Considered as the birthplace of western civilization, and the home of philosophy and democracy, Greece is a country immersed with revolution, creativity, and invention. Besides the setbacks it has faced in recent years economically, the rise of Greek-founded start-ups has created solid ground for Greece to become a regional tech hub.

Sifted reported on the latest entries in the industry, asking tech founders and investors to choose their favorites, particularly those which have been under the radar.

Kaedim is a plug-in tool marketed to indie studios and big video game companies that assists to transform 2D art into 3D content. The company is UK-based and is co-founded by computer science graduate Konstantina Psoma, who is highly experienced in the gaming field. Building game environments requires a long time and costs an excessive amount of money.

“You’re talking about many, many hours of work. I’ve spoken with a lot of game devs who told me that they wished there was a quicker way of doing this,” Psoma told Sifted. For studios to access Kaedim’s tool and experiment as well as knock out cheap protocol assets, the company has a monthly subscription fee. Kaedim has been on the market for two years and has raised less than $1 million in funding. It is currently in the process of raising even more.

Athens and LA based company Orfium, uses tech to help rightsholders track usage of their music and collect royalties from licensees. Similar to Accusonus and Radiojar, which were founded before it, this is the latest Greek audio software gaining popularity. When asked by Sifted, Alex Patelis, chief economic adviser to the prime minister said, “who would have thought you’d ever have a music rights startup from Greece?” regarding the software. The company’s present main aim is to expand into Japan, after recently acquiring marketing agency Breaker Inc.

Ferto is another Athens-based company specialized in speedy delivery. Its leaders are start-up veterans, as co-founder Michael Sfictos was previously chief of product at both ride-hailing app Beat and rapidly growing flat rental site Blueground. Another Ferto cofounder, Ekin Burak Ozturk, was also previously on the Blueground product team.

Founded by two farmers who happen to also be engineers, Augmenta has developed tech that sits above tractors, sprayers, and spreaders aiding farmers detect how much fertilizer fields need. Augmenta is one of Greece’s fastest-growing start-ups as it has expanded in multiple countries and has attracted funding from Silicon Valley investors.

Two computer science graduates, Yiannis Kiachopoulos and Artur Saudabayev founded Causaly, an AI platform that claims to have machine-read more than 30m biomedical publications, clinical trials, and side effect databases. The tool can help researchers understand cause and effect evidence, providing directional causal graphs. Particularly, it aids researchers in understanding how treatment A or B will influence illness C.

“Our platform allows anyone to find the answers [in seconds] to complex research questions that would have previously taken weeks, or even months,” the company’s website says.

Harvard economics graduate Victor Trokoudes founded Plum in 2017. Its fintech application analyzes users’ bank transactions and then informs them how much they can save or invest each month. For example, Plum checks your utility bills and lets you know if you’re being overcharged. In terms of investment, the app costs £1 a month at minimum, and automatically splits it between investment funds. The company has a headcount of 145 and has raised around €32m to date.

Online vetting tool, Seafair, helps big shipping companies recruit crews. The Greek-founded company that raised almost $6 million last year initially tells seafarers to upload their resumes online, followed by a series of background checks and tests. Its HR software includes tools to manage payments, insurance, schedules, and rest hours.

Rounding up the list of Greek start-ups, Athens-based Deep Sea Technologies is a company developing tech to assist companies to keep tabs on their environmental footprints. Due to the rise in shipping emissions in the past four decades as global trade has expanded, the pressure on the industry to make developments in this area is particularly critical. In 2021, the company that tracks vessel performance and makes suggestions on how to increase efficiency and reduce carbon emissions raised £5 million.