In the “uncharted” waters of new data that is formed worldwide in markets or Artificial intelligence (TN) There are also Venture Capital Funds in Greece, which – when considering investment options – need to distinguish “Time from the wheat”, at a time when all startups talk about algorithms, the new technology is faster than ever, worker.

The topic was at the center of the conference entitled “Innovation Northern Greece 6.0”, which is being held today and tomorrow in Thessaloniki, as part of a discussion with representatives of six funds, who also announced their intentions for their subsequent moves.

As George Karantonis, Metavallon’s partner, put it, with artificial intelligence (TN) redefines the terms of competition in all sectors, the rhythms of change are dizzy, while overturning data on what is a long -term competitive advantage.

Indicatively, he said that the tools of SEO (Search Optimization Engine) and Adworks, who until recently were at the forefront, are now ceased to help, as consumers no longer seek information from traditional channels, but through large linguistic models. The growth times of the companies and their products are radically changing: “We used to see them (the startpers) fighting three, four or five years for a product, and now the corresponding companies in six months can have a fully functional original (…) for us all this is a great challenge and we have a great deal of challenge.”

“You hear artificial intelligence and” you are “buttoned” »

“In our job you are now listening to TN and” you are “buttoning”, “said Antonis Elias, a Thessaloniki -based TECS Capital partner, pointing out that startupers who are looking for investors are often focused on what they are developing (TN) and not on the problem they solve. “All this wants fine tuning. Let’s go back to the fundamental: What problem does your idea solve? And if TN helps, well, ”he said.

What would he propose to a startuper who “splabs” his idea on a fund when based on TN? “He says it sparingly. To start with the customer and the problem that solves (not technology). Look at significant markets, where there is still room for automation and to have access to data that others do not have, ”he said.

A CTO, nine AI agents

A total change of business models has been observed in the last five years, with solutions that aspire to face the same need to have changed completely compared to the recent past, as noted by Doha Thanas, Uni.fund’s partner, which began in 2018 and has enabled his second fund, 50m. Uni.fund, there is a technology manager, CTO, and under him are working nine AI agents (TN agents).

The large concentration of TN market worldwide, dominated by giants, such as Deepmind, Anthropic and Meta, has an impact on the originality of the products developed by start-ups. “Most startups are based on widespread TN models and try to build the element that differentiates them. The structure of technological solutions is often the same, but what should be there is the specialized solution, which applies to a specific use case (case) on the market. We are more looking at TN’s implementation strategy, ”Ms Pesmazoglou noted on behalf of L-Stone Capital, while referring to the value of Data-Centric (focused on data) companies that train TN models on the basis of privately owned databases. Ms Pesmazoglou also made special mention of the great opportunities that now exist at the level of funding, thanks to the funds focusing on TN, but also on European programs such as the “Investai” initiative, budget of 200 billion euros, which specifically funding the use and development of artificial intelligence.

Maybe fund managers become outdated in the future

What does an investment fund base does when a start -up company is looking for funding in this rapidly changing landscape? According to George Georgiadis, a partner of Evercurious, the newest capital supported by the EAFE (Hellenic Investment Bank), the most important is the team that runs the startup, the strengths and durability of its members. And these qualities of the group are still difficult to record in terms of TN and code, the human factor needs to evaluate them. As he pointed out, Fund Manager’s work itself changes: “Maybe we will be outdated at some point in the future, we are not in the untouched,” he said.

According to Dr Evangelos Kosmidis, CEO and General Partner of Loggerhead Ventures, which emphasizes Climatech (climate technology), with tickets up to 300,000 euros for business ventures in pre-seed stage and one million at a next stage, TN in a new business is treated as ‘Nice to HAVE’ (Nice Nice ‘(Nice to HAVE’ you have it), but not as the critical factor in investing in a company. As he said, we need “to wait a little (…) I keep a small basket, but I wait to see where the developments will” sit “. He expressed the estimation that in areas such as agri -food and the primary sector in general, TN applications can be very useful and efficient, and added that the issue of infrastructure that will be developed and how they are integrated into the operation of companies is very important.

The future design of the funds

Third fund, “very small and targeted” is preparing Metavallon, as Mr. Karantonis announced. It is a business capital that will soon be developed and focuses on pre-seed ventures and in the field of Deep-Tech (deep technology), which will have tickets of around 300,000 euros per investment and targeting the reversal of Brain Drain. So far, the two existing Metavallon funds have made 35 investments with tickets of around € 1 million and three exits, and some deletions have been made. The Metavallon funds emphasize collaborations and coincidences: “We come together with over 50 funds and 110-120 business angels. For the € 20- 25m euros we invested in our companies, we have managed to raise more than 100 million in third-party investment, ”he said.

The TECS Capital, which was founded with a Regional Scope (focusing on the Thessaloniki and Northern Greece market for investment in pre-seed, according to Mr. Elias, is also being prepared. The new chapter, which will be announced very soon, will not have an equally regional dimension as the first, which made seven investments, with an average ticket of 270,000 euros and has closed its first investment period.

Its seventh investment is soon being prepared by the L-Stone, founded in 2022 and has invested in seven companies, according to Ms Pesmazoglou. The discussion was co -ordinated by George Nikolaou, responsible for innovative entrepreneurship at the National Bank.

The Conference is co -organized by the NBG Business Seeds program of the National Bank, the Region of Central Macedonia, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Macedonia, the EKTH, OK! L-Stone Capital, the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce and the Hellenic Bank of Development and Investment._