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Business
Gibraltar: Where innovation begins
By: Eran Shay, Managing Director, Benefit Business Solutions Ltd.- a Business Accelerator, assisting innovative companies in their setup and technology testing in Gibraltar.
bureaucratic hurdles for companies to get approvals, licenses or certification than in bigger countries. In countries such as the UK, Germany or France, in order to get to the national level, a company may first need to pass the municipal and then the regional/country level, making it a longer and often more costly process.
British standards and EU membership: being a British Overseas Territory, and a member of the EU (since 1973, through the UK), Gibraltar adheres to high standards of service, and complies with all applicable EU Directives, which facilitates marketing to the rest of Europe. In particular, FinTech companies enjoy the benefit of becoming regulated in Gibraltar and then “passporting” their license to the rest of the EU.
Low profile: Gibraltar is often not under the radar of the world media which means that if a company’s test trial fails, probably no one would hear about it outside Gibraltar. In a big
For start-ups and established companies alike, technology testing and other pilot
studies is an important milestone prior to mass marketing. Companies who wish to enter the European markets often want to test their technologies in an EU compliant environment under European standards and regulation. Gibraltar has some unique features which have made it the ideal testing ground for new technologies:
Economies of Small Scale: Gibraltar is a small contained economy (measuring 7sq kilometres), making it easier to administer and run pilot testing schemes and be in close geographical proximity to all test sites. Moreover, most start-ups have limited
financial and human resources which impedes on their ability to test trial their technology in the large countries thereby creating a barrier to entry; for example, testing a certain mobile application in the UK may require the resources to simultaneously support millions of concurrent users, while doing the same in Gibraltar with its 30,000 inhabitants, would be much less demanding.
Lower bureaucracy: due to its small size, Gibraltar has fewer bureaucratic layers than most other countries, making access to key decision makers, both in Government and in industry much simpler and quicker. Although Gibraltar companies are strictly regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) there are much fewer
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