Endeavor brought founders, investors and business leaders from around the world to Athens for five days of meetings focused on entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence and the opportunities available beyond the world’s traditional technology centers.
On the Pnyx, where Athenians once gathered to debate the future of their city, entrepreneurs, investors and political leaders assembled for Endeavor’s third Athens Innovation Summit to consider a distinctly modern question: Who will build the age of artificial intelligence—and where will that future be built?
The gathering brought Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis together with Hemant Taneja, CEO of the international venture capital firm General Catalyst; Linda Rottenberg, co-founder and CEO of Endeavor; and Rafał Modrzewski, co-founder and CEO of the satellite technology company ICEYE.
Endeavor is a global organization that selects, supports and invests in high-growth entrepreneurs, connecting founders with mentors, investors and fellow business leaders. Following its latest selections in Athens, the organization said its network included 3,170 entrepreneurs leading 2,124 companies across more than 45 markets.
According to Endeavor Greece, founders from 40 countries attended the summit at the Pnyx, which centered on artificial intelligence and the future of humanity.
The event was hosted by Endeavor Greece chairwoman and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Costantza Sbokou-Constantakopoulou and Panagiotis Karampinis, Endeavor’s regional managing director for Europe and managing director in Greece. Rottenberg moderated discussions featuring Mitsotakis, Taneja and Modrzewski.
The summit was part of five days of Endeavor activity in Athens that also included the organization’s 108th International Selection Panel and a meeting of Endeavor board members from more than 40 countries.
During the selection panel, held at the newly opened Conrad Athens, Endeavor selected 28 entrepreneurs leading 16 companies.
The panel represents the final stage of the organization’s selection process, during which founders are interviewed and evaluated by business leaders and investors before a vote is taken on whether they will join the Endeavor network.
A Future Built Beyond the Traditional Technology Centers
The central theme of the Athens meetings was what Endeavor calls “Elsewhere”—its belief that entrepreneurial talent exists around the world even though access to opportunity, investment and international networks remains concentrated in a relatively small number of markets.
Taneja summarized that idea during the Athens gathering with the phrase: “The future belongs everywhere.”
Endeavor Greece argued that although much of the foundational technology behind artificial intelligence has been developed by a small number of large companies, AI could also give founders outside the major global technology centers access to powerful tools previously available only to businesses with considerable capital and infrastructure.
That idea has particular relevance for Greece and its diaspora.
In an article titled “Postcards from Elsewhere: Athens, Greece,” Karampinis wrote that startups founded abroad by Greek entrepreneurs are worth roughly 15 times more than those started inside Greece.
Rather than presenting that figure only as evidence of talent leaving the country, Karampinis argued that entrepreneurial ecosystems are becoming increasingly international and mobile.
Greek founders do not necessarily have to live permanently in Greece to remain connected to its business community, invest in Greek companies or help develop the country’s technology sector.
According to Endeavor, more than 30 percent of the partners in new venture capital funds established in Greece since 2020 are either diaspora Greeks or foreigners.
The organization also pointed to Greek-founded companies including Runway, Reflection AI and Resolve AI, whose founders have remained involved with the entrepreneurial community in Greece while building their businesses in the United States.
Endeavor describes Athens not simply as a permanent base, but as a location where internationally mobile founders can build companies, establish operations, meet investors and remain connected to Greece.
Greece’s Place in the AI Economy
During his discussion at the Pnyx, Mitsotakis said Endeavor has been a “terrific partner” to the Greek government in studying technology, innovation and artificial intelligence.
He described the organization as the government’s “first point of contact” when seeking to engage with Greece’s community of innovative companies.
The prime minister said Greece remains committed to implementing and updating its national AI strategy. He discussed possible uses for AI in government operations, public services and healthcare, while acknowledging that technological developments are moving quickly and that the government must determine which projects and sectors deserve priority.
The prime minister’s office published the complete discussion online.
Mitsotakis said AI could reduce administrative and repetitive work performed by nurses and teachers, allowing them to devote more time to patients and students. He stressed, however, that technology should support these professionals rather than replace them.
He also warned that the efficiencies promised by artificial intelligence could lead to significant displacement in the workforce.
The enormous wealth being created by a small number of technology companies, he said, could produce social unrest if the benefits are not distributed more broadly.
The prime minister raised additional concerns about the effect of AI on children and education. He said schools and universities may increasingly move away from written papers and return to examinations or oral assessments because AI can now produce written work for students.
Mitsotakis described a “thin line between productivity and complacency,” warning that excessive dependence on digital tools could prevent children from developing writing, critical-thinking and social skills.
Asked by Rottenberg to choose between feeling hopeful or worried about the next decade, he answered: “Worried.”
An AI Project Focused on Greek Culture
Mitsotakis also pointed to a collaboration with the AI voice company ElevenLabs as an example of how the technology could be applied to Greece’s cultural heritage.
The project is intended to help preserve traditional dialects spoken in different parts of Greece, some of which are used by declining numbers of people.
The prime minister said the initiative combines the company’s voice technology with Greece’s interest in preserving its linguistic and cultural heritage.
The project offers one example of the summit’s broader argument: Greece does not necessarily have to build the largest foundational AI models to participate in the industry. It can work with technology companies on applications connected to public services, healthcare, education and culture.
From Discussion to Production
ICEYE’s operation in Greece provided another example discussed during the summit.
The Finland-headquartered company develops synthetic aperture radar satellites capable of producing images of the Earth during the day, at night and through cloud cover.
The technology can be used for purposes including disaster response, environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance, security and defense.
Mitsotakis said the Greek government is not only purchasing ICEYE satellites but has also worked with the company as it established a team and production operation in Greece.
According to the prime minister, ICEYE plans to manufacture as many as 150 satellites annually at its Greek facility, which could employ more than 250 people.
He said the company had recruited highly skilled workers, including Greeks who had been living abroad and returned for employment opportunities in the country.
Modrzewski discussed ICEYE’s development from a student project into a company operating what Endeavor described as the world’s largest satellite radar constellation.
He has also become an investor in Endeavor Catalyst, the organization’s investment fund, supporting other founders through the same network that previously supported him.
Mitsotakis presented ICEYE as an example of how an international technology company can use Greece not only as a market for its products, but as a base for manufacturing, research and operations serving European and international customers.
He pointed to Greece’s universities, technical workforce and diaspora as advantages for companies considering establishing operations in the country.
Athens as a Global Meeting Point
Endeavor’s week in Athens placed the Greek capital at the center of an international network of founders, investors and business leaders from more than 40 countries.
The organization’s message was that opportunity and investment should not remain limited to Silicon Valley or a small group of global technology centers.
Greece’s message was that the country has the talent, international connections and capacity to participate in the companies and technologies now shaping the global economy.
The summit did not resolve the larger questions surrounding artificial intelligence, employment, education or the concentration of economic power. Those concerns were openly discussed at the Pnyx alongside the opportunities.
What the gathering demonstrated was that Athens wants to be part of that discussion—and part of the business activity developing around it.
As Mitsotakis told the international audience before leaving the stage: “Greece is open for business.”
