Maltese additive manufacturing firm Invent 3D has marked eight years of growth by reaching a fleet of around 200 machines across its own dedicated facility in Qormi, having started in 2017 with a single slow, noisy desktop printer purchased by co-founders David and Alexandra Sciberras.
The pair initially set out to test whether 3D printing could compress product development timelines from months down to weeks, a question that was ambitious at a time when the technology was largely associated with novelty trinkets. Within weeks of formalising the business, a dozen printers were running in their living room. By October 2018, both founders had moved to full-time operations, working from a small office beneath their flat in Żabbar.
Early attempts to secure external support through funding applications, grants and bank lending all drew rejections, leaving Invent 3D to grow on its own terms. The turning point came during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, the company partnered with Mater Dei Hospital to develop and donate around 10,000 protective visors, sharing the design openly with the wider Maltese maker community so that individuals with their own printers could contribute to healthcare supply efforts. The company also produced respirator adapters for Ebola respirators and holders for vaccine transportation.
That surge in demand accelerated physical expansion. Before the end of 2020, Invent 3D had outgrown Żabbar and relocated to Bulebel with more than 50 machines. By 2021, the count had reached roughly 100 printers across 300 square metres. A further milestone arrived in June 2023 with the move into purpose-built premises in Qormi, where the print farm now operates at around 200 machines.
David Sciberras credits the company’s real transformation not to the hardware count but to the team assembled around it. What began as a founder-led operation has evolved into a multi-disciplinary business spanning design, engineering, operations, sales, marketing and model-making. Its remit now extends well beyond print-on-demand to cover prototyping, product development, manufacturing, architectural modelling, props, décor, spare parts and industrial applications.
Looking ahead, Invent 3D is backing two new Maltese ventures, ELM Fabrication and Malti3D, aimed at introducing the next generation of additive manufacturing technology to the islands. For Malta’s broader startup community, the company’s trajectory carries a straightforward message: sustained growth is possible, provided founders are prepared to absorb considerably more effort than anticipated and maintain a healthy tolerance for risk.
