Seena Amidi, Managing Partner EMEA for Plug and Play, believes that the recipe for startup success in Cyprus is the same as that fuelling the tech sector in Silicon Valley: openness. Or, more precisely, openness, venture capital and a Limassol location. The bustling seaside city is home to tech company Plug and Play’s new operations on the island and, specifically, to its recently launched location and ecosystem, which will work with 60 Cypriot startups.
“I was very impressed by the way in which the Government is trying to empower the people who have chosen to live in Cyprus,” Amidi says, referring to the expatriate community of founders, entrepreneurs and innovators who have made the island their home in recent years.
“I think that’s how a country becomes strong – by empowering the people that want to live there,” he adds
Amidi knows what it takes for a start-up to succeed, having worked for one that was later acquired by Google. He is currently based in Barcelona as Managing Partner EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) for Plug and Play. The company was born in California in 2006, with its first two accelerator programmes taking place in 2011.
A government-backed push for innovation
The Cyprus programme comes in the wake of President Nikos Christodoulides’ trip to Silicon Valley in 2025. Plug and Play Limassol, launched on April 7, is being co-funded by the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, along with the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF).
And it is a big deal: the support plan outlines a three-year period, during which six different three-month programmes will empower 60 Cypriot startups. That means access to the Plug and Play ecosystem of mentorship to founders and potential partnership with over 500 corporations, facilitated by local contractors in Cyprus. The best may even receive investment and the participation costs for startups are covered through a dedicated funding scheme by the RIF; no equity is required to join.
“In other cities in Europe, you have an ecosystem per ethnicity, you don’t have one ecosystem, so the goal is to combine them. I think it’s incredibly important because one ecosystem is far stronger”, he says, pointing to Silicon Valley’s melting pot as proof of that.
Building the global startup ecosystem
And that melting pot, he explains, inspires and synthesises different ideas and beliefs, offering equality whereby everyone can succeed. As an example, Amidi points to the food scene in Silicon Valley where you can get food from any country you can dream of, such as the highest quality Burmese or Ethiopian, “Because it’s almost as if the entire world’s population is represented at just the right percentages,” he says.
And that’s what many argue is currently playing out across Cyprus, most noticeably in Limassol. The tech sector, where Cypriots work with Europeans, Russians, Americans and many others who are innovating on the island, now accounts for about 14% of GDP. That openness translates into how the Plug and Play centres - active in over 60 locations – run, operate and ultimately succeed. A local contractor may link a Cypriot startup with a French mentor or with a German partner who secures funding from an Armenian. And it’s that vast network which helps local startups branch out.
“Governments want us to create jobs and bring forward direct investment. So, to do that, I need to make the local startups better and I can do that by training them well, by making their cap [capitalisation] table good, by ensuring that they stay clear of local pitfalls, by being a mentor,” he emphasises.
On the funding side, crucial for most – though not all – startups, Amidi explains that there are various aspects at play.
“I need to get them foreign revenue as fast as possible. That means I have to first find market fit,” he says, adding: “Then the foreign revenue. It’s better if it’s outside the EU, because if you’re just aiming at EU-specific, there’s a limit for funding in the next stages of growth.”
He explains that some markets, such as the US and China, are large enough to be self-sustaining, but for the majority of startups, it makes the most sense to have a wider scope.
“I can show Cypriot startups to our Middle East offices, our broader European network and the US offices. There’s no reason why, as far as customers go, the market fit for a Cypriot startup should only be in Cyprus and not in the wider southern Europe area,” he tells GOLD, before adding, “So, if I can find them revenue from Germany, Saudi Arabia or Egypt, why not? We have to fill those gaps and go for it the best way we can.”
From local to global
To link Cypriot startups to that broader ecosystem, he says, a physical presence is crucial. “We always want boots on the ground. I don’t want a scouting office,” he adds, explaining how some of Plug and Play’s competitors simply enter a scene and try to invest. “We’d love to do that, but it wouldn’t help all parts of the ecosystem and it wouldn’t help our clients.”
As for the investment, he explains: “We make investments through two different ICs (investment committees), but they all go to the same IC globally, so the local person has to find the best possible startup and make sure they can get investment. It’s an IC, so it’s political: if it’s better to invest through the US entity, great; if it’s better through the EU entity, great too. It shouldn’t matter for the startup.”
There’s a lot going on but there’s a clear process. The local contractor has to learn the politics of Plug and Play and tap into its wider ecosystem to try to secure funding or mentorship for the local startup, with incentives for the local contractor who helps find them.
“It’s not about where they’re from, right? The mentors in those countries want to give back; they’re not focused on which location they’re from,” he explains. The support plan includes 120 mentors from around the world coming to Cyprus.
Amidi emphasises that Plug and Play has a list of 500 corporations with paid relationships. But when you include those that they work with, visit and previous partners, the list expands to about 3,000 corporations. That’s a lot of puzzle pieces for the local team to figure out but basically they need to work with Plug and Play in order to make sure that they and their startups are getting those benefits locally.
In detailing the process, Amidi is passionate, which is why he’s particularly excited about the Cyprus programme and the Government’s approach which, he says, offers real room for innovation and opportunity.
“They [the Government] are so reasonable that they want to start the first batch as agnostic (open) to any different industry. They have an idea what the other five should be, but we don’t know what the startups that apply will look like,” he tells GOLD.
He explains that keeping the first round ‘agnostic’ prevents any narrowing of the field and doesn’t limit the focus. For example, there could be a first-round focus on tourism-related startups but what if an energy startup linked to a university is booming? Current plans include the areas of Fintech and Regtech, Gaming, Social and Leisure, and Shipping and Energy.
So, the Government can steer the direction of the programmes, such as deciding on the 60 startups, and aiming for the creation of 500 jobs.
“Sixty is a good number, because every failed startup also births entrepreneurs – it’s not just about the ones that succeed,” he says, adding that even those that don’t make it help build momentum by adding to the growing ecosystem.
It’s still early days but what does Seena Amidi expect to see after the three-year programme is completed? He points to a potential fund which could follow up on the top five or ten winners of the 60 participating startups. “And then we do a B round and a C round and continue it, to have a fund on top of these programmes and make this evergreen,” he suggests, though he cautions that what is needed, practical and possible will only become clearer later.
The Government’s embracing of tech – a sector that embodies creative destruction and whose loudest voices, from Elon Musk to Peter Thiel, tend towards libertarian suspicion of state involvement – speaks to how seriously Cyprus is taking its innovation ambitions. The Government itself can act as a catalyst, an accelerator. But, as Amidi explains, it’s also about ensuring easier access to the space and while startups cannot be forced to stay in a specific location, the Government can incentivise them to stay. To facilitate acquiring that right balance of talent from abroad, it has already taken steps, such as the Cyprus Startup Visa, to bring entrepreneurs from non-EU countries.
“They’re making a bet on tech entrepreneurs, rather than all types of entrepreneurs,” says Amidi, “and I’m very happy to be that choice!”
This interview first appeared in the May edition of GOLD magazine. Click here to view it.
