Heraklion, Crete (April 12th, 2023) — Sunlight.io, the thinnest, fastest HyperConverged Infrastructure platform built for applications that run at the edge, today announced it is increasing investment in Europe’s Silicon Island of Crete. By the end of the first half of 2023, the Heraklion-based team will have grown by 20%, which already includes a doubling of its female talent.
The Greek Island of Crete has been nicknamed Silicon Island because of its fast-growing tech community, research and innovation. Sunlight attributes much of its product and development success to date to its long-standing relationship with Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C). The relationship dates back over 10 years from when Sunlight was part of the OnApp family (since acquired by Virtuozzo). Since then, Sunlight and STEP-C have participated in a series of joint R&D projects in addition to Sunlight renting state-of-the art office facilities in the Tech Park itself.
Following a recent Series A round of investment, Sunlight is investing in the growth of its development team based in Heraklion, Crete.
Sunlight Founder & CTO, Julian Chesterfield said, “Our presence in Crete and our relationship with STEP-C is not only a part of our history, it’s a part of our future. Since the incubation of our technology at STEP-C, we have participated in research projects and engaged with the STEP-C community - both for recruitment and collaboration purposes. This is reflected in our increase in investment today and our plans for further growth, research and collaboration in future.”
Platform Engineer, Stella Mikrou, joined Sunlight in 2020 following the completion of her Masters degree at the University of Crete and subsequently as a Researcher at ICS STEP-C. She said, “Sunlight has provided me with opportunities to develop my career in the areas I am interested in. Initially, I joined the global Customer Support team but, after expressing an interest in software development, I was given support and mentorship to transition into the API team. I am delighted that the company is trying to attract more female talent to engineering roles and to have more women join the office here in Heraklion, Crete.”
The Director of STEP-C, Dr George Papamichail said, “The Science and Technology Park of Crete promotes an ideal environment in which research and business initiatives are jointly designed and undertaken, in order to boost innovation and support start-up entrepreneurship. We are very pleased to have Sunlight.io on board, an innovative company which is currently shaping and pioneering the international deep-tech industry.”
Find out more about our partnership with STEP-C in this blog post
About Sunlight.io:
Sunlight is the thinnest, fastest HyperConverged Infrastructure platform built for applications that run at the edge. We make running and managing applications and infrastructure at the edge as easy as “in the cloud” across 100s to 1000s of edge devices. Sunlight works with efficient, ruggedized edge hardware - so you can consolidate all your in-location edge applications with centralized management, high performance, and high availability. Find out more at www.sunlight.io
About Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C):
The Science and Technology Park of Crete (STEP-C) was founded in 1993 by the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), one of the largest research organizations of the country. STEP-C and PRAXI Network are the main units of FORTH for the promotion of research, innovation and entrepreneurship.
STEP-C occupies a large area of approximately 4000 sq.m. (offices and laboratory space), which hosts start-up innovative companies with a technological orientation. The facilities are located in a privileged location, about 10 km outside the city of Heraklion. The presence of STEP-C at FORTH headquarters and its close proximity to the General University Hospital of Heraklion, the University of Crete and the Hellenic Mediterranean University create a significant development advantage, due to the large concentration of laboratories, research infrastructures and scientists who can actively support the tenants hosted in the Incubator. Find out more at www.stepc.gr/en/
