Hellenic Entrepreneurs Association (E.EN.E) and ElevateGreece team up to support startups

A memorandum of cooperation was signed by the Hellenic Entrepreneurs Association (E.EN.E) and ElevateGreece, which provides for specific initiatives to promote start-up entrepreneurship.

The goals of this important synergy are the development of start-ups and the innovation ecosystem, the cultivation of a new business culture that capitalizes on the accruing benefits of collaboration across the entire spectrum of Greek business building high added value links to extroversion.

Networking actions

Within the framework of the agreement and the promotion of modern business ideas, actions will be implemented to network the members of E.EN.E. with the businesses of Elevate Greece, and alliances will be created to strengthen innovation and extroversion with large technological partners, maximizing the benefit for all parties. E.EN.E will support the development dynamics of start-up businesses in cutting-edge fields, by searching for strategic partners, promoting their proposals and ideas to its members, carrying out capacity building workshops, organizing work meetings and discussions, in order to generate surplus value and for both sides.

The memorandum of cooperation was signed by the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, Mr. Christos Dimas and the former President of E.EN.E., Dr. Vasilis G. Apostolopoulos.

In his address, Dr. Apostolopoulos,  noted that today, the startup ecosystem is one of the most promising pillars of development with an estimated contribution that may approach 10% of GDP in the coming years.

Dynamic relationship with the startup sector

This institutional initiative is the culmination of a systematic ten-year effort by the Association to develop a dynamic relationship with the startup sector. Among the specific initiatives, the experience exchange workshops, the integration of dynamic startups within the Association, the interaction platform with ecosystem multipliers in Greece and their connection with the outside world stood out, with the most typical example being the relationship that started with Israel in 2014. Indicatively, the first experience exchange workshop in the field of innovation and startups between Greece and Israel, brought together experts from Startup Nation Central, in collaboration with the Israeli Embassy, ​​as well as investors, entrepreneurs and mentors. The initiative continued in collaboration with other important accelerators and multipliers of the Israeli ecosystem, such as the model entrepreneurship center of Tel Aviv University and in particular its founder, Oren Shimanian.

Extraversion bridges

At the same time, E.EN.E developed bridges of extroversion to other important business centers, such as the USA, France and Great Britain. Among other things, E.EN.E pointed out the need to change the way extroversion will be approached, with specific and reliable business plans and partnerships based on mutual benefit, fair risk sharing and decisive co-investment, with a central role for private initiative. This strategy was also extended to the start-up ecosystem, with an emphasis on Greek innovation and focused on cases that can be “scalable” and competitive, with the aim of strengthening exports and creating alliances that promote business development.

It is recalled that E.EN.E undertook a series of initiatives, such as the Cambridge Judge BusinessSchool Athens Entrepreneurship Workshop to strengthen the entrepreneurial culture in Greece, developing relationships and collaborations with leading actors of the ecosystem (e.g. Corralia, EGG, Envolve, ID- GC, Found.ation).