Cyprus Business Now: SME innovations, tourism, property, Airbnb

Cyprus businesses will need to invest more, improve productivity and turn research into commercially successful products if they are to compete internationally, with employers warning that the ability to adapt quickly to new technologies will increasingly matter more than company size. The warning comes as Cyprus leads the EU in innovation activity among smaller businesses, but continues to face difficulties attracting private investment and turning research into commercial growth. Speaking at the 19th Cyprus Innovation Awards and the Cyprus Research Awards 2025 at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre on Monday, Employers and Industrialists Federation (O ev ) chairman Giorgos Pantelides said “the companies most likely to succeed would not necessarily be the largest, but those quickest to adapt.

” With artificial intelligence, robotics and digital technologies changing the way companies operate, he argued that businesses could no longer afford to treat innovation as something optional. What began as a privacy app for people worried about spyware secretly listening on them or stealing their personal data from their phones, has grown into something far more ambitious. Five years on, Malloc, led by co-founder and CEO Maria Terzi, is moving across enterprise, government and defence, developing mobile security technology designed to protect users operating in some of the most sensitive and restricted environments. The company’s evolution reflects a wider shift in cybersecurity. Smartphones are no longer simply personal devices. For journalists, executives, government personnel, political figures and defence users, they can also become a route into location data, communications, personal, confidential and operational information. For Terzi, however, Malloc’s expansion is not a…