ARIS Demo Day

ARIS (A Really Inspiring Space) Accelerator organised its annual event, Demo Day, on Thursday 12 December 2019 at its premises, in the heart of Limassol.

The event is organised in order to celebrate the achievements of the ARIS resident start-up companies. The opening remarks were addressed by Nicos Kyriakides, Partner at Deloitte Cyprus, and  Eliza Loucaidou, Director at the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre of Deloitte Cyprus and ARIS Manager. Loucaidou presented the ARIS programme, which has been designed specifically to assist start-ups transform innovative ideas into successful business ventures. “ARIS is a start-up accelerator, founded by Deloitte and the Bank of Cyprus. It is a home for innovation that provides the space, support, inspiration and community needed for a strong and vibrant innovation culture”, said Loucaidou.

Andy Grey, a Chartered Physicist and founder of two companies, gave an inspirational talk about innovation in the space-tech sector stemming out of data science. Grey who acts as an advisor to the UK Space Agency and the European Commission, stressed the significant private investment in space companies as part of the “New Space Era”. “Venture capital investment in SpaceTech start-ups is expected to grow to €2.6 billion by 2025”, said Grey.

The co-founder of AAlchemy Ventures, Andrey Kostyuk, was also a guest speaker at the event. Kostyuk presented the new investment opportunities for startups according to the guidelines of the European Commission for the next programming period 2020-2027.

The speeches were followed by pitches from several ARIS resident start-up companies –  Innovopolis, Irerobot, Fundscribe, WATTS, EkoNest and Oreen – who attracted the audience’s interest with their innovative solutions.

The event was attended by several members of start-ups, Deloitte Cyprus professionals, Bank of Cyprus executives, as well as other accelerators, companies and organisations. “Our ambition for ARIS is to be a meeting point between corporates and start-ups in the Cypriot ecosystem”, explained Loucaidou. Following the presentations, all participants had the opportunity to meet and discuss important opportunities and developments related to the start-up ecosystem in Cyprus.

 

Alexis Iaponas, CEO, Fundscribe
Evagoras Xydas, CEO, Irerobot
Eleni Kazelas, CEO, Ekonest
Mike Dokuchaev, CDO, WATTS
Konstantia Achilleos, CEO, Oreen
Petros Timotheou, CEO, Innovopolis