“At GRAVITY Incubator we are sector agnostic and that means that we may enter into new industry sectors, which we do not have the market expertise” the Founder and CEO of CYRIC – the Business Innovation Center of Cyprus Panayiotis Philimis told audiences at INSPIRE 2025.
In a fireside chat with Panis Pieri, Growth Hacker and Founder of Panis.News, Philimis went on to explain that in these cases, experts were deployed and an investigation into the market was carried out in order to take a decision for a startup entering GRAVITY.
“If there is a problem in securing strong Intellectual Property IP, then we may pivot, and we have done this with a few startups,” he continued, noting that, in these cases, it was crucial for the team behind the specific startup to be worth continuing with.
The discussion also explored how CYRIC has shaped the island’s startup and innovation ecosystem over the past decade and where it’s heading next, turning the spotlight on GRAVITY Ventures Incubator, CYRIC’s investment arm, and its role in backing promising tech startups that scale globally while driving positive impact on society and the environment.
The CEO also shared CYRIC’s bold vision for the next decade: strengthening Cyprus’ position on the global innovation map, empowering local talent, and fueling transformative ideas that create growth and social good.
“I started the company back in 2013. With the aim to bring state-of-the-art R&D into the global markets,” Philimis said, referring to CYRIC’s establishment, “It was a very difficult task because we didn’t have high tech industrial infrastructure in Cyprus, such as electronics manufacturing.”
He also pointed out that CYRIC was set up just two months after the financial crisis in Cyprus, noting that most of its initial work was providing services to start-ups in Europe.
“Through that we started exploring the business model of start-ups. I visited Tel Aviv, Berlin, London looking into the business models of accelerators and incubators. It was very clear to me that being in a small country like Cyprus, not a lot of start-ups are working on deep technology,” Philimis said.
“The only way was to follow the traditional business model of incubators,” he continued, going on to note that the average incubation time of tech start-ups in Europe at the moment is four to five years.
“After that in 2015 we started hosting start-ups in our company at CYRIC, followed by the establishment of GRAVITY Incubator” he said, continuing that by 2016, CYRIC had been certified by the European Business Network, underlining that this is the biggest network globally for certified business innovation centres, BICs that helps start-ups and SMEs both in innovation and in business.
“After that we started investing and incubating start-ups through GRAVITY supported by CYRIC. At CYRIC as a technology company focused on R&D, it took us a few years to develop our first products and in 2020 we entered into the market for IoT. Currently we are one of the key players in the region, Cyprus, Greece, Europe and now we are expanding into the Middle East,” he continued.
A Robotics product division was also formed back in 2018 which includes both ground robots and drones, as the CEO noted, “We design and build drones from scratch, from an idea and going into the highest tier to take it to the markets.”
“The business model of GRAVITY Incubator is based on the long journey of a tech startup which involves pre-incubation, incubation and post-incubation, he went on to say, elaborating, “If we relate that to acceleration, pre-incubation is the early stage accelerators, post-incubation is the growth accelerators. The journey into an incubator is starts from an MVP, going into the development of a prototype or product and finally getting ready for investors. In our case we provide both business and technical support from start till the end, raising the technology readiness at high TRL.”
CYRIC also offers to startups support for financials, office space and more recently industrial space, allowing startups to be able to produce their products on the premises of the Incubator.
“It may take approximately six to 12 months until a startup enters the incubator,” Philimis goes on to note, adding this is the case for most of the startups entering Gravity, mainly because technical due diligence is required.
“We are sector agnostic because of the small market of Cyprus and that means that we may enter into new industry sectors, and we may need to deploy experts in order to do proper analysis of the market. In cases where there is an issue in securing strong Intellectual Property IP, and assuming that the founding team is great, we then proceed and examine with the startup founders the option to pivot,” he explained.
When it comes to the Gravity Fund, which was formed last year, and for which the Gravity Incubator acts as an advisor, the target fund size is in the range of € 20 million and the initial ticket in the range of € 150,000, and then the follow-up can go up to € 1.5 million.
Areas of focus include health tech, clean tech, AI, artificial intelligence, transport and mobility, and the newest, sectors of space and defence.
“One of the most important criteria we always look at is the environmental and social impact,” he added.
On what the future holds for CYRIC, Philimis said, “We are now more than 100 people. We have several spin-outs. We are looking into expanding and deploying facilities in three continents, Europe, Middle East and Africa. The vision is in five years to expand in Asia and the US.”
“Our vision is to manufacture where there is a need for this high tech product, whether it's IoT or Robotics. By 2035 we look to become a leader in autonomous and AI systems in the sector of IoT and robotics, which is the future,” he added.
Philimis also underlined that CYRIC was very proud of the startups it was involved in, and was “in it for the long run.”
Partners & Sponsors
Strategic Partner: Cyta Business
Platinum Sponsor: Bank of Cyprus
Gold Sponsors: ECOMMBX, Zorbas Group, Cyfield
Silver Sponsors: PwC Cyprus, Petrolina, Bioland
Academic Sponsor: University of Nicosia
Stage Sponsors: National Bank of Greece (Cyprus), KPMG Cyprus, Odyssey, CyRIC/Gravity Ventures Incubator, Invest Cyprus
Panel Sponsors: HRDA, OPAP
Podcast Presenter: Payabl.
Sponsors: Hermes Airports, IMR, Libertex
Technology Partner: Kotsovolos
Community Partner: TechIsland, Junior Achievement Cyprus
Innovation Partner: Research & Innovation Foundation (IDEK)
Mobility Partner: Pilakoutas Group
Sustainable Transport Partner: Cyprus Public Transport
Sustainability Partner: Electricity Authority of Cyprus
Coffee Partner: Coffee Berry
Partner: Charalambides Christis
Supporters: ASBIS, CSR Cyprus, Capacitor Partners, HJS Insurance Agents, Mastercard, Robura, Superad, Kapodistrias, Photos Photiades Breweries & Epilogi, Voici La Mode Group of Companies, GrantXpert, Gap Vassilopoulos, Techbiz, Grow Sustainability Consulting, ASBIS, Murex, Drastyc, Bolt
With the support of: Cyprus Computer Society, CITEA, CPMA, Youth Board of Cyprus, OEB, Skills Cyprus, National Betting Authority
Media Sponsors: Alpha Cyprus, CBN, IN Business, Reporter, SuperFM
Organizer: IMH
Under the auspices of: Municipality of Nicosia
- INSPIRE 2025 – Where passion meets action, and action changes the world.
