The PRAXI Network and the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB) have entered a strategic partnership, formalized through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aimed at strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote innovation and strengthen entrepreneurship was signed on Friday, 22 July 2022, by the PRAXI Network and the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB).

The Director of the PRAXI Network, Mr. Panagiotis Karniouras, and the Vice Chairman of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), Mr. Pantelis Tzortzakis, formalized the shared commitment of the two organizations to collaborate and jointly roll out initiatives that will support Greece’s knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship ecosystem.

More specifically, the parties agreed to join forces to:

• Acceleration of collaborations: with a focus on creating the conditions to accelerate partnerships among Greek companies for the development of internationally competitive ventures.
• Networking with international ecosystems: through access to international digital networking platforms, with the primary objective of enhancing extroversion, attracting investment capital, and identifying commercial partners.
• Education to enhance competitiveness: leveraging jointly organized webinars with the PRAXI Network on thematic areas aimed at training, knowledge exchange, and strengthening business competitiveness.
• Promotion of innovation: collaboration to enhance the competitiveness of Greek enterprises, promote innovation and entrepreneurial ideas among researchers, support sustainable development, and improve employment outcomes.
• Access to finance: the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB) and the PRAXI Network will cooperate in providing advisory support to businesses seeking financing.
• Development of business tools: further development of evaluation criteria for automated qualitative and quantitative assessment of business plans, as well as monitoring the implementation of hybrid financial instruments combining loans, guarantees, co-financing, grants, and equity participation.

Immediately following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, the Director of the PRAXI Network, Mr. Panagiotis Karniouras, stated:

“The strategic partnership signed today with the Hellenic Development Bank constitutes a substantive step toward the coordinated and integrated support of innovation, both within the Greek research ecosystem and the knowledge-intensive business community. Going forward, the PRAXI Network will operate as the HDB’s ‘innovation agent’, and together we will design targeted interventions that will deliver tangible impact in the short to medium term.”

On his part, the Vice Chairman of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), Mr. Pantelis Tzortzakis, commented:

“At the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), we continue to establish constructive and strategic partnerships, such as today’s collaboration with the PRAXI Network. Our strategic objective is to leverage the reach of the PRAXI Network and the synergies that will emerge, particularly in the field of technology transfer. In this way, we will also support new entrepreneurship that can arise from successful university research projects. Our shared ambition is to be creative in offering a wide range of tools to businesses, providing solutions and instruments that foster greater innovation and international outreach.”