€10 million for innovative Cyprus businesses

The Research and Innovation Foundation (Idek) on Friday announced that it will be allocating €10 million to innovative businesses as part of its DISRUPT programme, with the ultimate aim being to help facilitate the involvement of Venture Capital investors.

“With the aim of further strengthening the innovative business community of Cyprus and, by extension, the country’s economy, the Research and Innovation Foundation (Idek) announces its new flagship financial programme ‘DISRUPT’, which has a total budget of €10 million,” the foundation said in a statement.

The foundation explained that the programme is financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan ‘Cyprus – Tomorrow’ and aims to connect Cypriot companies, which focus on creating ground-breaking innovations, with Venture Capital (VC) investors, with the prospect of either penetrating new markets or disrupting existing ones.

“The aim of ‘DISRUPT’ is to encourage and support the investors in question to contribute to the further development of the companies that will participate, as well as their expansion in the international markets,” Idek said.

The programme is open to small, medium and large companies that, upon the submission of their proposal, already have a minimum viable product (MV) and a signed, binding agreement with an investment fund, which provides for an equity capital investment of at least €1 million in the company.

In other words, the funding that the foundation will make available will be combined with business risk investment funds, ultimately seeking to facilitate the successful penetration of the beneficiary companies into foreign markets and thus strengthening the competitiveness and resilience of the Cypriot economy.

The foundation noted that the maximum funding amount per project is capped at €1.5 million.

Those interested can submit their proposals until March 23, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. on the IRIS portal, which is available through the Idek website.

The website also lists information on the foundation’s open calls, as well as various useful documents and guides.

For more information, those interested can contact the Idek partner service centre at 22205000 or e-mail: [email protected]