A Maltese 3D printing startup is among several European businesses left without promised funding after an EU-funded body filed for liquidation.
ELM Fabrication Ltd, founded by engineers David Sciberras and Nicholas Borg Calleja, has developed a 2m x 2m x 6m model capable of 3D printing everything from boats to furniture out of recycled plastic.
Seeing its potential to provide low-cost competition to more traditional manufacturers, they secured an initial €217,000 in funding (70 per cent of the cost) from EIT Manufacturing (EITM) to bring the technology to market.
EITM is one of nine knowledge and innovation communities funded by the EU’s European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), tasked with digitising European industry.
However, the EIT suspended millions of euro in payments to EITM following an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF which found irregularities in EITM’’s financial reporting.
Facing mounting financial pressure, EITM filed for liquidation last month, leaving hundreds of startups, including the Maltese 3D printing venture, in limbo.
Ing. David Sciberras told WhosWho.mt that although EITM had given the startup the green light to start the project in January 2025, the signed grant agreement never materialised.
In April, EITM called an emergency meeting with ELM and instructed the startup to halt further spending.
Ing. Nicholas Borg Calleja - Photo: LinkedIn
Ing. Sciberras said that, at EITM’s request, ELM submitted a cost breakdown of the work completed up to that point, totalling €40,000.
He added that EITM pledged to reimburse €28,000 in the first or second quarter of 2026, but no specific timeline was ever confirmed. And then, last week he discovered that it had filed for liquidation.
Despite the setback, Ing. Sciberras said the startup continues to push forward with its plan to bring the product to market.
“Many European startups in our cohort had to file for bankruptcy after counting on large sums of money that never arrived,” he said.
“However, we kept our operations lean. We didn’t give ourselves a salary or hire loads of people, although unfortunately we did lose people we were going to hire.”
“It’s just good practice not to spend excessively before a product starts generating money.”
Now that EITM has filed for liquidation, Ing. Sciberras argued that EIT, the EU agency that funded EITM, should take responsibility for paying the startups their promised money.
This is the same position that EITM’s CEO Caroline Viarouge took in comments to Sifted.
In the meantime, ELM is raising an equity round to take the product to market, with 20 per cent already subscribed by investors.
The new projected launch date for the full machine has been set to the fourth quarter of the year.
Main Image:ELM Fabrication Ltd
