Cyprus Seeds MD: Time and speed are critical in the world of innovation

First-time entrepreneurs and startup founders often turn to business accelerators or startup incubators for help with their fledgling companies.

Here, we present another of the accelerators that play a crucial role in the Cypriot startup ecosystem, speaking to Maria Markidou Georgiadou, Managing Director, Cyprus Seeds.

Cyprus Seeds is a non-profit organisation aiming to commercialise innovative, academic research in Cyprus. It offers an 18-month accelerator programme of mentoring, training and networking with customers and investors in Cyprus and abroad. Furthermore, it offers grants from €10,000 to €50,000 to each scientific team participating in the programme, which was launched in 2018. Cyprus Seeds is open to public and private Universities and Research Centres in Cyprus and targets faculty and graduate students and accepts research teams with innovative projects from any sector of the economy. It has completed two funding cycles and supported 10 innovative projects from the University of Cyprus, CUT, CING, The Cyprus Institute, KIOS and CYENS. In less than four years (and despite COVID-19), Cyprus Seeds has concluded an Option-to- Licence Agreement for a drug for inherited neuropathies, and two spin-offs from the University of Cyprus: Gynetronics Ltd and IQ3Solar Ltd. Before the end of this year, it expects to conclude with its third start-up from the Cyprus Institute, in the area of art characterisation.

What changes would you like to see to the Cyprus startup ecosystem that could help it evolve and take it to the next level?

I have been involved with the startup ecosystem in Cyprus for the last eight years and I am confident that there is enough talent on the ground, at least from the scientific community in Cyprus, to put our country on the world map of innovation. However, a lot is still missing in order to grow the nascent ecosystem, including legislation that supports the creation of startups by state universities, a national Technology Transfer Office, business angel funding, and the development of the necessary entrepreneurial mindset among academics. We have been talking about all these essential ingredients for the growth of the ecosystem for many years now and I am anxiously waiting for all of them to be in place. Time and speed are critical in the world of innovation. We should all keep that in mind and act accordingly.

This interview first appeared in the April edition of GOLD magazine. Click here to view it.