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REPORT 2018—2019 The secret sauce OF BOLT, PRINTFUL, AND OTHER CULTURE-DRIVEN COMPANIES Biggest investment deals WHO RAISED THE MOST IN 2018/2019? in the Baltic tech scene tech Baltic in the Hiring challenges in the Baltics girlpower WHAT CAUSES HEADACHES FOR THE REGION’S FAST-GROWING STARTUPS? # BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 THE BALTIC STATES IS A BOOMING SPACE FOR STARTUPS Despite their small size, the three Baltic countries are showing im- pressive results in digitalization and being a booming space for This is the second time the Start- startups. Continuously ranked up Wise Guys accelerator and EIT among places with best tax re- Digital join their forces to publish gimes, ease of doing business, and the Baltic Startup Scene Report. tech savviness, the Baltic states While each Baltic country regu- are quite an interesting phenome- larly comes up with data and re- non in the European startup scene. ports, the region is rarely analyzed Estonia alone is home to some of as a whole and benchmarked with Europe’s fastest growing compa- other countries and regions in Eu- nies – including four unicorns. In rope. the meantime, the neighbouring countries of Latvia and Lithuania Last year’s report was well-re- are also catching up. ceived – 500 printed copies were distributed among stakehold- ers from the Baltics and abroad. There were also close to 1000 downloads of the digital version of the report. For some time, the international perception of the Baltics was synonymous with Estonia. Recently, however, Latvia and Lithuania have been striding towards closing the gap. So, what is the status now? Are the ecosystems closer in development than outsiders consider them to be? This report sheds light on the true case of the Baltic ecosystems, and where they stand in the larger European context. After publishing the first report in 2018, we saw deep curiosity Fabio Pianesi and positive rivalry among EIT Digital Baltic ecosystem players. In the meantime, many stakeholders from abroad, like investors, tech journalists, CxOs of corporations, were impressed with how the small Baltic countries have managed to be frontrunners in all things digital and startups. We were happy to see that data combined with quality insights sparked in them a deeper interest in Baltics. Therefore this year we have kept the best from the first report, but also upgraded and added more founder stories and experiences, indicated some challenges faced by ecosystems and startups, added a new section on women in tech and top events to attend, listed not only local, but also foreign VCs interested in the Baltics, and last but not least – added new verticals to our curated Startups to Watch list. We hope you will enjoy this report! Zane Bojare Startup Wise Guys BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 5 CONTENTS Baltics in a Nutshell 8 Investment & Funding 10 Biggest Deals Benchmark Blockchain and the 12 aftermath of the ICO Baltic Benchmarking craze 16 with Europe Living & Working 18 in the Baltics Startup Visas in the Ecosystem 22 Baltics & Europe Tech Events in 28 The Baltics Startup Funding 31 in the Baltics Longer Reads Startup Accelerators 35 Access to talent in the 62 Baltics – what challenges 38 Baltic Women in Tech do local startups face? Company culture in the Corporate Innovation 65 Baltic startup scene 41 in the Baltics Where in the world are 67 Baltic startups? Startups to 44 Watch BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 BALTICS IN A NUTSHELL BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 7 BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 8 Baltics in a Nutshell STARTUPS & INVESTMENT NUMBER OF STARTUPS (AS OF JULY 2019) & INVESTMENT PER CAPITA (2018) Estonia Latvia Lithuania Startups per 10,000 inhabitants 3.3 4.9 650 2.7 518 920 Number of startups Total investment € 329.6M € 183.3M € 85.2M 65.06 248 44.37 Investment per capita Source: Latvian Startup Association, Startup Lithuania, Startup Estonia, Ministry of Economics of Latvia FACT 01 In 2018, Latvia and Lithuania saw a significant increase in the amount of startups documented. For example, Lithuania reported 572 more startups than the year before, while the number of Latvian startups grew by 66. Startup Wise Guys publicity photo BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 9 Lithuania saw impressive funding growth in 2018 – by 788% when STARTUP compared to the year before. That being said, CityBee’s €110M investment accounts for as much as 60% of the total investment FUNDING raised in that year. Since 2013, Estonia has seen a However, Latvia is still lagging behind Lith- linear funding growth – in 2018, uania and Estonia. The funding data shows that in 2018, Latvia raised 2 times less than FACT there was a 21.4% increase when Lithuania and nearly 4 times less than Es- 02 compared to the year before. tonia. The reasons behind this difference Both local and foreign VC funds vary – bureaucratic obstacles and insuf- and business angels are actively ficient industry support at a national level investing in Estonian startups, are some of them. contributing to the country’s Finally, Lithuania has demonstrated in- efforts to brand itself as an creased funding activity when compared to previous years. That is partly related to EU funding and other public intervention innovation hub. the fact that public authorities have made a give a huge boost to the startup ecosys- Investments in Latvian startups are also decision to dedicate a part of EU Structur- tem. In 2018/2019, new equity funds were continuing to grow. According to the Min- al and Investment Funds to various equity launched in Lithuania, including acceler- istry of Economics of Latvia, in 2018 local instruments, like accelerator funds, seed ators financed from EU structural funds. startups attracted 85.2 million, which is and venture capital funds, development That gave another impulse for the devel- over 30% more than in 2017. (growth) funds, and business angel co-in- opment of the ecosystem – there was an vestment funds. increase in the number of investments, as well as more possibilities for startups to get acceleration services and initial in- vestments,’’ explains Vilija Sveikauskiene, Senior Project Manager at INVEGA. FUNDING GROWTH OVER THE LAST 6 YEARS Estonia Latvia Lithuania 329.57 PER CAPITA 300 300 250.43 225 182.4 200 150 100 64.00 75 85.2 44.37 0 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Google Public Data, Baltic Startup Scene Report 2017/2018, crowdsourced data (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Dealroom.co, Ministry of Economics of Latvia BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 10 Baltics in a Nutshell BIGGEST DEALS In 2018 and up to Q3 of 2019, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian startups contin- BIGGEST FUNDS ued to attract funds, with the biggest deals exceeding one hundred million eu- RAISED BY BALTIC ros. STARTUPS IN 2018 AND Estonia is still the leader within the Bal- tics – 7 out of the 13 biggest deals in 2018 2019 (Q1-Q3), IN EURO. and 3 out of the 5 top deals in 2019 (Q1-Q3) belong to Estonian startups. For Latvia, the size of the most notable deal was 80 150 million euros, raised by the blockchain startup Bitfury. And while we haven’t included data from 2019 Q4, it needs to 2018 2019 be noted that Lithuanian startup Vinted raised 128M euro in the end of November, Lithuania thus becoming the first Lithuanian uni- 150M corn. Bolt* 110 Latvia CityBee** Estonia 100M 80 MOBILITY BitFury 300M 60 51.57 Bolt 50 200M 42.9 Monese 50M Vinted 37.54 Pipedrive Zego 21 100M SAAS FINTECH BLOCKCHAIN 18 15.4 13.5 Starship 11 11 10.4 50M FASHION Technologies Glia INSURTECH 10M 9.71 Transfergo Realeyes Realeyes 5 ROBOTICS Globitex Forty Seven 7.6 10M SOUNDTECH GAMING Bank Coolbet Sonarworks Source: crowdsourced data (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) * Investment received as Taxify, before rebranding to Bolt Ministry of Economics of Latvia ** Investment by the parent company ModusGroup BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 11 Bolt (ex. Taxify) was founded in Estonia, but the business idea was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, when one of the co-founders, Martin Villig, was visiting the city. He tried to order a taxi online, but that turned out to be quite a hassle. That’s when he came up with the idea and decided to make ride-sharing easier. FACT 03 EXPERT COMMENT 01 Does rebranding impact further investment attraction? We rebranded to Bolt in 2019 to bring the brand identity in line with the company’s broader vision of transportation that had already expanded from ride-hailing, with cars and motorbikes, to scooter sharing and more. However, our investors trust us because of our track record and vision, rather than the name. Marek Unt Director of Communications, Bolt BALTIC STARTUP SCENE Report 2018—2019 12 Baltics in a Nutshell BLOCKCHAIN AND THE AFTERMATH OF THE ICO THE JOURNEY FOR CRAZE TRUST Last year it was mostly Lithuania shining in It is possible that in the light of fraud and The ICO gold rush has ended, the media headlines about ICOs and raising scams, serious founders launching ICOs and as the dust settles, only the a reported $500M in ICOs and ranking 3rd might favour the link with e-Residency and globally in raised funds. It has also brought the fact that people behind Estonian-regis- strongest are left standing. It some scam cases along, causing the Bank tered ICOs as holders of e-Residency status also makes way for true, lasting, of Lithuania to launch various investiga- have been checked by the Police and Bor- blockchain-based innovation to tions. This year it is Estonia that stands in der Guard Board, thus earning additional be launched and implemented the forefront, ranking as the 5th country trustworthiness.
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