Lithuania

Lithuania Kicks off “Startupcation” Program For Foreign Startups

by Fintechnews Baltic August 22, 2022

Lithuania has launched a “Startupcation” program and invites foreign startups to experience the booming startup ecosystem of Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital city and main startup hub.

The program grants fast-lane access to the country’s relevant business networks and hubs and provides an entry point to the European market with more than 700 million customers open to new technologies. Vilnius is home to “Vinted” and “Nord Security” – two of the country’s unicorns – and over a thousand promising startups enjoying great work and life balance in an innovation-friendly business environment with an excellently developed infrastructure and a world-class talent pool.

Lithuania has an abundance of active local investors and a robust and friendly startup community of more than a thousand startups, growing intensely and expanding into new markets. The country has globally leading scores for procedures to start a business and the ease of doing business. Moreover, this year’s “Startup Genome” report placed Lithuania amongst the 60 emerging startup ecosystems, and “Startup Blink” ranks its startup ecosystem as high as 17th in the world.

Top 100 Emerging Ecosystems

Roberta Rudokienė

“We have launched the “Startupcation” program to allow non-EU startups to experience our spurting ecosystem first-hand and show them the abundant potential of relocating their business. During a one-week visit, they will meet successful startup founders, get to know key business networks and hubs, and learn about soft-landing programs and governmental support. Our mentors will guide the participants each step of the way and explain the benefits of Lithuania’s position as the gateway to the EU with great work-life balance,”

says Roberta Rudokienė, the Head of “Startup Lithuania”.

Last year Lithuanian startups attracted a record number of investments — over 428 million euros. The country’s first unicorn, “Vinted”, has tripled its valuation and the creators of the “Nord VPN” service – “Nord Security”– became its second unicorn. Lithuania’s startups are now valued at more than 7.1 billion euros, with the turnover and export of startups having grown by more than 30% in 2021 compared with the previous year.

Featured image credit: edited from Unsplash