From $20M to $300M ARR: The Playbook behind Hellas Direct’s Scaling in SEE

Today’s guest is Luka Prelevic — Managing Director of Hellas Direct, one of Europe’s fastest-growing Insurtech companies, generating $300M+ in ARR in 2025 and on track toward unicorn status.But Luka’s journey didn’t start in startups.From working at Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, to practicing law alongside his father, earning a Master’s degree at Bocconi University, founding a student consulting firm, spending 4+ years at McKinsey & Company, and eventually investing in and joining Hellas Direct as MD — Luka’s career is a masterclass in reinvention.In this episode, we go deep into:• Why he left McKinsey for a startup• How Hellas Direct scaled to $300M+ ARR• The future of Insurtech in Europe• The biggest wealth transfer in history — and what it means for entrepreneurs• Family offices vs VCs — who really writes the checks today?• The Balkan startup ecosystem vs Greece and the rest of Europe• Hosting global HNWIs in Belgrade and bringing investors like Paige Craig (early investor in Lyft, AngelList, Twitter, Airbnb) to the BalkansThis conversation is about ambition, capital, scaling from Southeast Europe - and why innovation might be born here, but funding still thinks globally.If you’re building in the Balkans and thinking about scale, capital, or long-term wealth creation - this one is for you.—This episode is brought to you by Neubase.Neubase helps Balkan founders open a US LLC or C-Corp, set up Stripe, and prepare for raising US venture capital — without paying crazy US legal fees.If you’re serious about selling into the US market, you’ll eventually need a US entity.Head over to neubase.co and use code ScaleSEE for 10% off your company setup.