The following contribution was penned by Adrian Galea, a venture capital and portfolio management professional for early-stage startup investors
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 iGaming realm).
We are yet to produce a cohort of tech millionaires that the community loves to hate, and our success stories remain too far and in between. Nonetheless, profiles like those of Matthew Bezzina from eCabs and Gege Gatt from EBO are starting to become known beyond the business community.
Further to this, the Shark Tank TV programme produced a €1.3 million investment in an AI 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 therefore 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 by, first, creating a cohort of rich early employees who in-turn start their own businesses or invest in new founders, and second, by creating 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 for 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 the matching of financing support in the form of the Malta Venture Capital Fund and the Business Angel Seed Investment Support scheme.
According to the agency, between 2020 and 2022, it approved 68 projects with a grant value of circa €2.5 million under its entry-point Business START scheme. For the same period, under Startup Finance, targeting well-developed startups and scale-ups, a total of 51 projects were approved, with advances repayable reaching a figure of €21 million.
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 select 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 not only makes it hard to make a case for Malta as a growing ecosystem, but it also prevents previous success from paving 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, a tracking solution for social media by Jean Gatt, and Flasc by Daniel Buhagiar, who is involved in the application of Malta University research on offshore sustainable energy storage. To these we can add 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 €2.5 million and Binderr €2 million 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 AI, an area of focus of the recently announced EU AI Act.
Local champions
Merqury, a local independent venture by founder and CEO Prof. André Xuereb, engaged in high profile projects together with the University of Malta (UM) and local telco Melita, is building at the forefront of quantum technologies in cybersecurity for the financial services and other industries. This project represents one of Malta’s most ambitious attempts at international company building.
Another UM spin-off is Smart Materials, nominated as Deep Tech Pioneer by Hello Tomorrow, which will be launching a new mattress product in 2025 based on auxetic polyurethane foam, the outcome of a decade of research at UM.
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 AI-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 focussd on catering to expectant and new parents, produced a masterclass in community building when it hosted the inaugural BabyTalks this year.
Gaming is another growing area of startup activity, with MightyBoards producing the 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, edtech accelerator SuperCharger Ventures 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 iGaming, the above showcases an encouraging cohort of activity – enough 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, and 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. You can learn more about me, here or via my blog site.
Adrian Galea is a venture capital and portfolio management professional for early-stage startup investors. He is a member of Silicon Valletta and also manages a Facebook group called Malta Startup Space, which inspires startup culture in Malta. For more information, visit Clutch Play Advisors.
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