Malta: A Budding Hub for New Start-Ups

For the last few years, Malta has taken proactive steps in promoting itself as the place to be for creative innovators, hoping that it will lead to an increase in businesses establishing a home base for themselves here.Startup businesses are nothing new in the EU. You can look at the examples of London, Berlin, Dublin and Paris where some forward-thinking individuals have had great success in getting new businesses off the ground. The allure of advancing technology and its influence on pushing the borders of creativity in fields such as AI, iGaming, FinTech and manufacturing is ever-expanding, contributing to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With Malta joining the global race to provide a perfect place for the establishment of new businesses, the government is doing everything in its power to achieve its long-term goal for the sector. The country already has the crucial expansion of communications infrastructure well in place. There are also scenic locations to aid in stimulating and promoting intellectual thinking and creativity. So now it is just a case of packaging and selling the sizzle better than ever before.Many innovators and entrepreneurs in the world of tech have already established themselves here, making Malta a promising start-up hub, but there is room for enormous growth in the near future. Despite the financial impact Covid’s had on a major part of the economy the past two years, most sectors are well on the path to recovery. Good thing tech sector such as iGaming has hardly suffered any repercussions ascribed to the pandemic and continues to grow and expand their audience, service offerings and subsequent income at a record rate. Government and private sector’s help start-up businesses in Malta Back then, the attraction of international business and investment in Malta was traditional like many other places in the world. The appeal of the islands once rested solely on special rights and privileges extended to foreign multinational corporations, but times have changed. iGaming in Malta has gone through a maturation process with many talented former employees setting up their own companies. The government is also welcoming digital nomads from across the globe with a special, less restrictive visa and residency scheme. Then there is TAKEOFF, an assistance initiative programme based on-site at the University of Malta to help those that want to start their own enterprise. The programme offers mentoring, tools, know-how and even a masters programme in knowledge-based entrepreneurship for the business leaders of tomorrow.Silicon Valletta is another example of an exciting initiative, described by their web page as “set up by Malta-based tech entrepreneurs that want to accelerate Malta’s attractiveness & strengthen knowledge sharing within (the) Maltese start-up community”.To attest to the seriousness of the whole support movement, International giants such as Microsoft have brought the MS Innovation Centre to life locally, then there are our own National IT Agency’s Innovation Hub, MITA Innovation Hub and Gozo’s Innovation Hub to name but a few.Financing has hampered the start-up sector…until now!Having the financial resources and funding to get off the ground is a concern for any business. As we said earlier, in Malta the government is doing everything in its power to aid promising start-ups. This is where a technical advisory company and consultancy arm to the cabinet of ministers “The Malta Investment Management Company Limited '' (MIMCOL) enters the picture. MIMCOL has been around since 1988 and offers an investment scheme that aids start-ups through what they call “seeding”. This has thus far had its eyes squarely on local start-ups, but as a result of its success, MIMCOL is now looking further afield as well in an effort to attract some big guns from the international scene through affiliations with other successful global accelerator programmes. The cost of opening a start-up in MaltaMalta’s start-up scene looks very promising indeed, as it is soundly evolving from a healthy mix of government and private inventiveness. To make this even more exciting and attractive to those still looking at Malta as an option, the cost of setting up shop locally is by far the most economical out of all the well-known and already established hubs which also means more time will be on the side of entrepreneurs to develop and launch new products, as simply put, their money will last longer and go further. Another huge and attractive advantage is that Malta has proven to be a perfect place for establishing a “Sandbox”, meaning tech companies are freer and less restricted by government than elsewhere in the EU to test new products in an isolated, controlled and access-restricted environment. It must be noted that all sandbox activities are however monitored and scrutinised by highly accredited international watchdogs. Final Thoughts...We only need to look at some of the world’s biggest tech companies to see that the dreams of any talented and gifted entrepreneur with a long-term vision and enough determination can lead to greatness: Microsoft, Apple and Amazon all started out in someone’s garage at home. Let’s give innovators the chance to start out in Malta!