A survey carried out by the Europe Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA) among 21 EU countries placed Malta as the 4th best destination for innovative startups.

This emerged from the first technical analysis of its kind by the startup-centric entity created by the European Union. Malta Enterprise represents Malta in ESNA.

Malta was only topped by larger countries such as Spain and France, together with Belgium. Malta was among only 10 countries which exceeded the average percentage ratings of this analysis.

The “Startup Nations standards” are eight standards of excellence in the field of support to startups. Spain and France obtained the best ranking with 87%, followed by Belgium and Malta scoring 74% and 73% respectively.

Malta garnered a 100% mark or similar - and topped all other countries - in 3 specific areas.

These are :

• the attraction and ability to retain new talent in Malta;
• digital tools as main communication tools between startups and government entities; as well as
• shortest time to register a new company.

Malta also compared well on the creation of innovative laws regulating emerging sectors. 

On the other hand, Malta needed to improve further on aspects such as access to finance and employee share options.

To this end, Malta Enterprise is preparing a Startup Framework with the aim of ushering an improved legislative dimension for start-ups and start-up investors.

Malta Enterprise is also continuing to strengthen its incentives such as BStart and Startup Finance which lead to assistance up to a maximum of €1.5M.

In terms of wider financing, the government has recently announced the creation of a €10 million Venture Capital Fund to assist innovative start-ups.

Malta Enterprise has been working since 2021 to create synergies among government and private entities – to provide a unified voice in relation to start-ups. Such efforts are being advanced via the “StartinMalta” brand.