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21 Jun 2026
5 minute read

Scale-Ups Confidence Survey 2026: Greek scale-ups are among the most confident in EMEA, but rank lowest on exit planning

Three in four Greek scale-ups point to customer and revenue expansion and international market penetration as their top priorities for 2026.

Scale Ups Confidence Survey EMEA 2026
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This year's Scale-Ups Confidence Survey takes the pulse of Greece's start-up and scale-up ecosystem, benchmarked against peers across seven EMEA markets. With 100 Greek respondents (out of 498 in total), Greece emerges as one of the region's most optimistic ecosystems, posting a confidence score of 8.1/10, ahead of Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the Nordic region, and trailing only Switzerland and Spain.

Market demand and sales execution remain the biggest challenge (54%), while for 2026, Greek scale-ups are focusing on customer and revenue expansion (75%) as well as market penetration and diversification (57%), with the United States as the primary international expansion destination. As the experts note, Greece's limited domestic market forces founders to think globally from day one, a structural advantage when it works.

The ecosystem's major gap lies in exit maturity: only 33% have a formal exit plan in place, the lowest share in the survey. At the same time, 34% report a hiring freeze, the highest in EMEA, while AI usage remains largely internal, with 20% reporting no material impact on their business model yet. For founders, investors, and policymakers, the takeaway is clear: converting high confidence into execution maturity, exit readiness, and commercial AI monetization.

Key findings Greece

Commercial execution is the main growth challenge. 54% of Greek scale-ups identified market demand and sales execution as their biggest hurdle in 2025, followed by capital and financial stability (33%). Looking ahead, 75% put customer and revenue expansion as their top priority for 2026, while 66% see sales funnel optimization as their main area for improvement.

Global from day one is the defining trait of Greek scale-ups. With a limited domestic market, market penetration and diversification ranks second only to the Nordics (57%), and the US is the primary expansion destination (24%), ahead of the UK (12%) and Germany (9%). The strongest companies treat international expansion not as a phase-two milestone, but as a founding assumption.

Exit ambition remains the lowest in the survey. Only 33% of Greek scale-ups have a formal exit plan, compared with 39% across EMEA, where exit planning appears to be slightly higher in the agenda of the strategic conversation.

Cautious on talent despite growth ambitions. 34% of Greek scale-ups report a hiring freeze, the highest share across EMEA, even though 65% still plan headcount growth. Scarcity of specialized profiles (48%) and rising compensation expectations (36%) remain the key hurdles, pointing to leaner, more selective team-building.

AI adoption ahead of monetisation. Greek scale-ups invest heavily in product and CX innovation (67%), but AI remains primarily an internal efficiency tool (33%), with 20% reporting no material business model impact yet, among the highest in EMEA. Converting adoption into revenue is the next frontier, with experts noting AI is acting as a great leveler for Greece to produce globally relevant companies.

Key findings EMEA

Commercial execution is the primary growth constraint across EMEA, cited by 60% of respondents, with particularly high levels in Switzerland (71%), Belgium (64%), the United Kingdom (63%) and Spain (61%).

Customer and revenue expansion is the top 2026 priority in every surveyed geography, peaking in Spain (89%), the United Kingdom (88%) and the Nordics (87%), while optimizing the sales funnel is the most cited area for improvement across the region (66%).

Exit planning remains limited: only 39% of companies have a defined exit plan. Among those that do, 81% target M&A and just 7% aim for an IPO, with IPO ambitions most prominent in the Netherlands (17%) and the United Kingdom (15%).

Funding appetite remains widespread but more selective: 70% of companies seek additional funding, rising to 100% in the Nordics, with equity from new investors as the primary source and the UK standing out for its reliance on high growth debt financing (37%).

AI moves to the core of growth strategies: 54% of scale-ups prioritize advanced automation and AI as a technology investment, but maturity differs sharply, from AI as core product and revenue driver in Switzerland (43%), Spain (27%) and Belgium (25%) to predominantly internal efficiency use in the United Kingdom (57%).

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Alexis Hadjipavlou

Alexis Hadjipavlou

Equity Partner, Strategy Risk and Transactions, Innovation and Deloitte Private Leader
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