Demetrios Mallios, founder and CEO of Aeon Group, believes in finding the “golden rule”. He decided to expand his business in Greece, after having many career accomplishments in the financial and banking sector in the US. With his company, he aims to help put a new standard in investing. 

In his interview on STARTUPPER MAG, Demetrios Mallios talks about his past career successes, his investment plans for Greece, and the migration of his business and mentality to this country. His desire and goal to help the Greek investment scene -and the startup scene in particular-, aims to expand Greek investment businesses beyond the domestic markets, and to promote global success. 

S.M. By reading your resume, one could say that you have always been a potential startupper, however, you started working for Lehman Brothers at a young age. Tell us a little bit about this period of your life and how it affected the choices you have made.

D.Mallios: I think I’ve always been a “Startupper”. I was born in the US. My father is from Greece and my mother from Cyprus. I couldn’t speak in English until I was five years old, and my parents taught me when I was six. 

When I was a teenager, I worked at my father’s business, and they had to count on me to negotiate with customers, to write contracts and solve business problems, such as taxes and bank negotiations. But working in Lehman opened a whole new world for me. 

The power of this investment banking company, and its energy, had a great impact on me. I believe I was destined to work with Greek people. I was very lucky to have worked with people in places in the top banking tears of Wall Street, and focused on bringing in wealthy American-Greek citizens, with the goal of doing negotiations to bring them to Lehman.   

S.M. Recently, your name presented in Greek news. You are a new player, a new investor in the Greek investment and startup scere. How did you decide to return and invest in Greece? 

D. Mallios: My family and I, decided to come to Greece for personal reasons. We wanted to live in the country we loved so much. Investing in Greece and in Greek startups came later. The reason I invested was that I found and met with the Greek talent pool, and saw the incredible flow of investment plans taking place here. 

At the time, I was convinced Greece was ready to become a player in the global scene, a node for great ideas, with leading groups, which were among the greatest I have seen in a long time.

S.M. Before you entered Greece, you engaged in investment activities in other countries. How do you plan to transfer your experience in the Greek ecosystem?

D. Mallios: I see that what I do, and what my company Aeon does here, is more an expansion and less a transfer. It is certain that managing some parts of the business from here, instead of the US, is more efficient. The main goal though, is creating bridges between capital and investment markets in the US and the businesses and groups here in Greece, in order to benefit the Greek financial ecosystem, Greek capital markets and other European markets.

S.M. Tell us about Phi VC, your newest accomplishment in Greece.

D. Mallios: Phi VC got its name from one of the values we appreciate the most, one that in our opinion represents one of the biggest findings in history. The golden rule is such a strong mathematical analogy that applies in many different fields in the natural and digital world. We want to harmonize all our activities and all the companies we nurture, in relation to the golden rule. Our group is a fellowship and our members, Nikos Ioannou, Panos Lazaretos, Theodoros Kounas, Gerasimos Konstantatos, Dimitrios Foutsis as General Counsel and Dimitris Jr. Mallios as head of the accounting department. We hope to add more members in our community in the future and we are open for new possible candidates.  

I have managed to bring some of my great colleagues and partners from the US, to work here as mentors and counsels to the companies of our ecosystem. I want to be discreet until we officially begin, but most of these successful people have backgrounds in the technology and finance sectors. People in companies such as Uber, Lime, Magic Leap, Tin Drum, Jeffries and Y Combinator are aboard and I am still expecting more to join us. We have the support of the Greek embassies both in the East and West Coast, and I am also lucky to sit in conversations with members of the Greek government, who are showing their support to our efforts.

We have already invested in Brooqly and two other companies that will be disclosed in the future. In total, we collaborate with 12 companies, some of which we consider bringing in our ecosystem. 

Last but not least, we are making some final decisions on our offices HQ and we hope we will soon be hosting an opening.

S.M. In what areas are you focusing in regard to Startups and what level of business maturity are you aiming for? 

D. Mallios: We are trying to benefit the grakk markets and the Greek ecosystem, so I wave to say I, personally, am an agnostic.

I believe we are trying to ensure all companies implement the most advanced technologies they can imagine. And yes, Metaverse brings forth exciting new potential, but Aeon has invested in it long before it was given that name.

Our investments in gambling companies, augmented reality games, or other applied technology businesses serve as proof of that. We really want to see all that is out there.

Even if something doesn’t fit in our company ecosystem, we can include it in our investment bank, in our capital market division or other parts of our financial universe. We want to help this market anyway we can. 

S.M. Will Phi VC also invest in startups that exist in its portfolio? If yes by what means will this be possible? Will Crown Investing Platform -an app developed by Aeon VC- be a part of investments? Will there be a different VC? If yes, what kind of funds will it use?  

D. Mallios: Our plan is to offer an initial investment and commit to further investments for each company. 

Every company will be presented in our investment platform by credited and specialized investors. 

The app is used in 157 countries, and you can download it in every appstore (download aeon.vc app today!). We expect to have 21 more companies joining in by the end of the year. 

Alongside the fund from ecosystem, we will also have a Fellowship Fund and all members will be able to choose what they want to support. We will also create a repository to include foreign investors for our companies. This will be possible since Aeon’s funds will be able to access the ecosystem.

Lastly, we will support these companies using those funds cycles and we will use our investment bank as an actuator, so that other VCs and institutions get the opportunity to invest with us.  

S.M. In the recent era, Greece is attracting big investments from global companies. How have things changed, in your opinion? What measures should be taken, so that the country benefits from this new dynamic? 

D. Mallios: I believe Greece was ready for this for a long time. There are many factors that you should consider. Things like the efforts of the current government, the support from the European Union, the amazing talent pool and their return, the acceleration of the use of technology from consumers and companies and so many more, I would need hours to speak of. 

I believe there are two fundamental things that the country needs in order to be able to take advantage of the circumstances. Greece should continue in the current political course and use other countries like the US as an example in order to use similar practices, including regulations, and motives in order to attract, sustain, expand and retain this dynamic. But Greece should also go further. 

Greece as a country and as a nation, should accept that a strong capital market and capital market fluidity, is beneficial not only for companies, but also their employees, their shareholders and their customers.  

These were the main topics discussed with members of the Greek government, which I hope to continue discussing further, and of course, our efforts regarding these crucial issues.  

S.M. Apart from the startups -and I ask this based on your resume and a recent interview you gave-, I would like to ask you, in which other sectors do you want to invest in Greece? 

D.Mallios: As I have previously said, Aeon is taking serious measures to enter the stock market and securities industry sector. We collaborate with several brilliant people in this area and I will be glad to formally announce our first company redemption very soon. 

Aeon also oversees other areas like real estate, maritime and Agritech.