‘We create an island within the island’ — eToro COO

“Working in Cyprus, we create an island within an island. Our focus is implementing our own culture not benchmarking against other companies in our sector. We are able to find people in Cyprus who we can onboard into our very well-defined corporate culture, one that definitely integrates the values of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

We’re creating an innovative product and that means with a very clear responsibility, so that when making hiring decisions, the person is the most important aspect. We have staff with backgrounds in engineering, or mathematics, for example. Diversity and people from different backgrounds is a strength. We can teach them the skills they need,” comments Avi Sela, COO at eToro Group, a multi-asset investment platform, home to more than 17 million registered users world wide, which has chosen Cyprus as its global operations centre, looking after clients from more than 100 countries.

 Sela notes that Cyprus has seen cultural change which supports innovative companies.

“Culture in Cyprus has evolved in a way that is positive for us,” Sela continues.

About 10 to 15 years ago, everyone agreed that the best type of job one could get on the Island was in banking or government. After the crisis, people started to understand – parents as well – that there was no permanent job security. You have to fight to keep a job, and it might be better for your employment prospects to be more agile and able to adapt to technology changes. Becoming an engineer might make more sense in this context.

As little as five years ago, we began to see more people open to exploring their talents, rather than just chasing the “secure job.” People became willing to take risks. At that time, we were a young technology company, we benefited from this change of attitude – more people were willing to join what was then a relatively young technology start up.”

Once eToro became more established, Sela notes, “sourcing talent became easier, of course.”

“Cyprus has a young demographic, and this is an advantage. We are able to find young, talented, and dedicated workers. Many of the managers we recruit in Cyprus are Cypriots who have been educated abroad, and who have worked there for some years. They want to enjoy the quality of life that the island offers, and also to focus on their careers, to have the kind of career path in a company that they would find in London or in New York.”

There’s lots of potential in Cyprus, a population of young, talented people. We don’t so much need engineers in Cyprus, but people who can work with engineers, and we find people who know how to work across multi-skilled teams, based all over the world. This really helps drive innovation, as we can easily collaborate with the talent we need from abroad. Often teams here in Cyprus will work easily in tandem with those at the main IT hub in Israel.”

Sela says that eToro has the advantage of hiring people at about the same age and with similar mindsets to their clients.

“Of course, we use analytics which are absolutely necessary to understanding the needs of clients – it’s all about data crunching, and obviously we A/B test, and optimise processes.

But our young employees help us to target those needs and feelings as well, as they often share them. All this enables us to improve our user experience, it’s all about the client.

Our clients are very tech savvy and expect processes to be as automated as possible. And we adapt to them. It helps that our workers are aligned to our customers.”

Sela adds that the legal framework for financial services in Cyprus is very well-developed and supports innovation, and this goes in tandem with an established network of professional services.

Another aspect of working in Cyprus, Sela adds, is that its culture of openness makes it possible to have direct contact with the regulators when it becomes necessary.

“I will say that the Cyprus regulator embraces tech, and is open to innovation, and the fact that it has a tech hub and an innovation hub is a bonus. So that businesses can test new tech and have an open door to a regulator who is accessible and open to discussing recently developed innovation. That is a very great advantage for Cyprus.”