Cyprus claimed 20 places across the two main rankings in Deloitte’s fifth Technology Fast 50 Middle East & Cyprus awards, led by Istognosis at No. 10.
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The Fast 50 measures revenue growth over the previous four years. The report does not include individual growth rates or a median, limiting closer comparisons between the businesses. Software represented 38% of ranked participants across the categories and fintech 22%.
Eleven Cyprus-based companies appeared in the Fast 50, while another nine were named Rising Stars. Intergo Telecom followed Istognosis at No. 11, with Cloud Nomads at No. 12.
The awards were presented during Cultivating Success Stories of Innovation 2026, held by Deloitte Cyprus at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Limassol on 17 September.
UAE-based Valeo Health led the regional ranking. FundedNext and Sarwa, also from the UAE, placed second and third. Saudi Arabian companies took the first three Rising Star positions, with OptimalPV ahead of Eltizam Platform and Disty.
Deloitte received more than 200 applications. Cyprus accounted for 14% of the overall total, behind the UAE at 34% and Saudi Arabia at 26%. In the individual rankings, Cyprus represented 18% of Fast 50 applications and 13% of Rising Star applications.
Deloitte reports average company growth across the programme’s categories at 12,643%, compared with 8,823% in the previous edition. Twenty-six businesses exceeded 1,000% growth. The largest increase in the main ranking was 6,107%.
Alongside the three Cyprus companies in the top 12, the main list included Finery Markets at No. 17, Mellow.io at No. 20, AMLex Solutions at No. 24, eBOS Technologies at No. 36 and Balabook at No. 38. CL8 ranked 42nd, Zygos Practice Management Software 43rd and AdTech Holding 48th.
Rising Star covers businesses that have traded for fewer than three years and therefore cannot meet the four-year requirement. The nine Cyprus companies were Placy, Realytics, Skyld, TKI, Alma, Bolsterup, Parsectix, Capacitor Partners and Complytek.
Bolsterup, Skyld Security and Defence, and TKI also appeared in Women in Leadership. This unranked category covers companies led by a female chief executive or with a founding team comprising at least 50% women.
Kyriacos Charalambides, Deloitte Middle East partner and Fast 50 programme leader, said Cyprus had held the leading position in previous editions.
“Cyprus has gone from number one position to number 10, but this should not discourage us,” he said. “Actually, it shows that the program has matured.”
Cyprus did not place a company in the top nine this year. Its 20 places across the two rankings nevertheless gave the country the third-largest share of applications, behind the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The rankings identified the fastest-growing companies. The discussion in Limassol turned to whether Cyprus can provide the conditions those businesses need to continue expanding internationally.
Kyriacos Charalambides, Deloitte Middle East partner and leader of the Fast 50 programme, opened the event before Demetris Skourides, Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation and Technology of the Republic of Cyprus, delivered a keynote address.
Skourides argued that Cyprus needs a more connected support system around its startups and technology companies. Funding was one part of that system, alongside research, access to international markets and organisations capable of connecting founders with customers and investors abroad.
“Smaller economies can’t create global ecosystems themselves,” he said. “We can’t do it by ourselves.”
He also clarified the state’s role. Government could fund research, support infrastructure and help companies gain access to international networks, he said, but it should not try to decide which technologies would succeed.
“Government can’t manufacture innovation, and governments shouldn’t attempt to pick every technology as a winner,” Skourides said.
For the businesses named in the rankings, he reduced the challenge to one question: “How do we turn visibility into scale?”
That question also came up during a panel titled Built to Last or Built to Fade: Founders, Funding and the Reality of Scaling. Monica Ioannidou Polemiti of TKI moderated the discussion with Maria Terzi of Malloc, Yiannis Eftychiou of 33East, Carolos Georgallis of Kinisis Ventures and Fillippos Kyprianou of Plug and Play Cyprus.
Terzi described how Malloc had expanded its target customers as the company developed, moving from individual users to businesses, governments and, most recently, the European defence sector. “I think the important ingredient there is to have a company that keeps adapting,” she said.
Kyprianou identified a different risk among early-stage founders: “They fall in love with their solution, not with the problem.” Eftychiou discussed the importance of founders moving beyond the relationships closest to them. “I will evaluate the founding team based on their ability to go beyond their networks to find the customers and the talent that they need,” he said.
Constantinos Kritiotis of Deloitte Cyprus later presented the work of Deloitte’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre and the ARIS accelerator. “A good idea can attract attention, a distinctive product can create excitement, but endurance requires something more,” he said.
And that something more is what Deloitte is trying to build.
