Execs from island’s biggest tech firms say why they chose Cyprus

Invest Cyprus was a Knowledge Partner at the “Cyprus: The New Global Tech & Innovation Hub Summit”, which took place on 28 April. The agency’s CEO Marios Tannousis was the summit’s chairperson, while its Chairman Evgenios Evgeniou made a speech about Cyprus’ business climate.

In the last panel at the summit, where experts from both the public and private sectors discussed Cyprus’ push to become a tech hub, executives from some of the biggest international tech companies that have chosen Cyprus as their base of operations took the stage. The panel was moderated by Yanna Raevskaya, Head of Legal Department at financial services firm Prospectacy.

On her part, Ugne Buraciene, Group CEO at payment institution Payabl, who has been in Cyprus for more than a decade working in the fintech industry, discussed how the German founders behind the company chose Cyprus back in 2011 due to the favourable taxation, the business-friendly environment and the highly skilled English-speaking environment, among other reasons. Once the decision was made, she said, the company received the licence from the Central Bank in record time, something that today would not be feasible. Buraciene arrived at the company in 2020 tasked to facilitate its journey into a new era and managed in a short time to grow the firm into one of the leaders in the industry. Today, she went on, the company has 50% of its team based in Cyprus, predominantly hiring local talent. She mentioned that since she had arrived in the country there were several improvements made on a public policy front, but there is still more that needs to be done to enable tech companies to grow their business. “All in all, I’d say that Cyprus is a good place to start a business,” she noted.

Next, Hiko Rajczyk, Founder of digital consultancy Yomora Media, mentioned that while the company was doing well in its home country of Israel, growing both its human capital and revenues, he had noticed that several of his clients and advertisers had begun to leave the country, some of which found a new home in Cyprus. With his interest piqued, he researched various potential destinations. “Cyprus had the most pros for me; the weather, the mentality, the safety. And the cons, they were very few,” he said, adding jocosely that it took some time to adapt to the slower pace in Cyprus. “It was worth it. We are very, very happy in Cyprus,” he noted.

Finally, Patrik Wilkens, Vice President of Global Operations at digital media publisher TheSoul Publishing, who came to Cyprus two years ago with his family, mentioned that the company is a proud member of the Cyprus tech community, with 440 employees in the country, recently relocating 305 international experts and 175 dependents, which reflected the ease with which tech companies can move people to the country. “There’s a lot of support we are getting from the government,” he noted and added that they are looking forward to supporting Cyprus in becoming one of the best places to live and work and bringing the Cyprus “Vision 2035” plan into being.