Kaspar Korjus

Two Cities, Two Realities: The Startup Divide in Cyprus Bifurcation of the startup and business ecosystem is nowhere more pronounced than between Limassol and Nicosia. Companies in Nicosia are linked with government, banks, and institutions, with most startups being university R&D-focused and reliant on state grants. Limassol companies are outward-looking, collaborate to create an ecosystem for their staff (and themselves) because their market is the world, and startups follow the same path. The role of government should be to bridge these, transferring Limassol’s knowledge to Nicosia. Unfortunately, not only is that not happening, but many are choosing to “leave the foreigners do their thing.” This won’t end well. The growth pace is so different that the “fight back” will come from foreigners — questioning and challenging how the country is run. You can already see it in sectors like overseas-owned hotels, food chains, and finance groups stepping in where local companies fail to deliver. PS: Check the sponsors of tech events in each city and you’ll see the split. Why invest heavily to attract companies to Cyprus only to live in our bubble? If the logic is “I can’t compete, but the CEO is my cousin so I’ll get the contract”, it makes short-term sense — but it’s the easy road. And easy roads lead to weak foundations, which crack when the downturn comes.

57

8 Comments

MIT says 95% of #GenAI pilots fail. Not because the tech isn’t good enough — but because people need time. Time to learn new tools. Time to change habits. Time to adapt to a new way of working. At Picsart we’re in the 5% that’s making it work. Still early, but the wins are there. The real unlock is helping people shift their workflows and feel confident with AI. In the end, it’s not just about models — it’s about people.

110

4 Comments

🔟 Fresh funds ready to deploy: 1️⃣ Flyer One Ventures Fund V | 50M | EUR | Kyiv, Ukraine | Technology (primarily Enterprise Software, EdTech, FinTech, Consumer Tech, AI) | Pre-Seed & Seed | flyerone.vc | Oleksii Yermolenko 🇺🇦 (Co-Founder & Partner), Vital Laptenok (General Partner), Elena M. (Partner) 2️⃣ Mantis Venture Capital VC Fund III | 100M | USD | Los Angeles, USA | AI, Healthtech, Cybersecurity, Data Infrastructure, Frontier Tech | Early Stage (Seed to Series A) | mantisvc.com | Alex Pall, Jeffrey Evans (Co-Founder & Managing Partner), Milan Koch (Founding Partner) 3️⃣ Evantic Capital Fund I | 355M | USD | London, UK | B2B Tech, AI, Software (Europe and US; focus on Series B & Growth) | Series B, Growth (plus select earlier rounds) | evantic.ai | Matt Miller (Founder & Managing Partner), Spencer Hemphill (CFO) 4️⃣ Aoki Labs Fund I | n/a | USD | Los Angeles, USA | Entertainment, Wellness, Consumer Innovation, Longevity | Early-Stage (Seed, Pre-Seed, some Growth) | aokilabs.vc | Steve Aoki (Founder & General Partner), Matt Colon, Dougie Bohay (Founding Partner/Manager), Tashi Nakanishi (General Partner) 5️⃣ Banyan Ventures AI Fund I | 10M | USD | New York, USA | AI Infrastructure & Software (AI-native startups, including inference chips, cooling, GenAI workflows) | Pre-Seed & Seed | banyan-vc.com | Sam Awrabi (Founder & General Partner) 6️⃣ Cambrian Ventures Fund II | 20M | USD | San Francisco, USA | Fintech (broad: Payments, Insurtech, WealthTech, Lending, RegTech, Vert. SaaS, Proptech, BankTech, Commerce, Fintech x Healthcare) | Pre-Seed, Seed | cambrianhq.com I Rex Salisbury (Founder & General Partner, Solo GP) 7️⃣ CapitalT Fund II | 50M | EUR | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Climate Tech, Future of Work, Software Technology | (Pre-)Seed | capitaltvc.com | Janneke Niessen, Eva De Mol Ph.D (Founding Partner) 8️⃣ SHIFT Invest IV | 92M (first close) | EUR | Amstelveen, Netherlands | Climate, Biodiversity, Sustainable Resource Use (Energy, Industry, Mobility, Food & Agriculture) | Early-Stage (Proof of Concept, Seed, Series A) | shiftinvest.com | Guus Verhees (Managing Partner), Bram Ledeboer, Florentine Fokma (Fockema Andreae) (Partner) 9️⃣ Ventures.eu Fund I | first close n/a (30M target) | EUR | Lisbon, Portugal | Deep Tech, Innovation, Sustainability, Digital Transformation (sector-agnostic) | Seed, Series A (opportunistic Series B & secondaries) | ventures.eu | Fernando Peres Ferreira (Partner) 🔟 boldstart ventures Fund VII | 250M | USD | New York & Miami, USA | AI-Native Infrastructure, Autonomous Enterprise (Programmable Money, Smart Contracts, Crypto-Native Automation, Secure Identity, Agents, Semantic Interfaces, Robotic Execution) | Pre-Seed, Seed, Inception Stage | boldstart.vc | Ed Sim (Founder & General Partner), Eliot Durbin (General Partner) 2️⃣ 3️⃣ more funds in the comments ⬇️⬇️⬇️

35

10 Comments