The Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition (CyEC) saw the final pitching session for the 9 startups participating in the Accelerator Programme on 28 November, with the winners announced at the 8th Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum on 29 November.
Navigator Consulting is pleased to support the CyEC as a sponsor; Philip Ammerman also acted as a judge for CyEC 2023. The opinions expressed below are those of Navigator, not the official Entrepreneurship Competition.
This year saw a notable improvement in startup quality, engagement and commitment, with over 30 initial applications and 9 finalists, which were:
IQ3Solar: A start-up providing sensoring and productivity enhancements for photovoltaic panel installations;
Freyia Labs: A start-up developing innovative functional food products and nutraceuticals;
Park in Town: A startup providing smart parking solutions in urban environments;
Groovit: A startup providing a marketplace, community and tools for DJs that also provides for streaming and payment options;
E-mbracelet: A start-up providing noise and ambient conditions sensoring that may affect autistic reactions;
Multians: An online platform for content creators featuring collaboration and supply-demand matching;
Design Inspiration: An online community and tools for property developers, architects, civil engineers, interior designers and related professions;
The Aeons project: A start-up focusing on educational and narrative technologies for younger learners using a historical approach;
Playtask: An educational technology project combining gaming and education for ages 9+ in a virtual environment.
The winners were IQ3Solar and Freyia Labs. For IQ3Solar, some of the elements that contributed to their success were:
A very impressive team of researchers and scientists that clearly show advanced technological knowledge and expertise.
Extensive prior research work, verified through patents and other work.
A global market with different entry points, from smaller photovoltaic installations to large-scale conglomerates and multinationals.
A clear value promise: the potential of identifying an 8% underperformance, over and above the natural panel degredation rate.
For Freyia Labs, the key strengths included:
A highly motivated and ethically-minded team.
A range of existing products and traction.
The potential for both domestic and international expansion.
In addition to the Acceleration Programme, CyEC 2023 was innovative in that it introduced a Launchpad option: startups that passed an initial screening could avoid the Accelerator and go directly to pitching to a panel of investors on the same day.
These included:
Medily
Bitloops
Intellar
Hello Radius
Answeropia
Atokes
2050 Materials
Efevretech
The Pitching Event was hosted in the afternoon of 28 November and included a number of investors, business incubators, accelerators and other key members of the Cyprus tech ecosystem.
The morning of November 28th was the main session of the 8th Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum and was dedicated to artificial intelligence. An interesting presentation entitled AI: Creating Value and Minimizing Risks was given by Dr. Theodoros Evgeniou of INSEAD, and was followed by a panel discussion.
CyEC 2023 would not be possible without the support and goodwill of the University of Cyprus Centre for Entrepreneurship (C4E), which did a stellar job of organisation, and the financial support of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry of Cyprus.
A wide range of mentors, judges, and other supporters contributed their time, and once again the work by Andreas Koupparis, who dedicated tens of hours towards mentoring startups on their business plans, should be praised.
We wish all the startup participants a successful 2024 and strong growth in the future. And we look forward to supporting CyEC 2024!