Malta’s potential as a digital innovation hub continues to grow as public and private investment pour into the technology sector. Large strides have been made as the efforts continue apace to build the right infrastructure that allows creative leaders to identify and exploit the opportunities created.

This series catches up with the island’s foremost tech and digital entrepreneurs to understand what they do, and what the future holds.

(Standing, left to right) Kristian Zarb Adami, Edward Borg, Angelo Dalli, Johan Zammit & Gege Gatt / (Seated, left to right) Brian Zarb Adami, Simon Azzopardi & Stefan Farrugia

Those pictured form part of the 'Changing the tech game' series / Picture taken by Bernard Polidano

About yourself, your company and your greatest professional accomplishment to date…

Throughout my various roles over the last 20 years my passion was constant – that of helping business leaders get the results they want through the optimal use of technology. And this is what I still do today. With my team at Smart Studios we project-manage and execute complex digital projects for top brands and emerging start-ups. We help empower our clients to use emerging technologies like AI, IOT, RPA and blockchain in their products/services, and work with CEOs who want to instil an innovation-driven approach in their organisation.

“Versatile” is how most of my friends describe me. They see me as someone who can rapidly change the hats of business, technology and innovation – linking them together. I always push to instil this versatility into the company culture of Smart Studios.

Apart from leading Smart Studios, I’m also the founder and chair of Malta Innovation Summit, founder and administrator at Business Angels Malta, founder and president of Malta Innovation Forum and a board member at Silicon Valletta. On other fronts I’m an advocate for start-up ecosystems, STEM education, environmental sustainability, and diversity. The greatest professional accomplishment to date is growing a new Maltese start-up, NetRefer, in 2005, from zero into a company that employs more than 80 people and is internationally number one in its market.

What are the latest developments in your sector?

Malta launched its AI strategy in 2019. This comes at a time when at a global level AI has a thriving marketplace, with tools that enable you to apply AI models to any product or service more easily than ever before. AI has become a plug-and-play commodity, so I believe there are exciting times ahead in this field considering where we started.

When I was still at University over 20 years ago, we had started developing applications that use AI for face recognition. In those days, however, working with AI models was crude and lengthy. Nowadays, platforms exist through which you can set up and train an AI model with relative ease. At Smart Studios, we are very active in this regard. We’re enabling our clients to onboard AI initiatives and collaborating with them on a set of extremely interesting AI projects that solve real-world problems.

What developments do you foresee for Malta to become a digital island?

To make Malta an innovation hub within the Mediterranean region and within the EU, Malta needs a thriving start-up ecosystem. We have the potential to become the epicentre of new ideas and new ventures – however, certain pieces of the ecosystem are still too young or missing. From the activity I see around organisations I’m involved in, like Business Angels Malta, Malta Innovation Forum and Silicon Valletta, the activity around start-ups is constantly growing – even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One key element that is missing is the launch of a start-up visa. This would attract to the islands not only the right start-up founders but also the right investors. Apart from this, the rest of the missing pieces revolve around bringing the community (founders, investors, authorities) together to share ideas and learn from each other.

This is the sixth in a series of interviews with Malta's leading tech entrepreneurs. Read the first, with IO-Labs CEO Kristian Zarb Adami, here. Or check out the second, with Thought3D Co-Founder Edward Borg, here.

The third, an interview with Silicon Valletta President Simon Azzopardi, can be found here. And the fourth, with EBO.ai CEO Gege Gatt, can be read here.

You can read the fifth interview, with CyberSift CEO Brian Zarb Adami, here.

This feature was first carried in the 2021 edition of Digital Island.