Malta shows significant growth potential as a startup ecosystem scoring particularly highly in talent and market reach, according to the 2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) published by Startup Genome.

This report was a global collaborative effort to help regions across the globe nurture and maintain thriving tech startup ecosystems. The Malta component of the report was the result of a partnership between the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) and San Francisco- based Startup Genome.

The study explores and contrasts the performance of 45 leading startup ecosystems. These ecosystems are essentially business environments, which are conducive to the formation and growth of new ventures.

The report evaluates ecosystems on the basis of five important characteristics, namely performance, funding, market reach, talent and startup experience. Seventeen indices spread across these categories provide a detailed insight on the strengths and weaknesses of each ecosystem reviewed. The performance of the Maltese ecosystem is reported to be mainly positive, ranking highly when compared to European counterparts in a number of indices.

Despite having the smallest ecosystem in terms of value, which currently stands at €770 million, Malta’s growth rate is significantly higher than the regional average. This indicator reveals positive prospects for the ecosystem’s ability to increase the density and valuation of Malta-based startups in the near future.

Malta also ranked 22nd globally in two critical factors: market reach and talent. Malta’s performance in market reach was largely due to having the highest rate of born-global companies in the European region. In this category, Malta also demonstrated an extent of global connectedness that is higher than the global average.

With regard to talent, Malta’s performance ranked in the top five in the region for each of the four indices comprising this category. Malta emerged as the best place in Europe for experienced software engineers, combined with a second place in terms of the affordability in employing such talent.

Moreover, Malta startups have the 6th highest percentage of employees in their growth team that previously had at least two years of startup experience. Leveraging such experience is critical to guide startups from early-stage activity, towards scaling up.

On another front, the report also confirmed Malta’s excellence at hosting a cosmopolitan startup community: 39 per cent of local startups were indeed founded by immigrants. This rate is the fourth highest globally, trailing marginally behind Silicon Valley, Berlin and London.

The report highlights a number of startups that were recently celebrated in the international media, making reference to Hotjar, Hippo Data, DiscountIF and the up-and-coming Freshy.

“This is the first time that Malta has featured in this globally recognised report. This is a significant outcome of our vision three years ago to set up a dedicated business innovation function. This function will continue to serve market intelligence and foresight that will contribute to further development in the Maltese startup ecosystem,” MCA chairman Edward Woods said.

www.startupgenome.com/report2017.

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