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Once again this year Startupbusiness confirms its partnership with the eighth edition of the Reflect Festival, held in Limassol on 15 and 16 May 2025, taking a close look at the innovation ecosystem of Cyprus, which, as presented a few days ago in StartupBlink’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2025 took 40th position among innovation ecosystems, rising five places compared to last year. For the second year in a row, the country was confirmed as the fastest growing startup ecosystem in the European Union, with a growth rate of 28 per cent.
The centrepiece of this edition of the event is the announcement of a strategic partnership between Reflect Festival and the Dubai technology entrepreneur campus (Dtec), the largest technology startup hub in the Middle East. This agreement marks a key moment for the joint growth of innovation ecosystems between Europe and the MENA region.
The stated aim of the collaboration during the press conference is to strengthen connections between entrepreneurs, investors and institutions in the two territories through exchange programmes, joint campaigns, round tables with public and private stakeholders and thought leadership content. A shared agenda, that of Reflect and Dtec, which is based on complementarity and openness to new markets.
“This new collaboration with Dubai will allow us to co-create meaningful initiatives focused on relationship-building, emerging technologies, thought leadership, and ecosystem development – engaging top talent across both public and private sectors”, says Stylianos Lambrou, CEO co-founder Reflect Festival
This year’s festival saw record attendance of over 10,000 people, more than 300 start-ups, 200 investors and 150 international speakers. Interest from Middle Eastern investors is also growing, as Lambrou pointed out, in line with Dubai’s strategic plans outlined in the Dubai economic agenda D33 and the Dubai urban master plan 2040, which aim to consolidate the city as a global hub of innovation and knowledge.
“This collaboration reflects our ongoing commitment to positioning Dubai as a global destination for talent, capital, and transformative ideas. By bridging ecosystems between Europe and the Middle East, we are strengthening our position as a hub for future industries and entrepreneurial growth”, says Juma Al Matrooshi, director general of Dubai Silicon Oasis
Ecosystem in ferment, the energy of new hubs
One of the aspects that emerged the most and that we also picked up among the participants was the vitality of the local tech community, even beyond the event, to give it additional support, to which the organisers this year decided to add several satellite events in addition to the main programme. As Faris Zacina, CEO of Ministry of Programming (with offices in Sarajevo and Stockholm) tells us: “I find the growing tech community there refreshing – there’s an energy and openness to collaboration that reminds me of the early days of other tech hubs before they became oversaturated”.
There is a climate of openness and collaboration in Limassol, where start-ups and scale-ups meet with investors and corporations with the intention of building real partnerships, and what is most striking in the approach with the people we met is the total clarity with which they all declare that they avoid those connections that are just window-dressing, there is a real desire to get things done and the desire for concreteness is tangible.
The regulatory competitive advantage
Alongside the cultural dimension, what makes Cyprus particularly attractive today is the regulatory developments in the technology space, especially for fintech and digital start-ups. “What’s particularly interesting is the regulatory environment that’s becoming increasingly supportive of technology businesses, especially in the fintech space. This creates opportunities for companies building compliant solutions that can scale across multiple regions”, adds Zacina.
The island offers unique conditions for testing solutions that are both innovative and already designed to scale in other markets due to regulatory compliance.
Concrete partnerships at the heart of the event
The Reflect Festival proved to be not only an exhibition platform but also an accelerator of strategic relationships and agreements. Besides the announcement with Dtec, many start-ups and funds formalised new partnerships directly during the event.
The Cypriot context, thanks to a mix of geographical location, regulatory openness and infrastructure dedicated to innovation, proves to be an ideal terrain for launching cross-border initiatives. What is particularly interesting is the regulatory environment that is becoming increasingly favourable to technology companies, especially in the fintech sphere. This creates opportunities for companies building compliant solutions that can scale across multiple regions.
Among the companies that see Cyprus as a starting point for new strategies is Skroutz, Greece’s leading e-commerce platform, which was present at Reflect with a delegation led by Yiannis Efthimiou, marketing and operations manager for Skroutz in Cyprus: “The collaboration between Skroutz and the Cypriot ecosystem is crucial, both for our continued success on the island and for the growth of the Cypriot e-commerce landscape. We will also be launching a Cypriot subsidiary of our delivery company, Skroutz Last Mile (SLM), on the island in the coming months. This move is designed to improve the overall experience for Cypriot customers, while reaffirming our long-term investment in the local market. In addition to the launch of SLM, we plan to install more than 50 Skroutz Lockers in key locations across Cyprus to provide faster and more convenient access to products for communities across the island.”
Reflect Festival 2025 è stato supportato da Payabl. e Exness; CYTA Business, Imperio, the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF), Scaffolding Solutions, Skroutz; Elias Neocleous & Co, Hellenic Bank, Invest Cyprus, National Bank of Greece, Nespresso, Pafilia, Social Discovery Group; Anymaster, BrainRocket, FlexCar, Mellow, PayPal, PwC, SoftSwiss e in questa edizione ha visto la partecipazione di delegazioni internazionali come Advantage Austria, Bulgarian small and medium enterprises Promotion agency, National institute for R&D in Informatics ICI Bucharest.
The Mediterranean context thus once again proves to be one of the best equipped in Europe in the practice of building and consolidating bridges in and out of the Continent where Cyprus is now a key innovation hub between Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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