures Fund with EUR 20m, funded by reflows of the Greek JEREMIE Holding Fund

Pre-seed and very early stage companies across Greece will benefit from a new specialist equity instrument following EUR 20 million investment by the European Investment Fund in Genesis Ventures Fund. The new fund will co-invest alongside business angels and focus on early stage and innovative firms with a view to help them expand, harness new opportunities and create jobs.

The latest European Investment Fund engagement in Greece is the first to be funded by reflows from previous successful investments under the JEREMIE initiative. JEREMIE was launched in 2007 to allow the European Investment Bank Group to invest in SMEs using EU Structural Funds.

Ioannis Tsakiris, Deputy Minister of Development & Investments said: “This signature initiates a new era in the SME financing in Greece. By having the first business angels’ co-financing mechanism we can be sure that we are filling the last missing piece of the equity-financing puzzle in the Greek startup ecosystem. I would like to thank EIF and the Ministry’s services for this joint successful initiative. The new EIF backing for Genesis Ventures confirmed today will unlock both high-impact equity financing and specialist hand-on business angel guidance to nurture future Greek tech success”.

Alain Godard, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund said: “Greece is home to impressive tech start-ups with huge potential. The European Investment Fund is pleased to partner with Genesis Ventures to strengthen equity investments and Business Angels guidance for tech and innovative firms across Greece. Being able to back future generations of start-ups & tech companies using national budgetary resources (in particular reflows from the JEREMIE programme) demonstrates the successful legacy of past targeted financing” said Alain Godard, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund.”

Stergios Anastasiadis, Genesis Ventures General Partner, said: “We are delighted to receive EIF’s financing and look forward to generating strong returns for our investors while helping make Greece a tech hub for the wider region. During the last few months of operation we have come across amazing entrepreneurs in great need of both capital and mentoring, as well as successful professionals who are looking for alternative ways to invest their money and are excited by the startup space”.

Dimitrios Maroulis, Genesis Ventures General Partner, said: “We have built and invested in almost 100 early-stage tech startups in North America and Asia. Now, we are very excited to come back and inject our experience and know-how into our homeland’s tech ecosystem. We are also excited to see and support many other Greek diaspora entrepreneurs who share our values and are setting up shop in Greece. Over the next 5 years we will back, right from their genesis, more than 60 tech startups with unicorn potential”.

Genesis Ventures is a venture capital accelerator fund focusing on early stage ICT & innovative companies across Greece. Genesis Ventures will unlock almost EUR 40 million of new venture capital equity investment by mobilizing and co-investing alongside angel investors, already active but also potential ones, enabling in parallel the creation of a professional business angel community in Greece.

The Hellenic Republic pioneered use of EU Structural Funds to support financial engineering instruments by being the first to sign a JEREMIE Funding Agreement with EIF, on 26 June 2007.

Through a combination of equity and loan instruments, a total of EUR 198.8m was channelled to approximately 3,000 Greek SMEs between 2007 and 2016; more than half of the initial resources has already been repaid to the programme. Following the end of the programming period, EIF continues to act for and on behalf of the Hellenic Republic to manage part of the resources reimbursed from the initial implementation, namely reflows.

The European Investment Fund has been actively supporting the Greek VC ecosystem since its nascent stage back in 2010. In 2016, EquiFund, an equity initiative of pioneer breadth and depth backed by ESIF resources, made risk financing available to Greek SMEs from their early stages of development to their full expansion and growth. EquiFund results are already impressive, both in terms of numbers and quality of investments supported as well as in terms of realised exits, given the short investment period so far.

This Business Angels’ co-investment initiative is complementary to the existing equity schemes in Greece as it is designed to fill a specific and clearly identifiable gap in the Greek market.

Press contacts:

EIF:

Richard Willis, r.willis@eib.org, tel.: +352 43 79 82155 / Mobile: +352 621 55 57 58
Website: www.eib.org/press - Press Office: +352 4379 21000 – press@eib.org

Genesis Ventures Fund

Stergios Anastasiadis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stergios-anastasiadis/

Dimitrios Maroulis : https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-mar/

Website: https://www.genesis-ventures.vc/