Widening/Malta innovation ecosystem for HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-HERITAGE-02

Hive Ventures is a Malta-based innovation and business development consultancy supporting startups, scaleups, research organisations and public-sector actors in transforming innovative ideas into investable, market-oriented ventures. The company brings strong experience in startup support, commercialisation strategy, market analysis, investor readiness, access to finance and EU project development, with a particular focus on innovation ecosystems, technology-driven entrepreneurship and cross-sector collaboration.

Hive Ventures has direct experience in supporting and strengthening the startup ecosystem in Malta, working with entrepreneurs, innovation actors and public institutions to improve the conditions for startup creation, growth and internationalisation. This includes activities related to business model development, market positioning, fundraising pathways, ecosystem mapping, stakeholder engagement and the design of support mechanisms that help young companies move from early-stage validation towards growth and scale-up readiness.

A key area of relevance for this call is Hive Ventures’ experience with creative startups and innovation-driven companies operating at the intersection of creativity, digitalisation and emerging technologies. The company has supported creative and technology-oriented ventures in areas such as digital content, creative services, AI-enabled solutions, communication, media, design-led innovation and cross-sector applications of creative skills. 

Hive Ventures also works with the Ministry for Digitalisation and Innovation / MDIA in Malta, contributing to initiatives that strengthen the national innovation ecosystem and support the growth of digital and technology-driven entrepreneurship.

Within the proposed project, Hive Ventures can contribute to the design and validation of innovative approaches for boosting creative startups and scaleups. Its role could include mapping the needs and barriers of creative startups, developing investor-readiness and market-readiness frameworks, supporting pilot design and implementation in Malta and other European ecosystems, facilitating engagement with startups, investors, policymakers and innovation intermediaries, and contributing to dissemination, exploitation and policy uptake.