‘We are delighted to be hosting next year’s EU-Startups Summit in Malta’ – Malta Enterprise CEO

One of Europe’s most popular events for start-ups, the EU-Startups summit, is relocating from Barcelona to Malta.

This year’s EU Startup Summit on April 20-21 in Barcelona, Spain, attracted 2,000 founders, startup enthusiasts and investors from across Europe for two exciting days of networking, inspiration and learning. The EU-Startups Summit is the annual flagship event of EU-Startups.com – a leading online magazine with a focus on startups in Europe.

Aside from many highlights, like the event’s annual pitch competition finals, unicorn founders on stage, and many great networking opportunities, the organisers also welcomed a special guest for a very special announcement at the end of the event.

The guest speaker who entered the main stage shortly before closing the event was Kurt Farrugia – the CEO of Malta Enterprise. After a brief fireside chat, EU-Startups founder Thomas Ohr and Mr Farrugia then announced live on stage that next year’s EU-Startups Summit will be held on 9-10th May in Malta.

The annual flagship event of EU-Startups originally started in 2014 in Munich, then happened in Berlin for the next three years and since 2018 the event has been held in Barcelona – except for the pandemic times.

EU-Startups founder and Menlo Media CEO Thomas Ohr stated: “While being held first in Germany and later in Spain, the EU-Startups Summit was never a German or a Spanish startup event, but already from the very beginning it was a European event, bringing together startup ecosystem players from across Europe. In order to keep the European identity and international mix of our audience alive we’re convinced that it’s the right decision to move on and to host the EU-Startups Summit next year in Malta. It’s a magnificent island with an English and Maltese-speaking population, a business and startup-friendly environment and we’re super excited for this next chapter of the EU-Startups Summit.”

Malta Enterprise is the country’s economic development agency, tasked with attracting new foreign direct investment as well as facilitating the growth of existing operations.

Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia commented: “We are delighted to be hosting next year’s EU-Startups Summit in Malta. Malta Enterprise, as the Economic Development Agency of the Maltese Government, has established itself as the single point of contact for startups. We administer a strong proposition for innovative startups that targets both the co-founders and their key employees. Our non-dilutive assistance can initially reach up to €1 million. This is complemented by a one-to-one personalised service that assists you from submitting your application, to setting up and scaling out of Malta. In the coming days, we will launch a startup framework consultation with our stakeholders. We want our vision and strategic direction to be driven by the startup ecosystem. We look forward to next year’s event and to welcoming you to experience first-hand – Malta – a fast-growing startup hub in Europe.”

The EU-Startups Summit is one of the most popular startup events in Europe, connecting the key startup ecosystem players of the continent in person each year. The collaboration between Malta Enterprise and EU-Startups will ensure a smooth transition of the event from Barcelona to Malta, and with combined forces the EU-Startups Summit will be taken to the next level, further improving the events’ audience experience, speaker line-up and networking opportunities.

Malta, a beautiful island country located in the Mediterranean, is the smallest country in the European Union, but with a nicely growing tech and startup ecosystem.

Over recent years, Malta has increased its commitment to fostering startup culture and has been attracting new businesses to its shores. The country is actively working on expanding its economy and is setting its sights on the future of tech development in areas such as AI, Big Data, Gaming, IoT, SaaS, and Blockchain. Gaming and blockchain take the top spots for market areas in which Malta already plays an important role on a global scale.

EU-Startups founder Thomas Ohr added: “The EU-Startups team is very excited to be hosting the EU-Startups Summit in Malta from 2024 onwards. As a mission-driven media and events company, we’re looking forward to not only increasing our positive impact on the European startup ecosystem but also our impact on the local startup ecosystem in Malta through increased media coverage and our annual flagship event.”