#CatalyticDeepTech #2: Panathēnea 2026

Five investors, one rooftop
Panathēnea 2026

On the second night of Panathēnea, we took deep tech off the main stages and up to a rooftop facing the Acropolis.

Festivals are good at stages. Panathēnea 2026 filled the Zappeion with keynotes, panels and a startup competition. What a stage can't do is put a PhD researcher with a working prototype next to the investor who might write their first cheque, and give them a whole evening to talk.

So on 28 May, as the festival's second day wound down, we did exactly that. Catalytic Deep Tech: Drinks for founders & first-cheque investors was an official Panathēnea side event, and the first edition of the series we co-hosted with other investors.

A collective, not a competition

We co-hosted the evening with four European deep-tech investors and builders who share our conviction: Pale blue dot, PROTOTYPE, Kindred and Marble.

This is how we think early-stage deep tech investing in Europe should work. The companies we back will need several investors over their lifetime, and they are better served by investors who already know and trust each other. We would rather complement other early-stage funds than compete with them. And putting Greek founders in a room with investors from across Europe is the most direct way we know to connect Greece's deep tech ecosystem to the rest of the continent.

Who was in the room

The invitation went to deep-tech founders and the early-stage investors who back them, from Greece and across Europe. That mix was the point: the evening was built around structured serendipity.