The Baltics is rightfully developing significant buzz around its innovative startups. Despite having a combined population of little more than six million, the Baltic nations are producing startups that are globally-minded from the outset – and enjoying serious success. Thanks to English being the default language in companies and the accelerated growth of venture capital firms, Index Ventures rated the three Baltic nations the most “startup-friendly in Europe.”
Thanks to Estonia’s high quality of education and its ease for acquiring startup visas, Tallinn has led the way in innovation - but we’ve found that Latvia and Lithuania are becoming big players in their own right, too.
How we compiled the list**
We wanted to bring you the whole range of the best startups coming out of the Baltics right now - from household names like Bolt, to new medical startups that are responding to the challenges of the pandemic. As such, we’ve favoured both startups with significant financial backing, and the most interesting in early Seed Round. Let’s jump in!
The hottest startups in Estonia**
Bolt
Uber competitor Bolt, founded in 2013, is often upheld as the Baltic startup to aspire to, with over 50 million customers worldwide. It’s showing no signs of slowing down, either. Bolt secured €150 million in equity round funding last December to expand its offerings to electric scooters as well.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Co-founder and CEO: Markus Villig
Veriff
Veriff offers AI-powered identity verification and KYC for businesses, helping them fight ID fraud and foster trust. This April, it raised $69m in Series B funding.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Founder: Kaarel Kotkas
Katana
Katana builds ERP software designed to give companies visibility and control over all the moving parts of their business – from inventory, to sales, to internal processes. Founded in 2017, it received €9 million inSeries A funding this past January.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Co-Founder and CEO: Kristjan Vilosius
Xolo
Xolo is a fintech company catered to entrepreneurs, creating a software which merges invoicing, compliance and banking into a single app. In July 2019, Xolo secured €6m in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to €11m.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
CEO: Allan Martinson
jobbatical
Founded in 2014, jobbatical specialises in the streamlined hire and transfer of international applicants, helping with visas and other logistics. Having raised close to €8 million in funding, jobbatical plans to expand across Europe in 2021.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Founder: Karoli Hindriks
Klaus
Klaus is a conversation review and QA platform designed to help support customer service teams, using AI to make internal feedback easy and more systematic. In September 2020, Klaus secured $5.4 million in seed funding.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Co-founder and CEO: Martin Kõiva
Modular Bank
Modularbank’s cloud-based banking platform works with businesses to integrate its fintech technology into existing financial infrastructure. Founded in 2019, it has already raised €4 million in a round of late seed funding in December 2020.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Co-founder and CEO: Vilve Vene
Single Earth
Founded in 2019, Single Earth seeks to save the world through blockchain technology. It allows companies to purchase tokens to own portions of natural resources for carbon offsets, and has raised $3.9 million in seed funding so far.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
CEO: Merit Valdsalu
Salv
Founded in 2019, Salv meets the growing need in the banking sector to fight money laundering. It uses privacy-enhancing technology to share data quickly and safely and in December 2020, raised €1.5 million in seed funding to drive expansion.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Founder and COO: Jeff McClelland
Rendin
An app that offers additional protection for landlords, deposit-free renting for tenants and automated background checks, Rendin promises to make renting safer and easier. In December 2020, it received €1.2 million in seed funding.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Co-founder and CEO: Alain Aun
Cachet
Catering to the rideshare economy, Cachet provides drivers with on-demand motor insurance that charges for hours driven rather, than full monthly insurance. In September 2020, Cachet raised €1.1 million in Seed Round funding.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Co-founder and CEO: Hedi Mardisoo
The hottest startups in Lithuania**
CG Trader
CGTrader is the world’s largest source for licensable stock and custom 3D models - over 1.5 million models to date. Founded in 2011, it raised €9.5 million in Series B funding in February.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Founders: Marius Kalytis and Dalia Lasaite
Eneba
Eneba is a marketplace for gamers that sells games and other products. While only founded in 2018, it has grown rapidly across Europe, having raised an $8 million round of funding in December 2020.
Location: Kaunas, Lithuania
Founders: Vytis Uogintas and Žygimantas Mikšta
Gosu.AI
An AI-powered voice assistant that helps gamers play smarter and improve their skills, Gosu.AI’s unique product offering has caught the eye of gamers and investors, with a total early investment of €4.6m.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Founder: Alisa Chumachenko
Ziticity
Ziticity is an urban logistics startup that works with small businesses for cheaper supplies delivery in reliable timeframes. Founded in 2017, it raised €2.2 million in seed funding in June 2020.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Co-founder and CEO: Laimonas Noreika
Qoorio
Qoorio is a knowledge-sharing app that lets its users book short meetings with desired mentors and build networks. In 2019, it raised €2 million in seed funding.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Co-founders: Justas Janauskas and Gabija Grušaitė
Oxipit
A medical technology company founded in 2017, Oxipit created the ChestEye – an AI-powered tool that helps radiologists improve productivity, diagnose faster and reduce error. In June 2019, it raised $1.7M in Seed Round funding.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Co-founder and CEO: Gediminas Peksys
kevin
kevin is a fintech company whose app, by connecting directly to linked bank accounts, eliminates the need for credit cards. This January, it raised €1.5m in seed funding.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Co-founder and CEO: Tadas Tamošiūnas
Fleming
Founded in 2020 in direct response to the remote-health needs of the pandemic, Fleming is a smart healthcare app which offers patients video meetings with doctors and helps to manage everyday health. It received €1.3 million of initial funding in 2020.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Founder: Domas Pleškus
Pixevia
Developing Smart Store technology and having opened the very first AI-based European store in 2019, Pixevia leads the way in the automated future of shopping centres. This promise landed it extra $1.18 Million in Seed Funding in August 2020.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
CEO: Mindaugas Eglinskas
PVcase
PVcase creates software which helps solar engineers build the next wave of solar energy products and solar plants. Already used in over 50 countries since being founded in 2017, it promises to help engineers work 30X faster.
Location: Kaunas, Lithuania
Founder and CEO: David Trainavicius
The hottest startups in Latvia**
LightSpace Technologies
Founded in 2016, LightSpace Technologies has already positioned itself at the forefront of augmented reality technologies, developing quality headsets that can challenge big players like Samsung and Google. It has raised over €14 million to date.
Location: Mārupe, Latvia
CEO: Ilmars Osmanis
Mintos
Mintos is a fintech lending platform, branding itself as a global marketplace for investing in loans. Still in seed phase, the company has raised an impressive total of €7 million to date.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Founders: Maris Keiss, Aigars Kesenfelds, Kristaps Ozols, and Alberts Pole
Twino
An online P2P investment platform, Twino seeks to disrupt and democratise lending by connecting borrowers and investors on its online platform. Since being founded in 2009, it has issued over €1 billion loans to users.
Location: Riga, Latvia
CEO: Anastasija Oļeiņika
Lokalise
Founded in 2016, Lokalise is a translation management platform that helps global teams work across varied cultures efficiently. In September 2020, it raised $6 million in Series A funding.
Location: Riga, Latvia
CEO: Nick Ustinov
F3
F3 seeks to be the next big social media app for Gen Z, offering its young users a platform to send each other photos, videos and questions in a protected and safe way. With over 25 million users, in November 2020 F3 raised €3.2 million in seed funding.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Co-founder and CEO: Ilja Terebins
Printify
Printify is a print-on-demand network to help connect print merchants with businesses and individuals. Founded in 2015, it raised $3 million in seed funding in May 2019.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Founder and CEO: James Berdigans
Nordigan
An all-in-one banking data API for building banking, lending and finance, Norigan lets businesses use their dashboards for real-time finance insights. Nordigan’s most recent funding round this June netted €2.1 million in investment.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Founders: Roberts Bernans and Rolands Mesters
Edurio
Edurio’s technology offers a robust and streamlined approach to surveying students and teachers across different countries. Edurio connects with over 1500 schools in England to provide insights on the education landscape. In 2020, it secured over €2 million in seed funding and grants.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Founder: Ernest Jenavs
Aerones
Aerones uses robotic technology and drones to clean, inspect and repair wind turbines. In June 2020, Aerones raised $1.6 million in seed investment for the development of a ground-based robotics system as well.
Location: Riga, Latvia
Founder: Janis Putrams
Small Countries, Big Influence**
Taking a look at these top thirty startups, it’s clear that the Baltic countries are setting the pace in the European startup scene. From augmented reality goggles, to fintech disruptors, to those offering sustainable solutions to deforestation – these agile, globally-minded startups position Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia as countries venture capital firms should watch closely.
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