StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider VC content while creating meaningful connections with leading investors & entrepreneurs. Join us in Athens for an evening of intimate interviews with industry heavy hitters and impactful conversation.
Featuring Prime Minister of Greece & top Euro tech voices!
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Exclusive VC insights and networking at StrictlyVC
Mix and Mingle – Cocktail parties with killer content.
StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider content from Silicon Valley and the global venture scene. If you’re an investor looking to mingle with your peers and watch some killer content, this event is for you. Get the inside scoop directly from sources you can trust. Previous events included interviews with Sam Altman (Open AI), Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz), Katie Haun (Haun Ventures), Hans Tung (GGV Capital) and many more!
Greece's Tech Moment—A Conversation with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Greece has quietly emerged as one of Europe’s most compelling tech stories. In this exclusive fireside chat, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offers an inside look at how the country is positioning itself as a hub for innovation and investment. From policy shifts to global partnerships, hear firsthand what’s driving Greece’s tech momentum—and what’s next for startups building within and beyond its borders.
Apostolos is an entrepreneur turned investor in the technology sector. He was a cofounder at e-shop.gr, e-food.gr, (acquired by Delivery Hero), Doctoranytime and an early investor in Beat (acquired by Freenow)
As an angel investor Apostolos has invested in many startups including Jeeves, Booksy and Spotahome
In 2016 he cofounded VentureFriends a European Venture Capital fund that invests in pre-seed and seed stage software startups across Europe. VentureFriends has team members based in London, Warsaw, Barcelona and Athens.
VentureFriends has raised 170 mil euros over 3 funds and has supported 50+ startups including Blueground, Instashop (exited), Huspy, Carmoola, Flexcar, Plum, Belvo, Spotawheel, Agroclub, Harborlab,Embat and WelcomePickups
Why Greece, Why Now: Betting Big on the Country's Next Wave of Founders
The European tech scene is heating up—and so is the competition to back its breakout startups. In this panel, three of the region’s most active early-stage investors share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. Expect sharp takes on emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in 2025.
Nate Clarke
Co-Founder & President, Tyme Group
Nate Clarke is a co-founder of Tyme, a multi-country digital bank, and currently
serves as CEO of GoTyme Bank in the Philippines.
In 2019, Tyme launched its first bank in South Africa, followed by the launch of
GoTyme Bank in the Philippines in 2022. Today, Tyme is the fastest-growing bank in
both of its markets, serving over 17 million customers. While Tyme is digital-led, it
stands out with its unique “phygital” strategy—embedding banking into retail and
workplace ecosystems through kiosks, ambassadors, and till-point integrations to
accelerate trust and adoption.
Looking ahead, Tyme plans to expand its footprint across Southeast Asia over the next
five years, with the aim of becoming the largest and most loved retail bank in each
market it enters. In December 2024, Tyme completed a Series D capital raise led by
NuBank, strengthening its position for continued growth.
Before leading GoTyme Bank in the Philippines, Nate held roles spanning general
management, product, and strategy. Notably, he helped grow MTN Mobile Money in
South Africa to over 4 million customers and later led product and strategy at Tyme.
Nate began his career at Deloitte Consulting US in the Strategy & Operations
practice, where a project in Tanzania sparked his passion for financial inclusion.
John Tsioris sold InstaShop to Delivery Hero for $360 million. Nate Clarke took Tyme from startup to global digital bank. In this candid conversation, the two entrepreneurs open up about what drives them, how they’re choosing their next bets, and why they’re investing in ecosystems that others overlook.
Dimitrios is the CEO at Delian. Before founding Delian, Dimitrios worked on perception for autonomous systems at the Apple Special Projects Group. His academic work on sensor fusion and GPS-denied navigation for mobile robotics has over 1.4K citations.
Why Greece, Why Now: Betting Big on the Country's Next Wave of Founders
The European tech scene is heating up—and so is the competition to back its breakout startups. In this panel, three of the region’s most active early-stage investors share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. Expect sharp takes on emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in 2025.
Panos Papadopoulos is a founding partner at Marathon Venture Capital where he focuses on investing in ambitious startups across deep tech, digital infrastructure, and enterprise software. Previously, he founded BugSense, a mobile developer tool company acquired by Splunk, and has since advised and invested dozens of startups including unicorns like TradingView.
Why Greece, Why Now: Betting Big on the Country's Next Wave of Founders
The European tech scene is heating up—and so is the competition to back its breakout startups. In this panel, three of the region’s most active early-stage investors share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. Expect sharp takes on emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in 2025.
Why Greece, Why Now: Betting Big on the Country's Next Wave of Founders
The European tech scene is heating up—and so is the competition to back its breakout startups. In this panel, three of the region’s most active early-stage investors share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. Expect sharp takes on emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in 2025.
Konstantina Psoma is the founder and CEO of Kaedim, an AI startup building technology to transform 2D art into game-ready 3D models. Under her leadership, Kaedim has secured significant funding, including a $15 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and they support some of the biggest game titles with their technology, including one of the top 10 games of all time. She has been recognized in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe list for Technology in 2023.
Built in Europe: Scaling Ambition from the Ground Up
Forget the old narrative—European founders are thinking bigger than ever. From cybersecurity and aerospace to generative 3D, these startup leaders are scaling ambitious companies from European soil and taking on global markets. In this conversation, they share what it takes to go from idea to impact while navigating the continent’s unique challenges—and why building in Europe is no longer a constraint, but a competitive edge.
Haris Pylarinos is the Founder and CEO of Hack The Box. With a vision to connect and upskill the cybersecurity community worldwide, Haris disrupted the industry by introducing Hack The Box to the world, and its innovative holistic 360º approach to cyber workforce development, assessment, and recruitment.
Leading the company’s expansion worldwide, Haris has been managing to grow Hack The Box exponentially. Under his leadership, the team scaled to over 260 employees and over 3.5 million platform members since launch in 2017.
In addition to his role at Hack The Box, Haris has over 15 years of experience and expertise in cybersecurity and systems engineering. He also possessed a strong background in Networking and Software Architecture.
Built in Europe: Scaling Ambition from the Ground Up
Forget the old narrative—European founders are thinking bigger than ever. From cybersecurity and aerospace to generative 3D, these startup leaders are scaling ambitious companies from European soil and taking on global markets. In this conversation, they share what it takes to go from idea to impact while navigating the continent’s unique challenges—and why building in Europe is no longer a constraint, but a competitive edge.
Simon Schaefer
Founder / Co-Initiator, Factory / EU Inc. Petition
Simon began his career as a designer in 1997, working for German startups with his own interactive agency. He has invested in about 50 angel- and seed-stage companies and In 2011 he co-founded Factory, a campus model for Startups, launching the very first of Europe´s mega-campuses. Whilst hosting the world’s first Policy / Startup conference Startup Europe Summit with the European Commission from 2015 to 2019 and speaking publicly regularly, Simon and team Factory launched their second Berlin Campus “Silicon Allee” in 2017. Factory Lisbon started construction in 2019 as the anchor of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa’s “Beato Innovation District”, which opened in June 2022. Simon served as founding President of the Portuguese Initiative for Entrepreneurship Startup Portugal until 2021, served as member of the investment committee of the public venture fund 200M and is currently President of the global startup association Allied for Startups, where he held several positions since its founding 10 years ago. In late 2024 Simon co-initiated the EU-Inc petition.
Built in Europe: Scaling Ambition from the Ground Up
Forget the old narrative—European founders are thinking bigger than ever. From cybersecurity and aerospace to generative 3D, these startup leaders are scaling ambitious companies from European soil and taking on global markets. In this conversation, they share what it takes to go from idea to impact while navigating the continent’s unique challenges—and why building in Europe is no longer a constraint, but a competitive edge.
John Tsioris is a prominent Greek tech entrepreneur, well known as the founder of InstaShop, one of the leading on-demand marketplaces in the Middle East. He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering, beginning his career at Philips Electronics in the Netherlands. John swiftly rose to the position of Global Competitive Intelligence Manager before relocating to Dubai. His entrepreneurial journey began in 2013 with his first startup, Vound, an innovative voice social network. The launch of InstaShop in 2015 marked a turning point, inspired by his experiences with traditional grocery shopping. InstaShop quickly attracted investments from top-tier firms like Amazon, Venture Friends, and Jabbar Internet Group, experienced rapid growth and achieved net profitability, while fulfilling millions of orders monthly. In 2020, just five years after its founding, InstaShop was acquired by Delivery Hero, a DAX-listed public company, in a deal valuing the company at $360 million. The acquisition of InstaShop by the german publicly listed Delivery Hero is one of the largest exits in the Middle East & North Africa region and the largest greek tech startup exit to date. Leveraging his experience, John founded Revotech, a company dedicated to transforming industries with a primary focus on the healthcare industry.
John Tsioris sold InstaShop to Delivery Hero for $360 million. Nate Clarke took Tyme from startup to global digital bank. In this candid conversation, the two entrepreneurs open up about what drives them, how they’re choosing their next bets, and why they’re investing in ecosystems that others overlook.
Marco is a founding partner at Big Pi Ventures, an Athens based VC founded in 2018, investing in exceptional teams who want to become global tech leaders. Big Pi is a multi-stage tech fund managing over 250m Euros through a pre-seed and seed fund as well as a newly launched growth fund, the first of its kind in the region.
Prior to Big Pi, Marco co-founded Upstream with Alex Vratskides in 2002, and was its CEO until 2017. During his tenure, Upstream reached revenues of €230m and a team of +400 employees, until Actis acquired a majority in 2014, making it the first nine figure tech exit in Greece. Marco is also a shareholder and co-founder of Persado, which started as an R&D unit within Upstream, and was spun out as a stand alone company in 2012, with Bain Capital Ventures as lead investors. Persado, under the leadership of Alex Vratskides has become a leader and innovator in AI-generated marketing language globally with investors including Goldman Sachs and Amex Ventures.
He is an early investor in numerous technology companies including Workable, Hellas Direct, SoftOne,Softomotive (acquired by Microsoft),Accusonus (acquired by Meta) and Flexfin (acquired by Alpha Bank). Marco is a member of the executive committee and board of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), Endeavor, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), Junior Achievement and diaNEOsis think tank. Marco received the EY Greek “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, in 2013, and holds an MA from Warwick University and an MPhil from Oxford University.
Why Greece, Why Now: Betting Big on the Country's Next Wave of Founders
The European tech scene is heating up—and so is the competition to back its breakout startups. In this panel, three of the region’s most active early-stage investors share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. Expect sharp takes on emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in 2025.
Greece has quietly emerged as one of Europe’s most compelling tech stories. In this exclusive fireside chat, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis offers an inside look at how the country is positioning itself as a hub for innovation and investment. From policy shifts to global partnerships, hear firsthand what’s driving Greece’s tech momentum—and what’s next for startups building within and beyond its borders.
6:35PM – 7:10PM
Why Greece, Why Now: Betting Big on the Country's Next Wave of Founders
The European tech scene is heating up—and so is the competition to back its breakout startups. In this panel, three of the region’s most active early-stage investors share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. Expect sharp takes on emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in 2025.
7:10PM – 7:40PM
Built in Europe: Scaling Ambition from the Ground Up
Forget the old narrative—European founders are thinking bigger than ever. From cybersecurity and aerospace to generative 3D, these startup leaders are scaling ambitious companies from European soil and taking on global markets. In this conversation, they share what it takes to go from idea to impact while navigating the continent’s unique challenges—and why building in Europe is no longer a constraint, but a competitive edge.
John Tsioris sold InstaShop to Delivery Hero for $360 million. Nate Clarke took Tyme from startup to global digital bank. In this candid conversation, the two entrepreneurs open up about what drives them, how they’re choosing their next bets, and why they’re investing in ecosystems that others overlook.
8:15PM – 9:00PM
More Hors d'Oeuvres/More drinks/More networking!
No sessions on this day. or choose another day.
Location
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center
Center Syggrou Avenue 364 Kallithea, Athens 17674 Greece
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More than 1,200+ AI leaders, VCs, and innovators will meeting June 5 in Berkeley for an immersive experience with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere and more. Explore the AI ecosystem through main stage sessions, breakouts, and live demos of the latest AI innovations.
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