Tuesday, April 12, 2022, 3:30 p.m.
As Prepared
Kalispera sas. Thank you, Yuri. Thank you all for joining this year’s SelectUSA Recruitment webinar. I would like to convey Ambassador Pyatt’s regret that he could not be with us today.
It is a great pleasure for me to launch this event to help Greek businesses explore investment opportunities in the United States.
I would like to thank Enterprise Greece and especially Betty Alexandropoulou for joining and for strongly supporting the SelectUSA Recruitment Program. Thanks to our joint partnership last year, 43 delegates attended the 2021 Investment Summit, making Greece the 4th biggest delegation in Europe and the 8th in the world.
Lampros Bisalas, CEO of Sunlight Systems, Aristeidis Zérvas, CFO of Kleemann, Dimitris Kolaitis, Business Development Manager of Hellenic Cables and Professor Evángelos Pappas, Founder and CEO of RTSafe — welcome and thank you for joining our webinar. I am sure that our attendees today will greatly benefit from the advice and stories you all have to share from your experiences participating previously in the SelectUSA Investment Summit and the opportunities you discovered.
This year’s SelectUSA Investment Summit will take place in June and – I’m pleased to say – 100% in person. The Summit welcomes attendees from around the world as they seek to take advantage of the great opportunities the United States has to offer. Today’s introductory webinar serves as a central platform presenting Greek companies with U.S. investment opportunities that will maximize their business development and operational performance.
It is a platform that grants access to innovative ideas, highly educated and skilled human capital, and the opportunity of exposure to one of the biggest, most flexible, and efficient financial markets in the world. It is an open window to a robust and dynamic environment of incubators, accelerators, and financiers open to new ideas, productive partnerships and business opportunities.
With a GDP of about $20 trillion and a population of approximately 332 million, the United States represents a unique opportunity for business expansion and targeted investment. And we are open for business!
Since its inception, SelectUSA has facilitated more than $105 billion in client-verified investment projects, supporting more than 138,000 U.S. jobs. The total investment from Greece to the United States reached $1.788 billion in 2020, with 3700 jobs supported and $6 million spent in R&D. And that figure will only grow.
Just one example: Hellenic Cables is producing the cabling for the first offshore wind project that will commission in the United States, off the coast of Virginia. But equally important Hellenic Cables is moving ahead with a $350 million U.S. investment in Baltimore, aimed at manufacturing cabling, particularly targeting the offshore wind sector which I think is going to grow tremendously in the United States but also has enormous potential here in Greece as well.
SelectUSA offers great programs for financing, scaling, research, and mentorship. And this is why we strongly encourage all interested parties to attend the 2022 Investment Summit in June.
SelectUSA Tech supports new technology firms in expanding and establishing their market position. Last year’s Summit attracted 350 of such firms who participated in 13 pitching sessions. Members from the same group also participated in the SelectUSA Women in Tech mentorship program.
Sunlight, Kleeman, RTSafe, and Hellenic Cables are just some of the great examples of companies that have positively benefited from their participation in the program
I would also like to highlight that the United States it not only for the large players. Innovative Greek startups have flourished in the United States as they have in Greece these past years.
Perhaps you are aware of the one-man start-up Snappy Labs that was acquired by Apple or BugSense a mobile analytics firm acquired by Splunk. Aporeto, a firm offering identity-based microsegmentation solutions was purchased by Palo Alto Networks, and keyboard solution Fleksy was acquired by Pinterest.
Investment goes both ways. As the United States is eager to welcome Greek firms, we are also proud to recognize the investment United States firms have made in Greece.
The sweeping reforms that the Greek government has undertaken in fields like digital transformation and governance have created the most business-friendly environment in the country in many decades. These reforms have helped to drive major new investments in Greece by giants like Cisco, Pfizer, Mondelez, Digital Realty, AWS, GE and Microsoft.
We hope that you will all make the most of the insights our speakers will share with you today. Thank you for your participation
