Supporting female-led companies in Malaga

In The Frame

Lara Moloney: Moving to the Costa del Sol after an eight-month trip around Asia with her family in the wake of Covid provided the opportunity to further a career in the tech sector, but in the sunshine

Jennie Rhodes

In just two and a half years, Lara Moloney has established herself as one of the leading women in the rapidly evolving technology fabric of Malaga city and in September 2025 she founded the Female Founders Circle in Malaga (FFC).

FFC is a community which brings together international and local women who are building businesses in the area, particularly those connected to tech

The urge to get out of the UK and see more of the world really came about in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, although Lara explains that they had come to Malaga in 2019 with a potential view to relocating then.

At that point they were looking at the Marbella and Estepona area but ended up “falling in love” with Malaga city and the Axarquía. However, the pandemic struck the following year and plans were put on hold.

Even in 2019 Lara was no stranger to the Costa del Sol, having spent three months in Fuengirola “working in timeshare” when she was 18 and just before she started university back in the UK.

Now the family has settled here, established connections, friendships and Spanish routines: “We have definitely embraced the late nights and especially in summer when we’ll probably still be at the beach at midnight,” Lara reveals.

Community

She is keen to “build something meaningful that adds value to the community, connect with people and be part of Spanish and international communities” through what she knows best - helping other women succeed in business and the technology sector.

With over 25 years of experience working in the tech industry in the UK, as well as with creative industries and as a volunteer with women’s organisations, she is well placed to offer her guidance and support to other women in business here in Malaga

At 43, Lara says, “l have a good proportion of my career left and I would really like to become a part of the working environment here. I can contribute the knowledge I have built up in the UK and add value to the community. That would mean a lot to me.”

To do that , Lara has set up the FFC, which is also working with Inception Woman Lab, a “boutique venture studio programme”, also based in Malaga and designed to support a small number of high-potential technology startups, founded or led by women.

Lara says that a big attraction to Malaga for her was the “rapidly evolving technology sector” and in fact through her last job in Scotland, she knew that big multinational companies like Vodafone and Google were looking to open offices in Malaga city.

She knew that the city had the potential to offer the lifestyle change that the family was looking for, but still offer the continuity in a sector that both she and Fred, an engineer and programmer, were familiar with.

Another reason for the change to a warmer climate than Scotland where the family had been living before the trip around Asia, was that Lara has lived with junior chronic arthritis (also known as Juvenile idiopathic arthritis) from the age of 11: “Living somewhere where I get sunshine was a big factor,” she explains, adding, “although I am in remission it’s always a consideration.”

Since she has been here though, her focus has been work and family as well as building up the FFC, which already has 279 members. The first event took place in October 2025, just a month after Lara founded it. She has hosted three more events which she says have been delivered in English and Spanish.

Of the members, 81 per cent are based in Malaga province; 193 in Malaga city and then the others are dotted along both sides of the Costa del Sol and some of the inland towns and villages.

Booming and evolving

Fifteen per cent of the members are international but have links to Malaga and as well as European countries, they come from as far afield as Canada, the USA, Singapore and South America. The remaining four per cent are from other parts of Spain.

Lara says that this reflects the international nature of Malaga which is “is booming and evolving as a new tech hub” and that her members are “all evolving together with it”.

We touch on the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) which Lara says “is a reality that is here to stay”. In her view it is “inevitable” and that people who will win in the end “are those who learn how to use it well” and don’t expose their businesses to “being at the mercy of the companies that own it”.

Lara goes on to say that there are “different tools for different jobs” and that lots of companies are not using tools effectively. “You have to think very carefully about what you are integrating, apply it and get your team on board and understand how to use it,” she says.

Learning the language

While AI feels like a challenge to many, for Lara the personal challenge is to keep improving the Spanish she has learned so far. She explains that her first year in Malaga was spent “with a student visa” learning the language.

She admits though that it has been harder for her than her daughter, who like all young children, has absorbed even the nuances of Andalusian and ‘Axarqueño’ (the accents and vocabulary used specifically by people from the Axarquía) Spanish like a sponge. “I listen to my daughter talking with her friends and I don’t understand what’s going on half the time,”she laughs.

While Lara says she is not yet confident to lead a meeting in Spanish, she does attend Spanish events and the family have made Spanish friends.

Along with the late nights, they have also adopted other Spanish habits and she’s definitely a fan of a ‘pitufo’ for breakfast. In their spare time the family travel around Spain and love being able to go hiking in the mountains.

They have settled here and their daughter is at a local school, which Lara says was an “important”factor. She says that the family sees their future here in Malaga and in particular in the Axarquía, evolving and becoming part of the fabric of the Costa del Sol, just as the tech sector and women in business she works with are doing.

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