Kos Pharmaceuticals in the Spotlight as Biotech Gateway for Greece
ATHENS – Diaspora Hellenes are always delighted when fellow Hellenes find the will and the way to help the homeland – but so are outsiders. Yoana Stanislavova is the Tech & Startup Content Specialist at The Recursive and her articles headline shines the spotlight on a noble – and potentially lucrative endeavor ‘Two Greek-American Investors Return to Greece to Raise €106M for Its First Life Sciences Fund’.
“Kos Biotechnology Partners, founded by Greek-American life sciences investors Dr. Simos Simeonidis and Alex Tzoukas, recently announced the third closing of its inaugural fund at $123 million (€106 million), making it the largest debut venture capital fund ever raised in Greece, and one of the largest first-time life sciences fund launches in Europe. The fund focuses on bringing US biopharma expertise and capital to emerging life sciences opportunities across Greece and the broader European market,” the article notes.
The fundraising effort was done within six months of the fund’s December 2025 launch and was backed by the Hellenic Development Bank of Investments (HDBI), as well as institutional investors and family offices.
Stanislavova notes that it is “Greece’s largest debut fund across any sector.”
Dr. Simos Simeonidis
HDBI’s chairman, Dr. Haris Lambropoulos and CEO, Antigoni Lymperopoulou, were among the earliest backers of the vision. Simeonidis and Tzoukas said the bank’s team shared their idea of bringing US biotech expertise to Greece.
According to the article, “the fund backs both early-stage and more established companies, investing in biotechnology, drug development, medical technology, and other healthcare innovations.”
Kos was co-founded by Simeonidis and Tzoukas, whose careers span Wall Street biotech research, healthcare investment banking, and private equity.
Simeonidis received his biomedical training at Columbia University’s and Harvard University’s medical schools, but he was s a biotechnology analyst at Morgan Stanley, Cowen & Co., and RBC for more than 10 years before moving into investing roles at Sarissa Capital and Ally Bridge Group.
Nikos Kostaras
Tzoukas has more than a decade of experience in healthcare investment banking and private equity. He has worked at Deutsche Bank, MTS Health Partners, and Gurnet Point Capital. Nikos Kostaras is the firm’s third partner. He had served as IQVIA’s country head for Greece.
The ‘going home’ and ‘build a New Greece’ themes are moving. “For Simeonidis and Tzoukas, building Kos meant returning to Greece. As Simeonidis put it, the goal was to bring home decades of experience gained across academia, Wall Street, and biotech investing in the US, while helping establish a credible life sciences ecosystem in the country. The firm’s advisory network includes scientists, clinicians, and biopharma executives from the Greek diaspora in the US, providing portfolio companies with access to industry expertise and professional networks,” the article notes.
Alex Tzoukas
Kos’s launch is timely, and not only for Greece. There is, the article reveals, “a persistent funding gap between Europe’s life sciences sector and the US market. Despite a strong scientific foundation, Europe continues to face challenges in financing biotech companies through later stages of growth, with many firms turning to foreign investors or relocating abroad.”
That extends to Greece, but it’s “venture capital scene has grown significantly in recent years, with record funding rounds across sectors,” Stanislavova writes, and adds that “until Kos, none of these vehicles focused specifically on life sciences.”
The article spotlighted Epikast, a technology-enabled biopharmaceutical services company. It is one of “Kos’s first investments. Kos led Epikast’s financing round, with Tzoukas joining its board – the company is headquartered in New York but operates out of Athens, exactly the kind of U.S.-Greece bridge Kos is built to fund” the article concludes.
Material from The Recursive was used in this report.
