During a visit at Thynk Software, an innovative export-oriented start-up operating from Gozo, Minister for Gozo Anton Refalo and Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna encouraged potential enterpreneurs to follow in this company’s footsteps.
Thynk Software started off as a one-man operation. Founder Marlon Grech has managed to grow the team to 10 people with a yearly revenue quote of $ 1 million. Before starting his own business, he had successfully founded an office for a globally consultancy firm in Malta.
Mr Grech explained that Thynk Software is a team driven by passion to build products that aid users’ everyday lives and solve problems. Their main focus are start-ups, whom they help to evolve their idea, develop it in a way that leverages the latest technologies, and take that idea to the market as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
Minister Refalo stated that Thynk Software is in line with the government’s mission in attracting new economic investment to the island of Gozo. The company’s team work hard to tap into the small but growing number of IT professionals in Gozo and help create a culture that leads to the development of new, innovative start-ups.
Thynk Software wants to help bring the new economy to Gozo. It strives to build relationships with the local IT education and training sectors to ensure that students either become IT entrepreneurs themselves or are geared towards helping those who want to start up new businesses in which IT plays a central role.
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Minister Refalo encouraged Thynk Software to continue to expand their business, and emphasised that the Government is willing to support business of this kind.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna commented that, when it comes to IT start-ups, Gozo should do well since location is not a major factor. He said it’s encouraging to witness young people like those setting up Thynk Software taking full advantage of these factors to set up an export-based innovative business with foreign earnings rather than simply wait to land a job offered by the Government.
Minister Scicluna said that it is the Government’s duty to actively encourage such initiatives by continuing to eliminate the remaining administrative burdens that get in their way and weigh them down. He pointed out that the government is negotiating a limited audit exemption, whereby the obligation to submit an audit report is waived in the case of small start-ups during their first two-years of operation.
Furthermore, through a recently announced Budgetary measure, Malta Enterprise may approve a tax credit for start-up undertakings equivalent to 45% of eligible expenditure. An additional bonus of 20% (total 65% tax credit) applies to undertakings operating from Gozo.
30th Thursday April 2015
