Malta Startups Ecosystem: 2024 a year in review

One moment that particularly set the tone in the last calendar year was an article published by EU-Startups wherein it claimed “Over the past few years, Maltese-founded startups have grown significantly, reaching a combined enterprise value of €4.6 billion—an impressive 2.3x growth since 2016”. Furthermore, the article claims that “In 2024 alone, Malta saw one of its most active years for venture capital investment, with startups raising €43 million to date, underscoring the increasing confidence of investors in the region.” 

Unfortunately, I was not able to verify the values quoted in the article (database link here if you want to have a go yourself), however this article continued to signal that the local ecosystem is maturing into one that is finally taking the tech industry seriously (beyond the igambling realm). We are yet to produce a cohort of tech millionaires that the community loves to hate, our success stories remain too far and in between, yet profiles like those of Matthew Bezzina from eCabs, Gege Gatt from EBO are starting to become known figures beyond the business community. Further to this, the Shark Tank tv programme produced a €1.3 million investment in an A.I. traffic startup company which caught the media’s attention whereas discussions around tech entrepreneurship feel more commonplace with notable business communities regularly featuring successful entrepreneurs like Philip Camilleri and Julian Pace Ross.

Malta’s struggles remain constant; a small market, and an immature investment community. I continue to hold strong in my belief that the catalyst for a change in culture will only happen when a Malta connected founder builds up a significant success story that has a spill-over effect in the form of i) it creates a cohort of rich early employees who in-turn start their own businesses or invest in new founders, and ii) it creates returns for a handful of angel investors who were early backers of that business. Critically, this will also educate local family offices or wealthy investors (who may miss out on investing in this opportunity) and provide a greater appreciation for early stage business as an investment class and its potential return profile.

The last few years have seen significant strides forward in terms of Malta Enterprise (“ME”) support schemes with loan advancements of up to €750,000 (which amount may be doubled) for qualifying start-ups in addition to match financing support in the form of the Malta Venture Capital fund and the Business Angel Seed Investment Support scheme. According to reports, between 2020 and 2022, ME under its entry-point scheme ‘Business START’ scheme approved 68 projects with a grant value of circa €2.5 million. For the same period, under ‘Startup Finance’, targeting well-developed start-ups and scale-ups, a total of 51 projects were approved, with advances repayable reaching a figure of €21m. My message to Malta Enterprise (as I presented in my response to the ecosystem consultation) is that it has a duty to disclose the beneficiaries of such grants, simply for the reason that the private market needs to become aware of what types of projects are emerging from Malta and critically the profiles of the founders behind them. Besides funding, via its inMalta initiative, ME is showcasing Malta based startups such as CrabNebula, a cyber security company, when it attends prominent conferences overseas, to encourage budding entrepreneurs to elect Malta as a home for their project. GO, one of Malta’s leading telecom companies, launched its GO Ventures initiative in recent years and is actively scouting for investment opportunities in its areas of interest. Finally, the most recent addition to the local landscape in terms of efforts to attract investment to the country is PEVCA, an association for organisations involved in venture capital and private equity on the island.

As I keep track of key events in the local ecosystem, my concern is that time and again I learn of startups that receive investor backing without any accompanying PR to the transaction. This is disappointing as it makes it hard to make a case for Malta as a growing ecosystem as well as it does not allow previous success to pave the way for future projects. I really do hope the habit of keeping transactions private will change, and my goal for highlighting key transactions that took place during the past year will be met with disclosure of additional transactions.  

Founders doing great things overseas:

Weavr, probably Malta’s most notable startup export closed off the year with an industry award. PEAQ was probably the rising star of the year. The DePin blockchain startup co-founded by Max Thake announced a $15 million round a further token sale which generated $20 million and later had a token generating event via Coinlist, which currently holds a fully diluted value of $2.2 billion. Other interesting Malta connected startups that caught my eye in 2024 are Shortimize by Jean Gatt (a tracking solution for social media) and Flasc by Daniel Buhagiar involved in the application of Malta University research on offshore sustainable energy storage as well as Krepling which raised $3.3 million for its e-commerce platform.

In the fintech & regtech realm, Binderr and Fyorin were recognised by international platforms for their developments in compliance onboarding and cross-border payments respectively. Both companies appear to have completed investment rounds in previous years, with Fyorin raising €2.5M and Binderr €2.0M in their last round according to deal platforms. Another FinTech project is Loyale.io, a rewards marketing platform selected by VISA last year to join their Innovation Program and which raised €600k from angel investors and foreign VCs. UMNAI founded by Maltese serial entrepreneur Angelo Dalli is solving the concerns of explainable A.I., an area of focus of the recently announced EU AI Act. 

Local champions:

Merqury, a local venture by Malta University (“UoM”) and local telco Melita, are building at the forefront of Quantum Technologies in cyber security and banking. This project represents one of Malta’s most ambitious attempts at international company building. Another Malta University spin-off is Smart Materials, nominated as Deep Tech Pioneer by Hello Tomorrow, who will be launching a new mattress product in 2025 based on auxetic polyurethane foam, the outcome of a decade of research of UoM. The most intriguing local story this year is the peculiar incident involving FreeHour a local media startup wherein a group of students were entangled in a cross-fire of GDPR and Police investigations. Whereas I hope common sense will prevail in the end, such incidents allow the local regulatory and legal system to adapt to the rapidly changing times, not solely by observing occurrences that happen overseas, but notably through episodes that take place on our local soil. 

Given the lack of a stable and systemic early stage investment culture, the local ecosystem mostly features a host of bootstrapped startups. Invent3D continues to lead the charge to turn 3D printing into a recognised business and innovation tool, Tableo is evolving how restaurants operate in a cloud and A.I. infused world, whilst Buddy.Hr continued to expand its payroll tool to the UK. Greenroads is a proud local representative in the EU-wide EIT Urban Mobility challenge using cutting edge technologies for collecting data to solve traffic challenges. MyMama, a startup focussed on catering for expectant and new parents produced a masterclass in community building when it hosted the inaugural BabyTalks this year. Gaming is a growing area of startup activity, MightyBoards produced Barnes and Nobles 2024 game of the year. The annual Playcon event brought together the local and international players in the field and Simon Cutajar a Maltese game developer put together a platform for games companies and events taking place in Malta. Last but not least, Supercharger Edtech accelerator held its Demo Day in Malta at the dashing Manoel Theatre. Notable companies that emerged from its cohort include Leemons and Millie. 

Whereas I am sure other startups had notable moments during the year, and I recognise personal blindspots in areas such as Medtech and iGambling, the above showcases an encouraging cohort of activity to believe the glass to be half-full with regards Malta’s future in the tech world. Malta strongly needs to diversify its economy into technology driven and entrepreneurial activities, a grassroots startup community is a key ingredient for this. Furthermore, following Draghi’s rallying cry for a more competitive and innovative Europe, it seems a foregone conclusion that more effort and interest should be bestowed on this emerging asset class in the upcoming 12 months.

Wishing each reader all the best for 2025! Please do connect with me in case you are aware of exciting startup opportunities emerging from or connected to Malta.