This week on StrictlyVC Download, we’re bringing you a conversation from our recent event in Athens. Connie Loizos spoke with Anastasis Germanidis, co-founder and co-CEO of Runway, and Anatolii Kasianov, co-founder and co-CEO of Holywater Tech.

Runway began within art school, with a sparse network and little investor insight into AI video. Holywater Tech started in Kyiv with no venture capital and a mandate to be profitable from day one. Seven years later, both have succeeded in disrupting, and putting some level of fear in, creative industries worldwide. At this StrictlyVC Athens 2026 discussion, host and TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos brought both onstage to get the inside story of how these two breakout companies actually broke out.