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CYRA CAPITAL

Cyra Capital
We invest in technology startups founded by migrants.
Because migration unlocks innovation.
Founded by Dr. Daphne Hering, Cyra Capital is a mission-driven angel investment firm dedicated to empowering early-stage migrant-founded technology startups. At Cyra Capital, we see migration not as a challenge to solve, but as a strategic economic advantage to unlock—one that can strengthen national prosperity by expanding the space for innovation. The boldest solutions to today’s most urgent problems emerge at the intersection of diverse contextual experiences, where different perspectives sharpen opportunity perception. When combined with technological vision, these insights can create groundbreaking innovation.
Why Migrant Founders Build
What Others Overlook

Migration reshapes identity and unlocks opportunity.
Migrant founders live between worlds which leads to conflicting identities while navigating between cultural norms, institutional systems, and economic realities that do not fully align. They carry one context within another and must continuously reconcile contradictions.
 
This conflict is not a weakness: it sharpens perception and opens opportunities!

Cognitive Mechanism: Heightened Opportunity Identification

Operating between systems increases alertness. Migrant founders question assumptions others take for granted. They recognize patterns across environments and combine knowledge sets in new ways.

Research shows that this cross-context positioning enhances opportunity identification — particularly when diverse knowledge can be meaningfully integrated rather than fragmented.

Opportunity identification becomes a way to resolve identity conflict: by transforming contradiction into creation.

Structural Arbitrage: Seeing the Gaps Between Systems

When you understand more than one system, you see where they misalign.

Different regulations.
Different customer expectations.
Different institutional logics.

Migrant founders detect inefficiencies and unmet needs between markets. They recognize where value can be created by bridging structural gaps others overlook.

This is not adaptation: it is arbitrage across contexts!

Innovation Output: From Conflict to Scalable Solutions

The result is distinct innovation. Not because migration is romanticized — but because navigating multiple systems expands what is imaginable and buildable.

Research shows that as educational attainment increases, the likelihood of identifying innovative, Schumpeterian opportunities rises. Higher education enables founders to combine cross-context insight with technical capabilities — translating perception into scalable innovation.

Cyra Capital therefore focuses on migrant founders who combine cross-context cognition with strong educational and professional foundations to build technology ventures capable of scaling. Because Europe’s future competitiveness depends on unlocking precisely this form of innovation.
Vision
We envision Europe as a continent where migration and diversity are seen as a catalyst to transform identity conflict into innovation, economic strength, unity, and lasting peace. Cyra Capital exists to accelerate this future—one founder at a time.
Mission
To unlock the innovation potential embedded in migration by investing early in migrant-founded technology ventures, backing them with capital, credibility, and strategic networks — demonstrating through measurable outcomes that inclusive innovation is the engine of economic prosperity.
How We Invest

 
We invest in early stage startups founded by first generation migrants who use technology to solve real-world problems. We back talented founders who redefine access, opportunity and progress with scalable solutions and measurable social and environmental impact — where business meets purpose, and innovation drives inclusion, prosperity and lasting peace.
Our investment criteria:
 
  • At least one first-generation migrant in the founding team
  • Strong educational and professional background of founding team
  • A technology-enabled solution addressing a critical economic or social structural market gap
  • Clear potential for scalable innovation
  • Alignment with one or more UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDG)
  • A Technology solution which enables UN SDG 16: Peace
We invest with intention

Each company in our portfolio reflects a fascet of our vision — where migration and diversity translate into technological and economic advantage.

Niya | AI Career Coach for Migrants & Young Professionals


Helping thousands navigate the job market through culturally responsive AI-powered coaching to connect opportunities in the global north with talent in the the global south.
Theme: Inclusive Labor Markets | SDGs: 8, 10, 4, 16

Drift Immigration | Smart Immigration Platform


Digitizing and simplifying immigration workflows for individuals or employers and accessing lawyers — to unlock mobility, talent, and fairness.
Theme: Migration Infrastructure | SDGs: 8, 10, 16

Hermaid | Women’s Health @ Work


Supporting companies and employees in addressing (peri-) menopause with data, coaching and real solutions.
Theme: Female Health | SDGs: 3, 5, 8, 16

PULSE | Bringing Presence back Into life


The world’s first awareness ring powered by haptic vibrations which enables humans to become present, calm and focused.
Theme: Health and Wellbeing | SDGs: 3, 16

Founder
Dr. Daphne Hering

Economist | Entrepreneur | Transformational Speaker | Bridgebuilder
 
Dr. Daphne Hering is an economist, transformational speaker and public intellectual specializing on the future of leadership, migration and integration, and eocnomic transofrmation in Europe. Her doctoral research provides empirical and theoretical insight into how identity conflict, cultural distance, and contextual contradictions enhance opportunity recognition for migrant entrepreneurs. She began her career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, became a published researcher on migrant entrepreneurship, and is a passionate advocate for a future in which migration and diversity fuels social and economic prosperity.
 
With Cyra Capital, she translates research into action, and values into ventures — investing in founders who turn cross-context insight into scalable innovation.

"I invest in migrant founders because they don’t just build companies. They transform contradiction into innvation and innovation into economic strength — not just as a means of survival but as a disruptive mechanism that enables economic and social prosperity for all of us."

Let’s Build the Future — Together
If you are:
 
•  A migrant founder building a scalable technology start-up
•  An investor aligned with long-term economic resilience
•  A policymaker interested in evidence-based integration strategy and system change
 

Let’s talk!
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