[ad_1]
by Fiona McFarlane, on behalf of FF News.
Whilst many European executives in the payments space boarded flights to Toronto last week to attend Sibos 2023, others flew to Cyprus to experience a few days of payments networking, the Greek-Cypriot way: by the sea, basking in 30°C sunshine, a beautifully iced frappe in hand. How do I know this? Because I was also heading to the island to attend the Reflect Festival, a high-quality entrepreneurship event for startups, investors, and decision-makers wanting to stake out a position within Cyprus’ up-and-coming hub and its growing venture funding pool.
At first glance, Reflect appeared to be what it said on the tin: the island’s largest generalist startup event, bringing the local hub together and supercharging their imagination with network opportunities and talks given by big names in the industry, like the co-founder of Google Maps and the head of business marketing at TikTok. As the attending vice president of Henkel’s corporate venture arm aptly put it– Reflect is the ‘Web Summit of Cyprus’.
But I quickly realised that it was also a popular event with the payments crowd. In fact, a sizeable portion of the 8,000 attendees were connected to payments.
There were regional banks, household names like Revolut and Binance, facilitators like payabl., platforms like Freemarket, providers like VivaWallet, advisors from the Big Four, and payment directors from fast-growing and influential industries including real estate, shipping, gaming, and food delivery.
Many took to the dedicated payments stage sponsored by payabl. to deliver speeches on industry trends. Others joined panels with political figures and traditional banks to discuss the benefits of a tech-first future. Not an hour went past where I did not catch a familiar face from the mainland paytech circuit in the crowds, like Daniel Van Delft, the CEO of Currence in Amsterdam, or Sara Koslinska, the Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni from Warsaw.
Some had flown in for a day, whilst others had decided to stay and take advantage of the festival’s creative side-events like a beach club lunch day or the founders workshops. Most of them were experiencing the festival for the first time and had the same positive comment to share – wow, when did Cyprus become so vibrant?
Thanks to the island’s sensible structures and its full EU member status, which allows for direct access to the largest single market in the world, Cyprus has been a strategic headquarter and second office location for many a banking and fintech company since the early 2000s. But factors like the rapid digitisation of the industry, Cyprus’s progressive attitude towards innovation, and the maturation of Eastern and Western markets has compounded the trend and is turning Cyprus into a something of an up-and-coming star, and even a major European player in certain areas.
A key example is cross-border payments, where Cyprus today has beat Luxembourg and Germany as the primary provider of cross-border investment services, housing 23% of all firms in Europe involved in such operations. Another would be forex.
Would I recommend the event?
Absolutely. The city of Limassol always makes for a good time, but Reflect takes over the streets and squares of its port and old town to transform them into a multi-stage, multi-facetted, and multi-lingual conference experience with the look of Money 20/20 and the feel of a resort holiday. The transformation is phenomenal, only made possible thanks to the meticulous event planning of the organisers.
Days are expended savouring excellent tech talks by the sea (or on a yacht if you hold a VIP guest pass) and evenings are spent being introduced to potential partners at rooftop parties or in one of the many lounges kitted out to make connection-making effortless. What’s not to love?
Moreover, Cyprus’ flourishing DeFi ecosystem rolls out their own red carpets, allowing attendees to sample their latest offerings over food and Paymentologist cocktails at side events courtesy of firms like Unlimit, Sumsub, and Finery Markets.
It would have taken an executive weeks of appointment-making and travelling through Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to cover the same amount of opportunities. What the Reflect Festival does is offer a crash-course on it all in a setting fit for the gods.
Keep your eye out for the 2024 edition.
[ad_2]
Source link