The Ventures Award, a global platform for early-stage innovation founded in Silicon Valley, held its Cyprus Final on September 23 at The Warehouse by IT Quarter. The event brought together Cyprus’s most promising startups with international investors and corporate leaders for a curated evening of pitches, networking, and recognition.

As part of its international expansion — with past editions in New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Israel, and Poland — The Ventures chose Cyprus to highlight the island’s emergence as a key hub for entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean. The event underscored The Ventures’ mission: to connect investment-ready founders with capital, visibility, and strategic partners on a trusted global stage. 

Finalists were evaluated by a distinguished jury of venture partners and executives representing Samsung Ventures, 33East, Kinisis Ventures, Teamvision Group, Mastercard, GEM Capital, Microsoft, The Alternative, Ultra VC, Narwhal Accelerator, Constructor Capital, NVO Capital, Polymorphic Capital, Tetrad VC, InnoWhale VC, and others. Their participation reinforced Cyprus’s relevance on the global venture map and gave founders direct access to international decision-makers.

Five standout teams were named winners across the award’s categories:

  • Best Product — Complytek, an AML compliance platform
  • Best Traction — Cardoo, transforming car rental deposits with instant digital guarantees
  • Best Team — Naoma, creator of a live AI agent for B2B demo calls
  • Best AI Model — LearnLink, an AI-powered tutoring marketplace
  • Special Award “4dev.com Global Office” — Balancy, a LiveOps engine for game studios

From AI tutors to gaming tools and fintech platforms, the winning startups show the creativity bursting out of Cyprus and how local founders are ready to play on the world stage.

R136 Ventures, a Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm specializing in scaling B2B SaaS and Fintech startups, represented by its Principal Denis Efremov, served as the General Partner of the Cyprus edition. Their support reinforced the award’s mission to bring local founders closer to international investors and provide guidance on scaling their businesses.

The Cyprus Final was also powered by outstanding partners:

  • 4dev.com, a global contractor management platform empowering remote-first teams, served as Platinum Partner for the event. The company introduced its signature ‘4dev.com Global Office Award’ to celebrate startups excelling at building distributed teams across borders. All finalists received exclusive early access to 4dev.com’s innovative Funding Hub, designed to accelerate startup growth and connect founders with funding opportunities.
  • Royal Pine — supporting founders and investors in Cyprus with financial, legal, and tax expertise. This year, Royal Pine enhanced the Best Traction category with a €15,000 package including company set-up and one year of back-office support.

During the event, 4dev.com and The Ventures unveil their 2025 contractor market report, revealing that contract workers now comprise 20-25% of corporate workforces—up from just 10-15% previously—with the global market reaching $1.8 trillion. This research proves essential for startups and VCs as businesses increasingly adopt hybrid hiring strategies, sourcing talent worldwide amid the AI revolution. As professionals shift toward contract work over traditional employment, platforms like 4dev.com have become vital infrastructure for seamless, compliant international payments.
Read the full report here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uiMLqKLT2Y3GQHAE4R4YviCWzpiI9var/view?usp=sharing

Supported by partners, The Ventures continues to connect local founders with global investors. Since its launch, the award has brought together more than 2,900 startups and 250 venture funds worldwide. Its mix of AI-driven scoring and expert jury feedback ensures that the winners stand out as truly scalable and investment-ready.

The Ventures continues its expansion with upcoming editions in Singapore, San Francisco (during Tech Week), Washington DC, Portugal, and more — strengthening its position as the world’s premier stage for early-stage ventures.For startups seeking capital or visibility, or for investors and partners interested in joining, visit www.the-ventures.com.

Written in partnership with Tom White