A survey by the ‘Information Society’, in which at least 10% of Greek startups participated, demonstrates that startups show a keen interest in participating in public tenders.

July 29, 2025

In an affirmative but conditional manner, Greek startups are expressing a keen interest in participating in public innovation procurement and the resulting tenders that concern them. All that is needed is to further simplify the largely complex framework in which they are conducted, avoiding the usual bureaucratic constraints and generally time-consuming obstacles that characterise the European Union.

This is the conclusion drawn based on the results of the ‘SMEs and Startups in Public Innovation Procurement’ survey, conducted by the ‘Information Society’ in collaboration with Startupper magazine. The survey took place between June and July 2025.

In fact, what is even more impressive, as well as encouraging, about the aforementioned survey is the size of the sample, numbering 106 participating startups, a figure that represents more than 10% of the TOTAL number of startups operating in the national ecosystem.

This can play a fundamental role in supporting the efforts of startups to expand their activities, strengthen their presence in the economy, and boost the exchange of knowledge and the transformation of their expertise into products and services driven by innovation.

At the same time, the potential participation of startups in public tenders and contracts presents an opportunity to the wider public sector and its various facets to significantly broaden the scope of available options, which can lead to speed, flexibility and an absolute focus on meeting their requirements.

It is worth noting that 67.9% of the startups that participated in the survey have not taken part in a public procurement tender! This is a key takeaway as it underlines the opportunity presented to all stakeholders involved in public procurement tenders.

Startups attribute that to the complexity of public tender procedures, the emergence of enduring bureaucracy issues, the time-consuming processes that are followed, as well as the often unclear legislative framework that governs them.

At the same time, the related ‘equation’ also includes the startup entrepreneurs who place greater emphasis on the… long (in terms of time) repayment period of the agreed terms, a fact that makes self-funding by the Startupers themselves a necessity, even if, at the end of the day, it turns out to be a ‘safe bet,’ as it involves committed state or even Community resources.

A separate chapter for a significant number of the startups surveyed – which, it should be noted, primarily operate in the sectors of Artificial Intelligence (AI), e-commerce and FinTech – is entitled ‘SMEs and Start-ups in Public Innovation Procurement’ and concerns their specific asks in relation to their constant participation in public tenders and related projects.

These include: the launch of projects that will be more targeted, ensuring that startups are eligible to undertake and implement them; a faster payment procedure, potentially introducing an advance payment plan; and, finally, valuable support for the preparation of the necessary documentation.

Essentially, this represents an innovative, reflective and modernized approach to the way the Greek State designs and implements public tenders.

In addition to everything else, the results of the survey are extremely useful for yet another reason, which concerns the realistic mapping of the Greek innovation ecosystem.

From this perspective, it becomes apparent that the national startup scene remains largely concentrated in the Attica region, which is home to more than half of the companies surveyed (50.9%), with Thessaloniki following – as expected – as the second most important urban hub (13.2%). In third place, somewhat surprisingly, are Greek startups founded somewhere abroad (9.4%).

As far as the average size of the companies in the ecosystem is concerned, it is not surprising that they are generally small, yet agile, organizations. In fact, 64.2% of participants self-identify as a startup company or a very small business.

Even more interesting is the fact that the vast majority of these companies offer products that are already at the later stages of development, with 79.2% at the most advanced stage, meaning that there is a plethora of fully developed and tested technologies which could be directly put to use in the various public sector bodies and agencies.

‘Information Society SA’, a pioneer in the digital transformation of the Greek public sector, has the opportunity but also the obligation to play an important role in promoting innovative solutions. It acts as the communication hub between the public sector and businesses.

In this context, upcoming actions of the ‘Information Society’ will aim at disseminating information and educating stakeholders in order to transform the public sector into an innovation investor and to boost the economy of the SME and start-up ecosystem, with a strong emphasis on Greek innovation and entrepreneurship.