Our participation in Panathenea 2026 was successfully completed
National Bank of Greece as Founding Partner alongside NBG Business Seeds rounded off their participation in Panathenea 2026, which was held for the second year. The event took place Wednesday 27 May through to Friday 29 May in Zappeion, while at the same time side events were hosted in Athens. With more than 10,000 participants from all over the world, this year's event welcomed some of the most important VCs worldwide, such as Accel, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures ($300+ billion, under management). This year's program included speeches by unicorn founders (ElevenLabs, Bolt, and Deel) as well as tech giants (OpenAI, NVIDIA, Google, and Microsoft).
Οn Wednesday 27 May, at the Old Stock Exchange of Athens, we co-organized with Microsoft the Investors’ Day event as part of Panathenea 2026, where more than 200 leading VCs from Central Europe and the Middle East participated. The event was opened by Mr. Ernestos Panayiotou, General Manager of NBG's Transformation, Strategy and International Activities, while the discussion focused on how AI transforms the activities of startups and how it affects the investors' decisions. Also, in the Atrium of the Melas Building, we hosted a networking event for the TechTour – Investors Summit Networking, where Mr. Charalampos Vlatakis, Head of NBG’s Group Business Strategy Sector, Start-up Entrepreneurship and Collaborations, gave a welcome address.
On Thursday 28 May, in NBG’s Karatzas Amphitheater, we co-organized together with StartSmart SEE Accelerator the event Perfect Pitch Night. The best teams of the StartSmart SEE 2026 had the opportunity to present their proposal and network with the members of the evaluation committee, which consisted of investors, mentors, and deep tech startup founders. Similarly, Mr Christos Timplalexis, co-founder of Optimems, and winner of the NBG Business Seeds 2025 and StartSmart SEE competitions, shared his experience from participating in the two competitions. Dr. Spyros Arsenis, Head of NBG Business Innovation Development, opened the event with a welcome address, and participated in the evaluation committee. At the Old Stock Exchange of Athens, we co-organized with Investing For Purpose the events “Sports as a tool for inclusion”, where Ms. Mariah Antetokounmpo of the CAFF Foundation was among the speakers and the "Energy: Europe Shifting Gear". A welcome address was given by Ms. Demie Goudoufa, Assistant General Manager of NBG Strategy and Sustainability.
Last, on Friday 29 May, in the Atrium of the Melas Building, we co-organized with Venture Friends VC and Eurazeo Growth a networking event, where keynote speakers participated and spoke about the common problems that investors face, their fields of interest, and the best practices they follow. A welcome address was given by Ms. Demie Goudoufa, Assistant General Manager of NBG Strategy and Sustainability.
Throughout the duration of Panathenea 2026, NBG Business Seeds ran a booth at the Athens Conservatoire, where Dr. Spyros Arsenis, Head of NBG Business Innovation Development and Mr. George Nikolaou, CFA Strategy Analyst at NBG Business Innovation Development Subdivision, gave a presentation on the supporting actions provided by NBG Business Seeds to the Greek ecosystem.