Cyprus delegation makes a strong start at Slush 2025

RIF booth becomes a community hub for Cypriot founders, investors, and ecosystem builders

Walking into Messukeskus on the first morning of Slush 2025 you feel the pace before you see it. The lights are low. The stages are loud. The queues for startup booths, investor lounges, and side events form fast and move even faster.

This year Slush brings together over 13,000 founders, investors, and operators from more than 100 countries, with thousands of startup leaders and fund managers managing trillions in capital on the ground.

In the middle of that noise Cyprus again has a clear presence. The Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) leads a 13-startup delegation, returning for a fourth consecutive year with an official national mission that cuts across AI, health tech, sustainability, biotech, and digital platforms.

The vibe on day one

Day one feels dense and focused. Every corner of the venue hosts some form of dealmaking. You hear quick intros, short pitches, and direct asks. The mood is confident. Europe is on display as a serious startup and funding hub and Slush is its live proof point this week.

For you as a founder or investor, Slush 2025 is not about wandering. It is about navigating. Meetings are pre-booked. Coffee chats are targeted. Even casual encounters tend to roll into clear follow-ups.

Inside that environment, the Cyprus booth under the RIF delegation stays busy from opening to closing. The thirteen teams run continuous demos, one-to-one investor meetings, and partner introductions.

By the end of the first day the delegation has already clocked more than 40 meetings with investors and potential partners. That alone would make the trip worth it for many early-stage founders.

Algamol and Rinnoco in the spotlight

Algamol and Rinnoco both exhibit on day one as part of the RIF delegation. Algamol focuses on advanced algae production.

The company is building a modular photobioreactor platform for applications that range from aquaculture and protein to pigments and sustainable fuels, with AI-enabled optimisation on its roadmap.

Rinnoco works on data compression for big data and AI workloads. Its PLATCOM technology uses machine learning to choose the right compression approach per data type and can push storage efficiency significantly beyond standard solutions.

For both startups, being in Helsinki gives direct access to global funds, infrastructure partners, and corporate innovation teams that you usually reach only over months of calls.

Rinnoco on the global deep-tech stage

On top of booth activity, Rinnoco also steps into the competitive spotlight. The company is pitching at the SwissTech Pavilion as part of the Global Deep Tech Battle at Slush 2025.

The competition gathers deep-tech startups in cleantech, AI and robotics, health tech, and frontier technologies. Pitches run live at the swisstech Pavilion with an international jury and cash prizes plus visibility and follow-on opportunities.

For a Cypriot startup, being on that stage places your brand and technology next to some of the strongest deep-tech teams in Europe. It also signals that Cyprus can produce companies ready for hard-tech competitions, not only software.

Leadership, media, and side events

RIF Director General Theodoros Loukaidis uses day one to push Cyprus’ story beyond the booth.

Ahead of the main conference, on 18 November, he presented “Cyprus: Europe’s Innovation Gateway” at the AAlchemy Ventures side event “AAlchemy Growth Lab: Bridge to Europe”.

There he outlined how RIF backs startups, tech companies, and SMEs with funding instruments, support services, and programmes designed to help teams scale into the wider European market and beyond.

The session gathered founders, community builders, and media. Discussions move quickly from high-level narratives to practical steps. Topics include acceleration paths, EU funding and regulatory routes, and how to plan international expansion from a small base. The networking that follows links Cypriot teams with ecosystem players from across Europe and underlines Cyprus’ growing role in the EU tech landscape.

On the ground at Slush, Loukaidis also recorded a dedicated podcast episode for the Cyprus Mail and gave interviews to other media outlets. Raising the ecosystem’s visibility abroad and building its brand as a regional hub, are also high on the RIF’s agenda.

Ecosystem reunions at the Cyprus booth

The RIF booth becomes more than a national stand. It turns into a small community hub.

Former members of the Research and Innovation Foundation visit the delegation. The mood is relaxed but purposeful. Old colleagues reconnect. They introduce founders to their networks. They share context on how the ecosystem has reached this stage and where it can go next.

For the startups, that kind of informal support often leads to new contacts and faster trust with external partners.

Founder testimonials and ground truths

Throughout the day, the Cyprus Mail captured quick testimonials from several of the startups in the delegation, including NanoMicron, Rinnoco, Algamol, MentorMatic, and ISDI.

These short interviews focus on what Slush and RIF support means for each team.

Why day one already matters for Cyprus

The official Slush programme runs only two days. Yet for the Cypriot delegation, the opening day already delivers strong outcomes.

RIF’s startup mission showcases a maturing national ecosystem whose activities span across many technologies and industries: AI, deep tech, medtech, biotech, sustainable materials, digital platforms and many more. Many of these teams have come through RIF’s pre-seed, seed, and scale-up support schemes, combining public funding with private capital.

They use Slush to pressure-test their products and business models in front of global investors and strategic partners. You can see that in the full meeting calendars, in Rinnoco’s presence on the SwissTech competition stage, and in the side-event spotlight on Cyprus as a European innovation gateway.

The first day for the RIF delegation closed with targeted traffic at the booth, dozens of investor and partner meetings, and clear media visibility. In practical terms, Cyprus is once again on the global startup and innovation map at Slush. And there is still another day to go.