Totalserve and Crowdbase have announced a collaboration under Totalserve’s Start-up Launchpad initiative to provide early-stage companies with integrated advisory services and access to capital. The move comes at a critical juncture for Cyprus’s startup ecosystem—one that is producing innovative companies with real impact and traction, but remains constrained by limited local funding.
Crowdbase is a Cyprus-based, CySEC-regulated investment platform that enables startups and small businesses to raise capital through equity crowdfunding and other financing mechanisms. Through this partnership, startups enrolled in the Totalserve Start-up Launchpad will be able to explore funding opportunities via Crowdbase, complementing the legal, tax, accounting, corporate structuring, and strategic advisory services already offered by Totalserve.
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The initiative directly responds to a structural gap in the Cypriot market. According to StartupBlink’s 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Index, Cyprus ranks 40th place worldwide (and 18th in Western Europe), with 303 startups and approximately 28% year-on-year growth. By comparison, Greece ranks 47th worldwide with 296 startups and 12% year-on-year growth, while Estonia sits 11th with 34% growth, and its capital, Tallinn, has recently entered the global top-50, at 49th position.
“Founders [in Cyprus] usually have to knock on a lot of different doors to get the support they need,” said Nikos Christoforou, Head of Marketing and Business Communications at Totalserve. “With this collaboration, they’ll find it easier to get both guidance and access to investors in one place. The process becomes simpler, faster, and more focused on what really matters—building their company.”
Most of the funding goes to startups in the gaming and fintech industries. By connecting vetted startups with a regulated local funding channel, the collaboration between Totalserve and Crowdbase could help diversify the types of businesses that gain traction beyond the dominant gaming sector.
Petros Rialas, CEO of Totalserve, said the timing is deliberate:
“This collaboration strengthens our ability to support entrepreneurs at a critical stage of their journey. Access to funding is often the biggest hurdle, and together with Crowdbase, we aim to make that path more accessible.”
Frixos Larkos, CEO of Crowdbase, added:
“This collaboration is a step forward for the Cypriot innovation ecosystem. Together with Totalserve, we’re creating a more integrated pathway for startups—one that combines expert guidance with modern funding tools to help founders take their first steps with confidence and build strong foundations for growth.”
Notably, 18 of the 21 startups that raised equity in 2024 maintained real operational teams in Cyprus—challenging outdated perceptions of the island as merely a jurisdiction for shell companies. The ecosystem is increasingly homegrown, with founders hiring locally before expanding abroad.
With the Cyprus Equity Fund and other state-backed initiatives like 33 East expected to begin deploying capital in 2025, the environment for early-stage investment is poised to improve. But until then, private-sector bridges like this one may prove essential.
“In the year ahead, our focus is on helping startups turn ideas into viable businesses,” Christoforou said. “If they can take their first steps toward attracting investors, growing beyond Cyprus, and exploring new markets, that will be a positive outcome. I believe for both Totalserve and Crowdbase, success will ultimately be measured by the progress and achievements of the startups themselves.”
As Cyprus projects the fastest GDP growth in the region in 2025 (3%, per the European Commission), the question is no longer whether the island can produce startups, but whether it can fund them at scale. Partnerships like this one may help answer that question.
