Marathon Enterprise Companions, a enterprise agency in Athens that prides itself on being “day one companions to Greek tech companions,” simply closed its latest fund with €75 million in capital commitments, in keeping with accomplice Panos Papadopoulos.
The automobile brings the agency’s complete property below administration to €175 million — a significant quantity for an eight-year-old, seed-stage investor in Greece and a mirrored image, too, of some sizable exits. Amongst them was the sale final 12 months of Marathon’s portfolio firm Augmenta to CNH, a maker of farm equipment and building tools in a money deal that valued Augmenta at $110 million. Marathon additionally offered a few of its shares in Hack the Field, a cybersecurity upskilling and expertise evaluation platform, to the funding agency Carlyle in a secondary transaction.
We chatted with Papadopoulos forward of an in-person sit-down with him as a part of TechCrunch’s first StrictlyVC night in Athens on Thursday, Might 8, an evening that may also embody a deep dive with Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. What we wished to know — and what the central questions can be Thursday night time — is: why Greece, and why now?
Greece has traditionally seen much less enterprise funding than different European nations. What, if something, has modified regionally that enabled you to lift a €75 million fund when world fundraising has change into tougher?
For starters, Marathon I is a prime percentile performer globally in [realized returns]; we constructed a portfolio that captured the present zeitgeist nicely earlier than, for instance, AI-assisted scientific analysis, robotics or protection turned the norm.
What’s your agency’s thesis and the way does this latest fund’s thesis differ given the prolonged timeline we’re seeing for exits globally?
We’re backing founders who do one thing exhausting in essential markets. It may be exhausting as a result of it requires distinctive data, like a analysis PhD, or excessive company, that means understanding of a regulated or missed trade like energy grid administration. And we’re going to proceed doubling down on our fast-growing neighborhood, which has been accumulating expertise and experience, together with ambition.
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Greek startups have historically confronted challenges scaling past the home market. How are you evaluating an organization’s worldwide progress potential on this atmosphere the place capital effectivity issues greater than fast growth?
I encourage to vary. Greek startups leverage native expertise to serve main world prospects and markets from day one. Throughout our portfolio there’s just about no income coming from the home market. However they’re serving the perfect a part of Fortune 500.
On the identical time, capital effectivity and group grit are second nature to our neighborhood.
We’re seeing fewer IPOs globally and prolonged holding durations for venture-backed firms. How did this have an effect on your conversations along with your restricted companions about anticipated timelines and returns?
We don’t want decacorns for our fund economics to work. We make investments early on, keep substantial fairness positions, and preserve our fund sizes small. These present for varied alternatives for significant returns, together with secondaries and strategic M&A, nicely earlier than an IPO. We did secondaries again in 2021 when many of the market was promising infinite holding instances. In our tradition, money is king. It appears that evidently many others forgot it.
Many European VCs are emphasizing deep tech and AI. Is Marathon taking the same strategy, or do you see totally different alternatives particular to the Greek ecosystem?
In fact all of us are, however the definition of deep tech is stretched and means many various issues to totally different folks. We aren’t specializing in any particular sector per se – as an alternative, we’re specializing in folks altering their sectors. We had been maybe the primary generalist VC to spend money on protection earlier than the Ukraine conflict.
Greek founders have traditionally acquired much less funding than counterparts in Berlin, Paris, or Stockholm. Are you seeing valuations for Greek startups that mirror this low cost, and does this create alternatives for higher returns?
In our expertise, this isn’t about geography or value. We’re backing founders in non-consensus alternatives that the majority VCs would ignore. We transfer quick with conviction and we don’t ask who else is investing. These may sound like desk stakes; they nonetheless are usually not.
Given the difficult world exit atmosphere, how are you advising your portfolio firms about strategic options like secondary gross sales or acqui-hires?
We work with our portfolio firms towards default alive situations. Ranging from there, all choices are on the desk. We see founders actually wish to run their firms for the long run. We imagine a secondary sale can truly assist in the direction of that, and most frequently we’re supportive of such situations.
The EU has emphasised supporting startups by means of varied funding mechanisms. How essential is non-dilutive capital from these sources to your portfolio firms in comparison with 5 years in the past?
We welcome any such initiative. We advise, nonetheless, our portfolio founders to not waste time on non-market associated actions.
How has Greece’s improved macroeconomic scenario affected each your fundraising course of and the standard of startups you’re seeing?
It’s all the time good if you find yourself not making the press headlines, however what we do is much less related to native macro. Relating to the expertise entrance, I’d say actually based mostly on naive empiricism that, if there’s any correlation, that’s inverse. Adversity is the mom of all invention.
Many American VCs have pulled again from European investments. Has this created extra alternatives for native funds like Marathon, or has it made syndicating offers tougher?
It’s positively a unique market but additionally creates elevated alternative for European traders. I don’t assume the flood of capital in 2021 actually modified the chance for European firms. We should all the time rely on ourselves and be aligned with founders for the long run.
