The presentation of Elevate Greece, "the gateway to our country's innovation ecosystem", was held on Tuesday by the Ministry of Development and Investment.
The platform was presented by the Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis, Deputy Minister on private investments and public-private partnerships Giannis Tsakiris and Deputy Minister on research and technology Christos Dimas.
"Something new is starting and being created in our country and it is our duty to support this ecosystem in every way," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during his speech.
The new platform aims at strengthening, developing and extroverting Greek start-ups. Its main goal is to promote networking between them, as well as the possibility of promoting them internationally. The platform will also record their progress on the basis of critical indicators, making start-ups attractive for companies in Greece and abroad.
Mistotakis stressed that supporting the start-up ecosystem sends a very important message to young people who moved abroad during the crisis. "They are starting to think for the first time that they can return to their homeland. Because their homeland has the potential to create new jobs and meet their professional concerns. Not only their financial ambitions but mainly their willingness to work in a business environment that will reward cooperation, ingenuity and new ideas," he said.
The platform will include companies that meet 2 key characteristics: innovation and scalability and will be judged by reputable evaluators in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship. The participating companies will be able, in addition to their networking and promotion, to enjoy benefits and sponsorships from the Official Supporters of Elevate Greece.
On his part, the Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis stated that Elevate Greece is "the gateway, where all companies that innovate, that do research, can be registered and become the subject of government policy."
He noted that with the help of this new tool Greece will be able to take advantage of the comparative advantages it has, the "brilliant minds who have stayed here and we must fight for them to stay here, with good jobs in Greece, and the brilliant minds who left and we are fighting to get them back."