The case for investing in Malta’s deep tech entrepreneurs
It’s well-known that Malta is the smallest EU Member State, but if someone hasn’t had the opportunity to visit, it can be difficult to picture just how small the country is. With the largest island measuring just 27km at its longest stretch, you can drive its length in 40 minutes. A country rich in history and culture, but with endemically scarce resources due to its size, semi-arid environment, and physical distance from the continent, the Maltese have had to grapple with this reality for thousands of years, resulting in necessary resourcefulness and adaptation to structural limitations.
At the same time, Malta has substantially invested in reforming its gender equality legislation, with gender mainstreaming being a high level priority area. In the domain of equal access to work and money, this is reaping evident rewards – according to EIGE, Malta’s gender equality index ranking exceeds the EU average1. However, much remains to be done: less than 10% of Maltese women are entrepreneurs, with men’s rates of entrepreneurship faring slightly better at 17%2, and despite substantial economic gains for women, the wider culture is still very much rooted in patriarchal norms3.
Against this backdrop, Malta’s deep tech ecosystem remains a fledgling, if promising, sector. On the one hand, the environment shaping Maltese industry, and our national psyche, contributes to creating even more barriers for deep tech startups, beyond the substantial ones already faced by European startups. An insular, island mentality, coupled with a small innovation community, limited financial resources and high travel and transportation costs, lends itself to risk-aversion both on the ends of potential entrepreneurs, as well as public and private investors and funders4. That said, Malta’s ecosystem has developed to make the best of what we have: a well-trained service-oriented workforce, of which a large portion of it are IT professionals (benefitting from fully free state tertiary education), a network of reachable state and innovation entities, and a well-honed penchant for Mediterranean charm when conducting business.
EPIC-X works in this double-need space, confronting both the difficulties of establishing and growing a deep tech startup in Malta, as well as the pervasive socio-cultural structural barriers faced by women. It is even more difficult for women to surmount the social inclination towards risk aversion when there are also deeply ingrained patriarchal norms to contend with – the same EIGE ranking highlights that women by far retain the brunt of care work, much more than the EU average. Rates of women and girls in STEM in Malta remains low – and concerningly, decreasing, with only 29% of graduates being from STEM fields in 2022 compared to 32% in 2018.5 Moreover, there are precious few role models to inspire the next generation of prospective deep tech entrepreneurs. It can feel all the more of an insurmountable challenge when you’re the first, or only, woman in your national sector – a reality faced by the literal handful of women deep tech entrepreneurs forging their path in Malta. That being said, all these barriers mean that those entrepreneurs who do make it are all the more tough, scrappy, and sharp – key ingredients for the makeup of any deep tech entrepreneur.
AcrossLimits, as a key Maltese ecosystem player in the sector of Europeanisation, innovation and technology, has been active in fostering and empowering women and their entrepreneurial spirit for over two decades, gender equality being one of our core values. Our work reached a recent high point through our ongoing contribution as one of the four core partners within Women TechEU, a €15 million project that distributed €75,000 cascade funding grants to 160 women-lead deep tech startups from 2024 onwards. In our role as Communication and Dissemination leaders, we spearheaded efforts to reach as many potential applicants as possible, with our consortium’s efforts leading to almost 4,000 applications, and 24 total beneficiaries from Widening countries (15%). Unfortunately, none of the beneficiaries were from Malta, reflecting the small pool of eligible applicants.
Angele Giuliano, the entrepreneur behind AcrossLimits, has been in business for over 25 years and she comments
“Being from Malta is both a blessing and a curse in the technology sector. Whilst it is great for networking and being remembered, however it makes potential clients unsure about the level of innovation of the technology developed by Maltese businesses. Our role at AcrossLimits is to both support and shine a light on those potential success stories, so that others might start recognising that excellence can stem even from a small corner of Europe”.
Initiatives like EPIC-X and Women TechEU are desperately needed to bridge the gaps caused by the limitations of traditional funding and structural barriers hampering women in the deep tech space – with EPIC-X all the more so to provide much-needed additional support avenues for Malta’s sector.
This article was written in collaboration with Across Limits. For more information about their work visit Across Limits’ website.
Find out more about the project here!
