Marathon Enterprise Capital, an Athens, Greece-based enterprise agency cofounded in 2017 by two stalwarts of the Greek startup scene, has added €30 million in capital commitments to its second fund roughly a 12 months after finishing a first shut with €40 million.
Backers of the car, which is greater than twice the outfit’s €32 million debut effort, embrace the European Funding Fund, the Hellenic Improvement Financial institution of Investments (which actually upped its funding, we’re advised), and the European Financial institution for Reconstruction and Improvement.
We traded emails yesterday with one of many outfit’s cofounders, George Tziralis, who mentioned that he, cofounder Panos Papadopolous, and the remainder of the staff have been writing seed-state checks of between €1 million to €1.5 million into all kinds of startups in trade for a focused 15% to twenty% possession stake. He made it sound from the trade just like the startup ecosystem in Greece is extra lively than ever, however removed from frothy as in lots of areas all over the world. A part of that trade follows.
TC: Are you solely backing Greek founders, regardless of the place they’re on the planet? Have they got to be natives of the nation or do Greek Individuals, for instance, or Greek Australians curiosity you?
GT: No, completely not [they don’t have to be born in Greece]. If you’re an formidable Greek founder, we need to discuss regardless of the place you’re based mostly.
What number of girls founders have you ever backed? Are you speaking with many feminine founders of Greek ancestry? Like many different nations, Greece lengthy had a really paternalistic tradition, so I ponder what you’ve noticed on this entrance.
We have now invested in 14 corporations thus far, and solely two had feminine founders. There’s an growing variety of feminine founders beginning up in our broader neighborhood, and a few of them have been fairly profitable. Nonetheless, clearly, we now have heaps to do on this entrance and we began by monitoring associated figures. [Specifically], we not too long ago launched a compensation report for tech roles in startups based mostly in Greece during which we additionally studied gender ratios. The outcomes additional highlighted the underlying gender hole, particularly in management roles. On the flip aspect, product and QA/testing roles proved to be extra balanced, and we hope they will serve for example.
What share of your founders are based mostly in Greece versus elsewhere?
I’d say roughly half. We’ve invested in founders ranging from Nicosia to Munich to Berlin to Stockholm to London, all the best way to San Fransisco, and we’re more and more having access to extra alternatives throughout Europe and the U.S. On the similar time, our home market has been rising actually quick. The subsequent technology of Greeks need to construct a profession in startups relatively than anything.
It’s additionally fascinating to focus on that an growing a part of Greek founders based mostly internationally keep a part of their operations within the nation. Tradition, high quality and compensation-wise, that is turning into interesting to an increasing number of corporations.
You and Panos are the agency’s two normal companions, but you will have investments throughout a number of areas: local weather, well being, safety, infrastructure, finance, training, actual property, productiveness, AI, crypto. Who makes a speciality of what at Marathon?
All of us concentrate on firm constructing – from establishing store, recruiting a staff, perfecting the product, nailing advertising and marketing and gross sales, then elevating the following spherical, and so forth. These features are largely sector agnostic in our expertise. We consider founders know higher in terms of their area of experience.
From the place does your deal circulation come? What sort of outbound work do you do to make sure you’re speaking with the appropriate founders?
We began doing meet-ups in Greece 15 years in the past. I really was working Open Espresso meet-ups in Athens each month from 2007 till Covid. We constructed a vibrant startup neighborhood, however there was no investor round and somebody needed to do it. That is how I received began with enterprise capital.
Since we launched Marathon in 2017, we’ve expanded our occasion footprint to locations throughout Europe and the U.S., internet hosting a sizeable pool of Greeks doing startups and dealing in tech. We’ve been to Zurich, Munich, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, London, New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, gathering tons of of attendees and bringing collectively a worldwide neighborhood accumulating expertise and enthusiasm about startups. We’re on a mission to search out each Greek entrepreneur all over the world.
What are you able to inform me concerning the dimension of the market you’re monitoring?
It has grow to be sizeable, quick. It really grew 2.4x to $4.5 billion final 12 months. You possibly can see our newest report right here, utilizing CB Insights information, to search out each Greek founder who raised cash final 12 months, or who offered their firm.
What’s your largest exit thus far, and what are a few of your most beneficial portfolio corporations?
We’ve finished ten investments with our first fund, and had our first exit already. Information streaming platform Lenses.io was acquired by Celonis, one a fast-growing enterprise software program firm with a decacorn valuation. Final 12 months alone, half of our Fund I portfolio corporations raised a Sequence A. Extra particularly: LearnWorlds raised $32 million led by by Perception Companions; Causaly raised $17 million led by Index Ventures; Hack The Field raised $11m led by Paladin Capital Group; Augmenta raised $8 million led by CNH Industrial; and Dice RM raised $8 million led by Runa Capital.
Have you ever raised any aspect automobiles so that you simply and your restricted companions can get an even bigger stake in a promising portfolio firm (or you’ll be able to no less than keep your professional rata)? If that’s the case, have these automobiles been registered within the U.S.?
We take part in Sequence A and B rounds, sustaining our pro-rata with our current funds. The second closing of Fund II we’re asserting as we speak is offering us with extra firepower towards that purpose. SPVs are reserved for later phases. A big variety of our LPs are based mostly within the U.S., and take part utilizing varied sorts of automobiles.
Are you seeing extra overseas buyers testing startups in Greece than you have been once you cofounded Marathon?
Completely. The names from our portfolio communicate for themselves.
Are you seeing many extra funds shaped in Greece?
Sure, exercise has been growing and we consider there’s house for extra of it. Venturefriends introduced a fund of comparable dimension a couple of weeks in the past. Genesis Ventures additionally not too long ago launched a €20 million pre-seed fund. And there was a bunch of funds initially began on the 2018 classic that ought to comply with with new funds quickly.
What’s your latest deal and why did you do it?
We led the seed of Ariadne Maps, a Munich-based pioneer of real-time business actual property analytics. It’s really a reasonably slick case. Its service tracks in actual time the place and trajectories of holiday makers in an space with out requiring an app obtain, WiFi login or utilizing cameras. Its adoption by massive retailers, buying malls, transport operators, and so on. has been spreading quick with landmark clients, together with IKEA globally.
