Greek startups head to Silicon Valley for venture capital

A delegation of Greek startups headed by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis will be visiting San Francisco from November 4 to 11 to connect with universities and venture capitalists, the minister said in an interview published Sunday.

The trip was announced this past week and comes a year after another led by Fragogiannis a year ago. The minister told To Vima Sunday newspaper that "our purpose is to connect these critical resources for Greece's development (the startups) with reference points," or universities and venture capitalists, he said, focusing on research and innovation sectors.

Fragogiannis said that the Silicon Valley Greek Hub, activated in 2021, will play a key role in the business trip, while a series of "many and significant meetings with Silicon Valley business and other industrial production sectors" have been scheduled.

In the Bay Area, he said, they would visit UC Berkeley and Stanford University, "another opportunity for us to apply scientific diplomacy, which we started in Boston in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic." He said that the delegation would also visit California state officials and the San Francisco mayor. In addition, he said, he was scheduled to deliver an address at the University of San Francisco.