After landing the #13 spot in Deloitte’s 2024 “Technology Fast 50 – Rising Star” list for the Middle East and Cyprus, Intellar is proving that you don’t need to be based in Silicon Valley to make waves in artificial intelligence and automation. Founded less than five years ago by childhood friends Antonis Grecos and Georgios Poullaides, the Cyprus-based startup has already become a go-to partner for companies across finance, shipping, and professional services seeking to modernize and streamline their operations.

In their joint interview with FastForward, the co-founders talk about turning ideas into impact, overcoming early resistance in the Cypriot market, and why automation isn’t just about cutting costs—but freeing up human potential.

Thank you, this recognition means a great deal to all of us at Intellar. Being named a Rising Star for the second consecutive year by Deloitte, is a validation of the hard work, vision, and persistence that our team has shown so far.

It celebrates our growth and innovation in the AI and automation space but also puts a spotlight on the potential of tech companies emerging from smaller ecosystems like Cyprus. It reinforces our belief that with the right mindset and talent, it's possible to make a global impact, no matter where you're based.

We the co-founders go a long way back, since high school, and our friendship and different backgrounds made us a perfect duo, driven by ambition and determination to make an impact. Intellar was born out of a clear gap we saw in how businesses and emerging markets were handling manual processes. We had worked in environments where smart people were stuck doing mundane tasks and had seen how intelligent automation could unlock significant value. AI and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) felt like the natural way forward, powerful tools not just for cost-saving, but for enhancing human productivity and decision-making. Our mission has always been to empower businesses to focus on what truly matters: creativity, strategy, and innovation while automation takes care of the rest.

The landscape is shifting faster than before. In Cyprus, digital transformation has historically lagged behind some other European markets, but over the past two years, we’ve seen a significant uptick in interest around AI and automation. The pandemic accelerated this change, pushing companies to rethink how they operate. While there is still some resistance mainly due to legacy systems, cultural inertia, or fear of the unknown, we’re seeing growing enthusiasm, especially from forward-thinking SMEs and large enterprises in financial services, Maritime, and professional services. These sectors often deal with high volumes of data and manual workflows, making them prime candidates for automation. Once business leaders experience the tangible benefits, faster operations, fewer errors, happier employees then it becomes much easier to build momentum and scale adoption.

Absolutely we’ve always viewed Cyprus as a great launchpad. From day one, we built Intellar with scalability in mind. Our technology is cloud-native and adaptable across industries and geographies, which makes it easy to deploy internationally. In fact, we’re already working with clients in Greece and Eastern Europe, and we see strong potential in these regions where automation is gaining traction.

Additionally the key industries we are involved in are financial services and Maritime companies are the major part of Cyprus ecosystem since Cyprus is a big hub for Shipping and for professional services it makes it the ideal place for us to start.

There are always some doubts but we never stopped moving forward and pivoting when the traction wasn’t there, especially in the early days when we were pitching automation solutions to Insurance companies that barely had digitized workflows. We faced skepticism and sometimes just a lack of understanding of what AI could do. There were points where we questioned whether the market was truly ready. But thanks to our determination and our conviction in the long-term vision and the small wins that kept validating our approach.

Each successful project, each client testimonial, each team milestone gave us fuel to keep going. Also, having a resilient team who shared the belief in what we were building made a huge difference. Entrepreneurship isn’t a straight line, it’s about staying adaptable, learning quickly, and not losing sight of your “why.”

More broadly, I think automating low value decision making in daily life, like what to eat, what to wear, when to follow up, would free up mental space for more creative and strategic thinking. That’s the real power of automation: giving us back time to focus on what truly matters.

What: Intellar

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Who: Georgios Poullaides, Co-Founder, holds a BEng in Computing from Imperial College London and an MSc in Information Security and Audit. He has a strong technical background with hands-on experience in cybersecurity, IT controls, penetration testing, and data analytics and Digital Transformation. As Advisory Manager in EY, he led complex tech-driven projects for major financial institutions and over 50 clients across industries.

Antonis Grecos, Co-Founder, has held management roles in global tech organizations across the Netherlands, Germany, Croatia, and the UK. He specializes in financial planning, cash flow management, and business partnering. Certified in Lean Six Sigma, he brings extensive experience in project management and process improvement.