44 · MONEY
S TA R T- U P S
ISSUE 54
BLOCKS MONEY speaks to Jarek Bialek, programme manager and EIR for MITA Innovation Hub, on foreign emerging technology start-ups’ perspective on Malta, dubbed the Blockchain island and government IT arm MITA’s acceleration programme targeting such start-ups. It’s still 7am when Mikayel Khachatryan, founder of Wirestock, starts his work day in one of the office buildings of SmartCity Malta. His Armenia-based co-founders are already two hours ahead of him, waiting for a call to coordinate the tasks for the day. Wirestock is a one-stop shop platform for stock photographers, using Blockchain for content authentication. It is one of a cohort of five start-ups selected to participate in the YouStartIT acceleration programme, run by
the MITA Innovation Hub. The programme offers a grant of €30,000, all equity-free. The main attraction is clearly the fact that Malta has been dubbed the Blockchain Island. The Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) recently concluded its fourth edition of the acceleration programme, targeting startup projects based on emerging technologies such as Blockchain, AI, IoT or Big Data. The
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programme is open to a global community of digital entrepreneurs, willing to launch their products from Malta, as long as they
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