News & Announcements

 

 

“Accelerating innovation for sustainable growth”

20 February 2020 – The continuous and rapid development of the maritime sector and the challenges it faces on a global level, were the central themes of the interactive workshop “Accelerating innovation for sustainable growth”, which took place at ARIS (A Really Inspiring Space) on February 19th. The event took place under the auspices of the Deputy Minister of Shipping and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was organised in collaboration with PortXL, the global hub for entrepreneurship in the maritime industry, and the Cyprus Marine & Maritime Institute (CMMI).

The workshop gathered several stakeholders and corporates from the maritime sector, who are interested in innovation processes, to identify the collective needs and respective opportunities for innovation. The main objective is to build bridges with entrepreneurs and startups to support their business development in order to help drive global innovation in maritime.
The workshop’s moderator and Director International of PortXL, Cees-Willem Koorneef, stressed the importance of open innovation in the maritime sector and forming regional coalitions between different stakeholders to encourage smart and fast innovation.

ARIS Manager and Director at Deloitte Cyprus’ Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre, Eliza Loucaidou, mentioned: “This is a great opportunity for local start-ups and new entrepreneurs to be inspired and encouraged to develop innovative solutions for sustainable growth in shipping.”

ARIS Startups at Web Summit Lisbon 2019

We are so proud of our startups OREEN and FUNDSCRIBE for being among the Cypriot teams selected by the Research Innovation Foundation to attend the Web Summit 2019 that took place in Lisbon during the first week of November. During their trip in Lisbon, they had the chance to meet the Ambassador of Cyprus in Lisbon Mr. Andreas Ignatiou and the Chief Scientist of Cyprus Mr. Kyriacos M Kokkinos at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Lisbon!

CyprusJS Limassol #3

The CyprusJS Limssol #3 took place at ARIS on the 24th of October 2019. Key speakers of this event were Victor Vlasenko, CEO at SysGears and Yarn v2 Contributor, and Vladislav Orlov, Senior JavaScript Developer at MetaQuotes. Victor talked about Yarn 2 package manager that will be released soon, its best upcoming features and new approaches. Vladislav talked about Svelte 3 and its unique compiler which generates optimised JS files.

Learn more about Cyprus JS and their upcoming events here: https://cyprusjs.org/

Agile HR Community Meetup at ARIS

On the 18th of October 2019 we had the great pleasure to host the Agile HR Meetup organised for the first time in Cyprus by Cyprus Agile and Innovation Community. The Agile HR Meetup is a vital learning global network for HR, Learning and Development (L&D), Agile and, People and Culture professionals, on a mission to innovate HR and transform the profession for the future of work. Two workshops were facilitated by the speakers Riina Hellström, an Agile HR pioneer and co-founder of the Agile HR Community, and Konstantinos Kareklas, founder of the Cyprus Agile and Innovation Community, on “How to build an HR backlog” and “Continuous learning and improvement via Retrospectives”, respectively.

WATTS BATTERY Strategic Session at ARIS

On the 14th and 15th  of October 2019 we had the pleasure to welcome the whole team of our resident startup from Russia and host their Strategic Session at ARIS.

Learn more about WATTS BATTERY here: https://wattsbattery.com/

ARIS Director at the Dutch Embassy Cyprus

On the 9th of October 2019, ARIS Director, Eliza Loucaidou, had the pleasure to be invited by the Ambassador of The Netherlands in Cyprus to discuss innovation in maritime and other sectors during CW. Koorneef’s visit in Cyprus, Director of PortXLglobal (the world’s first maritime accelerator).

Mastering your ELEVATOR PITCH Workshop at ARIS

In the framework of empowering the skills of its members, YoungShip Cyprus organised the “Elevator Pitch” Workshop, on Saturday 21st September 2019 at ARIS. The workshop was delivered by Leonidas Alexandrou, a dedicated youth mentor and corporate trainer. During the event, ARIS Manager, Eliza Loucaidou, also presented ARIS to the participants.

ARIS at the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival

ARIS attended the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival on 18-19 September 2019 for the first time as part of the Cyprus Delegation. ARIS was represented by our Manager, Eliza Loucaidou, whereas our startup, Fundscribe was also part of the delegation. During their trip, they also had the chance to meet the Ambassador of Cyprus in Tel Aviv, Ms Thessalia Shambos, who welcomed them in Israel!

CyprusJS Limassol #2

The CyprusJS Limssol #2 took place at ARIS on the 22nd of August 2019. Key speakers of this event were Anri Asaturov, Senior Software Engineer at WorkJam, and Sergei Grishchenko, Senior JavaScript Developer at Spotware Systems. The talk of Anri was on “Making apps with MobX and React”, while Sergei talked about “Web Сomponents as Possible Future” trying to answer the question “Is it possible to create performant and scalable apps using only standard browser environment?”.

Learn more about Cyprus JS and their upcoming events here: https://cyprusjs.org/

Research and Innovation Foundation at ARIS

On the 16th of July 2019, we welcomed representatives from the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) for an interactive workshop on available funding schemes to our resident startups. The RIF’s representatives, Nedi Kaffa and Stavros Kambanellas, presented the new Calls for Proposals (Pre-SEED, SEED & INNOVATE) published by the RIF to the founders of our startups, who afterwards had the chance to discuss their proposed projects with them and receive hands-on advice on how to develop and submit their proposals.

The National Team for the Cyprus Cyber Security Challenge at ARIS

On Saturday, 6th of July 2019, ARIS hosted the National Team for a training session for the Cyprus Cyber Security Challenge – CCSC.

Each year, the National Team for the CCSC is selected and trained in order to compete at the European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC) that takes place annually. This year, Cyprus’ team of 10 contestants aged 14-25 will compete against 18 other national teams during the ECSC in Bucharest on 9-11 October.

The Cyprus Computer Society is responsible for preparing the National Team for this year’s ECSC. Information Security specialists in Cyprus from both academia and the industry act as mentors by setting-up and running the national challenges, in order to train the cyber talents for the ECSC. These challenges include Buffer Overflow Exploitation, Web Application Hacking, Forensic Investigations, Steganography and Cryptography exercises, Reverse Engineering, Open Source Intelligence, Hardware Hacking, etc.

Seminar on the elaboration of business and exploitation plans concluded under the PROteuS project

ARIS, Deloitte Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre and the Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranean organised a seminar on “Elaboration of business and exploitation plans” that took place on the 11th of June 2019 at ARIS.

The seminar was co-organised in the framework of the EU-funded project PROteuS. ARIS team and Deloitte professionals shared their knowledge and experience on topics such as tax & legal, innovation, financial advisory and marketing. The aim was to provide advice and guidance to Cypriot SMEs, start-ups, researchers and entrepreneurs in the elaboration of elaboration of business and exploitation plans for their technologies, products, services and ideas.

Find more information here: http://www.marinem.org/inspiring-seminar-on-the-elaboration-of-business-and-exploitation-plans-concluded-under-the-proteus-project/

InnoPlatform Project – 4th Info Day at ARIS

On the 11th of June 2019, ARIS hosted the 4th Info Day of the EU-funded project InnoPlatform (Innovation Platform and Tools for increasing the innovation capacity of SMEs in the Balkan Mediterranean Area) organised by the Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

INNOPLATFORM aims at improving the competitiveness of the Balkan Mediterranean region by advancing existing knowledge on business model innovations and developing a set of tools (InnoTools) and services (InnoScorecard and InnoRegion) for improving SMEs opportunities, capacities, and knowledge in introducing product and process innovations.

In the context of the project in which LCCI participates as a partner, ARIS was awarded a tender for the provision of consulting services for the support of start-ups during the pilot operation of the Centre of Excellence in Limassol (LCCI) and during the use of InnoTools. Our start-ups Inowaste, Ekonest and Fundscribe were among the start-ups selected to participate and use the InnoTools.

During the event, representatives of LCCI presented the InnoPlatform project and its objectives. In addition, our Manager, Eliza Loucaidou, presented ARIS program, while our start-ups pitched their ideas and talked about their participation in the project.

OREEN Launch Event

On the 31st of May 2019, ARIS hosted the launch event of Oreen, one of the very first startup teams, which began its entrepreneurial journey at ARIS Accelerator last year. The team members organised this event to announce officially the start of the operations of Oreen and present the services that will be offered in the sector of the sustainable tourism in nature.

Oreen is a promotional platform for sustainable nature-based tourism. Its vision is to promote nature-based tourism, even in the most remote destination economies, whilst respecting the local people and the environment.

Oreen is a multidimensional tool with the following functionalities: allow hosts of tours and activities to register in a booking mobile application; allow travellers to book in advance adventures with local hosts via their mobile application; and it is the link between academics and the tourism industry within Oreen hub. It is a community on their website where the scientists/creators of the hub can design new experiences to sell to tourism and educational interested parties.

Their aim is to offer new experiences focused on protecting the environment and considering the local communities. Yet the hub has an added most significant role. It aims to create a community of experts that can address the challenges of sustainable nature-based tourism.

Welcoming entrepreneurs from abroad at ARIS

30/05/2019 – ARIS Manager, Eliza Loucaidou, had the chance to meet the Entrepreneur, Change Maker and Growth Strategist Daniel Applewhite from New Orleans at ARIS!

Through CyprusInno, Daniel visited Cyprus last week in the context of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative YTILI, a flagship young European leaders program of U.S. State Department, implemented by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) to share his experiences from entrepreneurial ecosystems abroad and his insights on Cyprus Entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Daniel Applewhite is an entrepreneur, change maker, and growth strategist. Prior to joining Swing Education, Daniel led the creation of entrepreneurial accelerator programs, and started two different companies; with a bulk of his experience centered in growth strategy, customer acquisition, and the development profit-driven strategies to solve social problems.With a large degree of inequity surrounding access to capital – Daniel is also a champion for equitably approaching fund raising, and has worked with social organizations and entrepreneurs of color to raise pre-seed, seed, and series A funding rounds, and actively writes for different online publications.

We would like to thank CyprusInno and Daniel for dedicating a day to visit ARIS Accelerator in Limassol and for the inspiring chat on entrepreneurship and innovation in Cyprus and abroad.

Learn more about Daniel here!

CyprusJS Limassol #1

The CyprusJS Limssol #1 took place at ARIS on the 23rd of May 2019. Key speakers of this event were Hessan Adnani and Jonas Broms. Hessan talked about the logic and the setup of a scalable and modular UI engine using Angular 2/6 for people who are looking to develop scalable applications for big projects. He explored different options using Angular components and SCSS capabilities to perform the logic and the structure. Jonas talked about the benefits of Headless CMS (also called Content Management Framework – CMF), compared WordPress RestAPI (CMS) Vs. Strapi.io (CMF) and provided alternatives to Strapi. He also demonstrated live coding and creation of a app/blog using GatsbyJS + Strapi with offline support.

Learn more about Cyprus JS and their upcoming events here!

Business Pitch Competition – Cyprus University of Technology

It was a great pleasure to attend the Business Pitch Competition that was held on the 12th of April 2019 at the Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol. In the context of their course for this semester in Entrepreneurship, 2nd year students pitched their business ideas in front of a panel of judges and receive feedback on how to evolve them. ARIS was represented by our Operations Officer, Anthi Chatzikyriakou, who was among the evaluators.

ARIS supporting the Startup Europe Week 2019 in Limassol and Nicosia

ARIS | A Really Inspiring Space supported the organisation of the Startup Europe Week (SEW) 2019 in Limassol and Nicosia that took place on 13 and 14 March 2019, respectively.

SEW is the largest regional entrepreneurship event and grassroots movement in the world whose goal is to help entrepreneurs grow and thrive wherever they are or come from. It has consistently achieved that through a series of locally focused events that connect the local ecosystem and show entrepreneurs what support is available at their particular city and regional level. SEW is present in more than 300 cities in 50+ countries, with the collaboration of 250+ local co-organisers/ecosystem leaders.

The SEW19 Limassol was held with great success at the premises of ARIS in Limassol. The event was co-organised by DisruptCyprus.com and attracted the interest of more than forty (40) people. During the event, the Director of Deloitte’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre and ARIS, Monica Ioannidou Polemitis, described the process of converting an idea into an actual viable business, showcasing methodologies such us design thinking, research methods SWOT/PESTEL and useful tools for creating and analysing business models such as the lean canvas.

The SEW19 Nicosia was co-organised by HJS Insurance and was held at the premises of the European University Cyprus in Nicosia. Monica Ioannidou Polemitis was invited to represent ARIS by presenting the program and highlighting the available opportunities arising for entrepreneurs and startups in Cyprus through local accelerators and incubators.

Legal Workshop to ARIS start-ups

On the 4th of March 2019, ARIS hosted a legal workshop by Lellos Demetriades law firm to our resident start-ups on company and basic contracts, intellectual property and personal data. The teams had the chance to discuss and get consultation from the legal experts about legal issues they will need to handle for their start-ups.

EXAL at the Nakamoto’s Den Blockchain Conference

 

ARIS is pleased to announce the participation of its resident team EXAL at the Nakamoto’s Den Blockchain Conference that will take place on the 19th and 20th of February in Limassol, Cyprus. This blockchain investment and networking event is organized by Universal Crypto in an effort to bring together digital startup companies, established international companies, VC funds, investors, family wealth funds, blockchain influencers and industry leaders.

EXAL has managed to secure its participation in the Digital Start-Up Battles that will take place on the first day of the Conference, being one out of the 8 projects that have been selected to compete in the Battles, among the 100 application slots that were available.

We are really proud of their achievement and we wish them the best of luck!

You can find EXAL on:
Website: http://www.exal-technologies.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Exal_Tech
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exal_tech/

Inspiring University students at ARIS

 

On Tuesday, 29th of January 2019, ARIS hosted 2nd year students from the Cyprus University of Technology and their lecturer in the course of Entrepreneurship for this semester, Dr. Andri Georgiadou.

ARIS Director, Monica Ioannidou Polemitis, presented ARIS and talked to the students about new technologies and how innovation can create value.

The students also presented their own innovative ideas, which they are going to develop and pitch at a later stage in the framework of their course.

Connecting Syndeseas with the Cyprus shipping industry

 

On Friday, 25th of January 2019, ARIS hosted “The EU Shipping CO2 Emissions MRV Regulation & IMO Fuel Consumption Data Collection System Training Course”, co-organized by the Cypriot innovative start-up Syndeseas Integrated Solutions Ltd.

Through this four-hour free of charge training course, the organizers aimed at providing guidance to maritime professionals and companies on a more practical approach on how they should act to ensure compliance with both the EU MRV and IMO DCS regulations.

The participants gained valuable insights on the regulatory requirements and on the overall monitoring, reporting and verification process, so that they may perform the relevant activities within their organizations timely and efficiently.

Welcoming High School students at ARIS

 

ARIS hosted an event for 1st year students from Agios Nikolaos Lyceum on Friday, 14th of December 2018.

The Director of ARIS, Monica Ioannidou Polemitis, presented the ARIS program and introduced teenagers to new technologies and innovation as a key driver to creating value.

Our resident teams also pitched their ideas, providing the students with the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship and to be exposed to alternative career paths.

 

ARIS | A Really Inspiring Space joins forces with Taurus Aurum to supercharge the Cypriot startup entrepreneurship ecosystem

 

24/05/2018 –  ARIS, an early-stage accelerator launched by the Bank of Cyprus and Deloitte earlier this year and Taurus Aurum Global Property Fund Limited, a multicompartamental private-owned self-managed Alternative Investment Fund headquartered in Nicosia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the 24th of May 2018 in Nicosia.

Through this partnership, ARIS and Taurus Aurum will jointly assist the accelerator’s resident startups to achieve market traction and scale. Utilising the extensive network of Taurus Aurum’s investors, mentors and experts, ARIS residents will gain access to cutting-edge know how that will further assist them in developing and accelerating their ideas.

By providing access to funding, expertise and reach, the MOU will create a vehicle for new entrepreneurs to develop and accelerate their ideas and take their startups to the next level, with the aim of establishing them as key players in the regional and global market.

 

 

Women As Changemakers

An event by She Experts and ARIS | A Really Inspiring Space

 

28/03/2018 – “Resilience”. It is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness”— something that many professional women must have in order to succeed in the careers.

In an effort to celebrate the women who are making an impact and are always in the search of new opportunities for further advancement of their work life, Deloitte’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, in collaboration with The Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) organized on the 28th of March 2018, an evening focusing on women as changemakers.

During the event, Susana Elisa Pavlou, Director of MIGS presented the She Experts initiative, which was officially launched in October 2017. The initiative aims to enhance the visibility and impact of women in their professional capacity, especially across business, politics and industry. The objective is to help women raise their profile within their professional fields and boost the number of inspirational role models for other women and girls.

The Director of Deloitte Cyprus’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre and Director of ARIS | A Really Inspiring Space, Monica Ioannidou Polemitis, introduced the newly launched Limassol-based startup accelerator ARIS. ARIS constitutes an early-stage acceleration programme with a maximum duration of 26-weeks. The programme is open to all entrepreneurs and teams who are passionate about solving today’s problems through innovative solutions and by utilizing technological means. ARIS provides equal opportunities to both genders and an enabling environment for female-led teams.

The participants of the event were able to discover mentoring opportunities currently offered by both initiatives (either as a mentor or mentee), while they were also able to network with like-minded professional women.

Celebrating our six-month anniversary

A summer networking event, showcasing our Resident Startups

 

ARIS, which stands for A Really Inspiring Space, opened its doors to its first resident startups in February 2018. Last Monday, on the 6th of August, the achievements of those startups were celebrated in an event titled “Creating Value Through Innovation, in an Ever Changing Global Environment”.

The event was launched with a presentation by Ms. Monica Ioannidou, the Director of ARIS and Director of Deloitte’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre, on how innovation sparks value creation in the new digital era.

During the event, the resident startups pitched for the first time to an audience of more than 80 people representing the business world, the public sector, academia and the startup community, the products and services that they are developing.

The event was completed after pitchings by two teams of school students who participated in a 1-month Summer Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, which was specifically designed by ARIS team in order to expose teenagers to various methodologies and key technological trends and encourage them to think creatively.

The Resident Startups that participated in the event were:

  1. Watts, a plug and play modular power cell (ie. a battery), which is compatible with any available power source.
  2. Simlead, a versatile consultancy firm that provides state of art engineering services, within the concepts of simulation-driven design, design thinking, product lifecycle management and lean manufacturing.
  3. EXAL, a blockchain powered e-commerce platform which enables retail merchants to take control of their online operations.
  4. Inowaste, a cloud based solution for the Construction Industry that allows easy compliance with National & European Waste Laws, reduces costs and manage waste throughout the entire chain.
  5. Oreen, an online tool that allows users to book guided activities such as museum visits, hiking, caving, birdwatching etc, promoting geotourism, conservation tourism and adventure tourism.
  6. MmmBeach, an easy to use mobile solution that allows tourists to receive all the necessary information regarding local beaches and popular activities, while using the app to also book different services directly at the beach.

The team at ARIS is extremely proud of the progress its Resident Teams have achieved and wishes them the best moving forward.

ARIS hosting the Open API day for the BoC hackathon #fintech2.0

The event will feature a discussion on the Open APIs of Bank of Cyprus. 

The Open APIs of Bank of Cyprus support the technological and business cooperation with developers, startups, companies and any parties interested.

You can use the Open APIs in order to implement new services and features in your applications within the context of boc hackathon #fintech2. Examples: e-payments, p2p payments, authentication mechanisms, loyalty, personalized services, etc. Experienced mentors and bank executives will technically support the teams who want to use the upgraded bocAPIs to develop innovative applications.

More Information: http://bochackathon.com/