“There is some international capital coming in, but I don't see a strong, educated deployed capital coming into Cyprus and that's because international investors and big international businesses don't see Cyprus as a deal flow hub. There's no visibility of what is here. And it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario because to have that visibility, you need to have a big win, a homegrown unicorn,” Agni Photiou, Investment Manager at Exerte Partners, suggests.
Part of an expert panel at the recent INSPIRE 2025, Photiou also talked about what companies like Exerte Partners look for when deciding to support startups.
Exerte Partners is a single-family office with a global investment mandate across sectors and asset classes.
Photiou leads the firm’s private investment efforts, focusing on special opportunities and companies with strong business fundamentals and real growth potential.
Part of the panel entitled ‘Invest in Technology’ powered by CyRIC/Gravity and part of the INSPIRE 2025 section on ‘Investing in Cyprus Tech Startups – Past, Present & Future,’ Photiou explained that, while sector-agnostic, Exerte Partners is currently active in biotech and industrials, prioritising businesses with defensible IP, scalable models, and clear paths to profitability.
With a background in engineering and business, Photiou’s experience spans investment management, business consulting, operations, and organisational turnarounds, including roles in production management, SME restructuring, and education management.
Elaborating on the company’s activities, Photiou said, “Over time we made a lot of investments in different areas, and through this journey, we ended up also reflecting on what we had been doing. I think that the experience of the past few years with what happened with the markets has really put us in the position to think about what is next for us”
If she had to put a title on the approach the company had when considered what to invest in, Photiou continued, it would be ‘Back to basics.’
“On one hand, back to basics means that value comes with cash flow. So we like to see revenue-generating companies, we like to see real businesses, and we think that's where the value is,” she said, adding that on the venture side, it was always important to consider if society and the market of today needed the specific product involved.
“Is there a real customer who would take up this technology? And is this technology scalable? And then, is it in a market that is easily affected by economic fluctuation,” she explained, elaborating, “So we're looking at more inelastic. markets which led us to biotech and pharma or industrial.”
The next step is to take a careful look at the team involved, “Is this team able to take the product to the market, scale it, and find the money needed? Do they understand what scale means? Do they understand what it means in terms of funds and in terms of resources, the human resources that they would need to find to be able to take that to the next level?”
When it comes to the future, Photiou notes that the feedback she and her team at Exerte Partners is that “LPs (an investor who provides capital to a private equity fund, but does not manage the fund's day-to-day operations) are losing a bit of trust in the established business model. And I think that we're looking at more focus on micro, this is more VCs that are focused on one specific area of expertise.”
Among other things, the expert also pointed out that investors and the startups they were investing in were in the business of making money together, “So we want to see people that want to make money and know how to do that.”
She also encouraged she teams behind startups that received investor funding to respect the funding and take proper responsibility to deliver a result.
Concluding, Photiou also had advise for the startups that had yet to be successful in finding an investor, in spite of making pitches, “If you end up not getting the money, don't be offended because you might not need to come back and ask again.”
The discussion was moderated by Panis Pieri, Growth Hacker, Founder of Panis.News.
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.
