Dr. Maria Terzi is Co-Founder & CEO of Malloc, the first Cypriot startup ever accepted into Y Combinator and a leader in AI-driven mobile cybersecurity. With a PhD in Machine Learning and a BSc in Computer Science, she previously worked as a Software Engineer at Google (Zurich), lectured and researched at the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, and UCLan Cyprus, won two Google hackathons, excelled in TopCoder competitions, and was selected as a 2020 Secure and Private AI Scholar by Facebook (Meta).

In 2020, she left academia to build Malloc full-time. Under her leadership, and with the support of her co-founder and CTO Dr. Liza Charalambous, she has grown the company to over 1 million app downloads, raised nearly $2M in seed funding, and made Malloc a trusted shield for high-risk individuals, journalists, executives, and organizations worldwide against advanced spyware and privacy threats.

In the past year, Malloc has expanded into B2B and hardware, integrating its proprietary AI-powered spyware-detection technology into consumer apps and devices, and launching privacy-preserving hardware solutions that deliver enterprise-grade protection at scale.

Recognized among Europe’s Top 35 under 35 by the European Commission, selected as a “Face of Europe” by the European Parliament, and honored with the MF Woman of the Year (Innovation Track) and Forbes Cyprus Women in Tech awards, Maria is a leading voice for digital privacy, ethical AI, and women in technology while actively strengthening Cyprus’ tech ecosystem through hack{cyprus}.