Endeavor once again partnered with the Bio3 Forum for the third consecutive year, continuing our support of Athens’ leading gathering for biotechnology, bioinformatics, and the bioeconomy. Taking place from September 15-19, the Forum brought together global leaders, investors, academics, and policymakers - including figures such as Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos (Biogen), Dr. George Scangos (Arch Venture Partners), and Harrietta Eleftherochorinou (IQVIA).
Within this context, the VC Panel, moderated by our Managing Director Panagiotis Karampinis, offered a candid discussion on the challenges of building a biotech ecosystem and the opportunities ahead for Greece.
The panel featured:
Stefanos Capsaskis, Partner, Corallia Ventures
Cassandra Kosmidou, Investment Manager, Big Pi Ventures
Demetrios Mallios, Founder & CEO, Aeon Group of Companies
Mike Romanos, Associate Dean for Enterprise, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College
Andreas Stavropoulos, Partner, Threshold Ventures
A Harsh Funding Reality
The discussion opened with a stark reality check from Mike Romanos. In today’s climate, raising the “classic” £8 million seed round for biotech is almost impossible. Venture capital has tilted toward risk aversion, pushing founders either into tiny pilot checks or into mega-rounds north of £50 million.
This shift has left ecosystems like Greece in a tight spot: without proximity to deep-pocketed funds, building capital-intensive biotech companies is an uphill battle. Still, Romanos cautioned against closing the door entirely. “I’ve seen great ideas here,” he said. “The challenge is whether you can fund them - and whether you can build the teams to grow them.”
Ideas, Talent, and the Data Advantage
Where Dr. Romanos highlighted potential limitations, Andreas Stavropoulos pointed to opportunity. As artificial intelligence takes over much of the grunt work in drug development, the true value lies increasingly in the ideas and hypotheses themselves.
And in that department, Greece has a distinct advantage: highly trained scientists at home and an academic diaspora that consistently “punches above its weight.” If Greece leans into this strength - particularly by making healthcare data more accessible - it could outpace larger but more rigid systems. “We should be unapologetic about making Greece the easiest country in Europe to access population-level healthcare data,” Stavropoulos said.
The Power of a Single Success Story
The conversation then turned to the importance of visible wins. Panagiotis Karampinis reminded the room that it only took one $700 million biotech exit in Tunisia to put that ecosystem on the global map.
Stefanos Capsaskis agreed, though he was blunt about the financial realities: biotech is rarely profitable as a standalone business. Survival until an acquisition or IPO is the real measure of success. What Greece needs, he suggested, is not dozens of experiments but one or two breakout stories that can validate the ecosystem.
Beyond “Greek Ideas”
But do those stories have to come from Greek founders? Demetrios Mallios pushed back on the idea. “Why should they?” he asked. “Silicon Valley wasn’t built by Palo Alto locals - it became a magnet for talent.” True success in biotech won’t be defined by where founders are born, but by where ideas take root and grow into global companies.
Dr. Capsaskis echoed the sentiment: the ultimate sign of maturity will be the day when non-Greek entrepreneurs choose Greece as the place to build.
Systemic Barriers Holding Back Growth
If talent and ambition are there, what stands in the way? Cassandra Kosmidou pointed to systemic gaps. In three years, her team has reviewed nearly 1,800 opportunities in life sciences. Ideas are not the problem, she stressed - the bottleneck is in turning them into products.
Academic labs often focus on publishing papers and securing grants, with intellectual property seen as secondary. Technology transfer offices are fragmented, bureaucratic, and under-resourced. Perhaps the area with the greatest room for improvement is continuity - ensuring consistent funding and long-term vision.
The cultural obstacles run deep. Panelists spoke about the academic community’s tendency to chase European grants - what one investor called “milking the European cow” - at the expense of commercial viability. Universities remain fragmented, each with its own rules and bureaucracy, and too few academics are willing to leave the safety of tenure to build companies full-time. The result, as one panelist put it, is an “artisanal” model of science: brilliant ideas crafted in small labs, but rarely scaled into globally relevant companies.
Toward a Cautious Optimism
Still, the conversation ended on a note of opportunity. Greece has undeniable assets: a strong pharmaceutical industry, bioinformatics centers, CROs, and a national healthcare system poised to digitize. And more importantly, it has a diaspora of scientists and executives deeply engaged in giving back.
If the country can reform IP, create funding mechanisms to bridge the gap between research and commercialization, and embrace a more entrepreneurial culture, the pieces could fall into place.
The discussion closed on a note of pragmatic optimism. Greece’s biotech journey is still in its early chapters, but the ingredients are there: world-class talent, valuable data assets, a strong pharmaceutical base, and a committed diaspora. What remains is the harder work of building continuity, reforming IP, and creating pathways from research to commercialization.
The path will not be simple, but if the momentum sparked at the Bio3 Forum continues, Greece has the potential to transform its promising foundations into a globally recognized life sciences ecosystem.