Being home to these promising startups, Baltics becomes new tech hub

The Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are conquering the European startup ecosystem. Many startups in the Baltics have progressed to a great extent and have turned into unicorns. What’s interesting is that there is noticeable growth in all three countries in recent years. Being home to over 6 million people, the Baltics has a relatively higher number of startups per capita than other European regions.

One of the driving factors behind the success of Baltic startups is the recognition from the government. All three countries in the region have launched initiatives such as Startup Visa, which lets non European founders create and grow their businesses.

Taking this to the next level, Latvia provides economic support mechanisms such as no individual tax for startup employees and low flat social tax. Having talked about the triumphs of tech startups in the Baltic countries, here we have listed some of the fast-growing Baltics startups as sourced from Dealroom.

Kilo.Health (Lithuania)

CEO: Tadas Burgaila
Founded year: 2013

Why its hot: Kilo.Health is a digital health company, which operates with the goal to prove that being healthy can be joyful and is not a suffering. Their digital products are many including diet planners, personalised exercising schedules, customisable meal recipe generators, and other interesting ideas that will help consumers live a healthy lifestyle.

Veriff (Estonia)

Founders: Kaarel Kotkas, Janer Gorohhov
Funding: €7.1 million
Founded year: 2015

Why its hot: Veriff is a Tallinn-based online identity verification startup, which lets innovative solutions to businesses. This startup has developed a technique to verify the identity of people by analysing videos. The online identity verification startup combines all possible ID technologies including social ID, device ID, facial recognition, and optical character recognition to authenticate if a person is who he or she claims to be based on the data provided.

Mintos (Latvia)

Founders: Martins Sulte, Martins Valters
Funding: €8 million
Founded year: 2014

Why its hot: Mintos, founded in 2014, is a global online marketplace for investing in loans. Its aim is to make investing accessible, easy and transparent. Users can connect with loans from international and Mintos-authenticated alternative lending companies. Today, via its platform more than 250,000 investors have funded in total almost €5 billion worth of loans and earned more than €80 million in interest. Mintos employs 200 people across its offices in Riga, Berlin, Warsaw, and Vilnius, and has raised a total of €7 million in funding.

Xolo (Estonia)

Founders: Avo Alender, Erik Mell, Erko Hansar, Urmo Pärg
Funding: €7.9 million
Founded year: 2015

Why its hot: Formerly known as LeapIN, Xolo is an online platform with the mission to make starting and running a modern microbusiness much easier for entrepreneurs. Its platform saves up to 162 working hours for Xolopreneurs per year on business administration, claims the company. Apart from saving time, Xolo also lets them handle aspects such as banking, tax filing, and accounting.

ConnectPay (Lithuania)

CEO: Saulius Racevicius
Founded year: 2017

Why its hot: ConnectPay is a Vilnius-based banking alternative for online-focused businesses. It is a regulated financial institution that is supervised by the Central Bank of Lithuania. ConnectPay is a rapidly growing business-friendly bank for internet-based companies. This fintech startup offers easy onboarding, works on custom solutions, and more.

Bolt (Estonia)

Founders: Markus Villig, Martin Villig
Funding: €215 million
Founded year: 2013

Why its hot: Taxify, which was rebranded Bolt offers electric scooters on a ride-sharing platform. It offers cars and e-scooters. It is one of the brands that want to accelerate the shift to shared and efficient electric and used vehicles. Back in late 2019, Bolt launched a dedicated environmental impact fund aimed at initiatives that deliver global social and environmental benefits.

NanoAvionics (Lithuania)

Founder: Vytenis Buzas
Funding: €14.7 million
Founded year: 2014

Why its hot: NanoAvionics is a Vilnius-based advanced nano-spacecraft equipment manufacturer. It was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from Vilnius University. The company develops high-performance and low-cost chemical propulsion system for small satellites along with many successful in-orbit implementations in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) and the European Commission. NanoAvionics’ technology is meant to improve precision and increase the satellite’s orbit lifetime by up to 5x.

Nordigen (Latvia)

Founders: Roberts Bernans, Rolands Mesters
Funding: €980k
Founded year: 2016

Why its hot: Nordigen is a global account data analytics provider that helps banks, fintechs, and lenders leverage open banking by extracting actionable insights directly from raw account data. Nordigen operates with the mission to enable greater financial transparency and global adoption of open banking. In addition to Riga, this fintech startup also has an office in Madrid.

Cleveron (Estonia)

Founders: Arno Kutt, Indrek Oolup
Funding: €2.3 million
Founded year: 2007

Why its hot: Cleveron is one of the world’s largest companies involved in creating robotic parcel solutions that enable last-mile click and collect automation. It has developed both the hardware and software required to provide support and maintenance to global clients. One of its products, the Cleveron 402 is touted to be the world’s biggest robotic parcel delivery solution. The mission of Cleveron is to save time and money of clients and provide improved convenience and user experience.

Main image picture credits: Veriff

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