Alfredo Gomez, Regional Director, Plug and Play, EMEA and Theodoros Loukaidis, Director General, Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) presented more details on the US tech giant’s work to help startups through the Plug and Play Tech Center in Cyprus.
Speaking at a dedicated launch event at the Presidential Palace, Loukaidis reminded the audience of stakeholders ofa famous quote by US President Ronald Reagan, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government, and I'm here to help," quickly underlining that the Cyprus government was, to the contrary, already providing to be a great collaborator. “We really look forward to presenting this programme and receiving applications,” he added.
On his part, Gomez underlined the importance of the support of the effort’s partners, including the Plug and Play Tech Center’s co-founding partners in Cyprus, the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, and the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF). Plug and Play’s Cyprus partners also include ASBIS, Tototheo Maritime, Mastercard, and ECOMMBX.
“We have a vision, Cyprus has a vision, and we fell in love with the vision that there is for the country and how to actually drive that vision as well,” Gomez continued, underlining the country’s role as a gateway as well as its unique qualities that attracted talent to the island.
Loukaidis went on to note, “The ecosystem over the years has gained a lot of significant momentum. We have seen this not just the startups, not just the scale-ups, but also in the support structures around the accelerators, and even more importantly, in investors, because as it has been said, it's all about talent, talent that has a vision, and that attracts investment. And of course, the role of government in strategic incentives (has seen momentum), in order to mobilise even more.”
He also said that Cyprus was looking forward to learning from an American company.
Gomez underlined that a lot has already been done within the local ecosystem including venture capitalists, universities, research centres, corporates, angel investors and others “We (Plug and Play) are just here to accelerate and develop, to add that additional layer for the startups, for the corporates, for everyone,” he said, adding, “So we don't aim to come and disrupt or fight with anyone. We just aim to come and accelerate everything that's already there.”
The Plug and Play representative went on to present the company’s support plans in more depth, with an initial effort over three years through six different programmes of a three-month duration, and which will take place in person, in Limassol.
The effort will see 60 startups accelerating over the course of the three years.
This one, shared vision with Cyprus, Gomez continued, will include 120 mentors from around the world coming to Cyprus specifically for this reason, while, in parallel, having an anticipated outcome of the creation of over 500 jobs.
“We don’t want to be a stranger,” he continued, “We want to be part of the community. We have planned different community events that we will be co-hosting without partners, with our corporate partners, and with other players in Cyprus as well.”
Going into further detail, he also noted that the focus would be on Cyprus startups with efforts to ensure that the startups that go through the programme end up creating jobs on the island as well.
“This is a mixed program in the sense that it will be hybrid. So we will also go from topic agnostic into topic specific,” Gomez noted, going on to add, “This is not a three-year thing. We have a long-term bet in Cyprus. We are here to stay…We want to make sure that we create a long-lasting impact. We want to make sure that the results are clearly visible, not only by the government, but also by the communities, the ecosystem, and so on.”
He also pointed out that the programme was equity-free, explaining, “So we are not taking any equity from any of the startups. And the participation of the startups will be funded through a Research and Innovation Foundation voucher that will be given to the different startups. So there is no cost, no equity for any of the startups that will go into the programme.”
Loukaidis explained that the vouchers would be issued once the selection of the participating startups was complete.
Gomez noted that the overall objective was to help accelerate growth through strategies, including but not limited to refining business models and aiding with go-to-market strategies, adding, “We also aim to help and make sure they're part of and integrated within the Cyprus ecosystem if they're already not part of it. We ourselves aim to integrate, so we hope everyone gets a chance to also connect with us.”
Another highly significant element in making the participating startups investment-ready with Gomez elaborating, “Part of the strategy is to help attract foreign direct investment into the startups through having that capital in the country. So actually helping the startups be able to engage, to fundraise, and to work with the partners.”
The selection process for the accelerator programme is now underway and will be running for the next six weeks. The first three-month programme is then scheduled to begin at the start of June, with Gomez underlining that Plug and Play also plans to continue supporting participants post-programme.
“We have decided the first programme that will be topic agnostic,” he continued, “The reason for this is because we understood that not everything fits into one single box or into one single industry. So we want you to have a very good understanding of what's out there in the ecosystem to be able to help it.”
“From there,” he continued, “we will be running different industries, such as Fintech and RegTech,” before also including two more categories, Gaming, Social & Leisure, and Shipping & Energy. “These are just four, we have six, so the other two (categories) will also continue to develop over the coming months,” he concluded.
