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Latvian capital Riga is home to a nascent but growing startup scene, where local entrepreneurs have global ambitions. With a population of under two million, the Latvian market is small, so founders set their sights on the bigger picture. “They’re forced to think outside Latvia from day one,” says Egita Polanska, chairwoman of the board at startup association Startin.lv.
The country is turning its relatively small size to its advantage by positioning itself as the perfect sandbox for companies to test products before expanding internationally. In 2016, the Latvian government passed legislation that lays out a special tax regime for startups to save on social and income tax. It has also introduced a startup visa for visiting entrepreneurs, along with a €15 million (£13 million) accelerator fund for pre-seed and seed investments.
Though still playing catch-up to neighbouring Estonia, which benefited greatly from the early success story of Skype, Latvia is starting to build a reputation for itself in sectors including fintech, e-commerce and drones. One of the biggest names to come out of the country so far is data visualisation platform Infogram, which was acquired by software company Prezi in 2017.
Every February, Riga hosts the TechChill conference, which attracts startups from across the Baltic region. Marija Rucevska, co-founder and CEO of TechChill Foundation, says that she hopes to see Latvia’s ecosystem build stronger links with the Nordics and attract more foreign “smart money” over the next two or three years. For entrepreneurs looking for somewhere to base their company, she says, Riga has a lot of charms: “We have a lot of trees, really good air, and when it’s not freezing outside it’s actually nice.” Victoria Turk
Sonarworks makes audio software that brings studio quality to your existing headphones. “We do it by digitally correcting for what the problems are in your particular headphones,” explains co-founder and CEO Helmuts Bems. Download Sonarworks’ True-Fi app, select your make and model of headphones, and it will adjust the sound accordingly. Even studio setups aren’t perfect, so Sonarworks also makes software designed for use by professional engineers and producers to correct for imperfections in their headphones and speakers; Bems says the company counts 20,000 studios among its users.
Founders: Helmuts Bems, Martins Popelis Founded: 2012 Investment raised: €1.8 million
Vividly is a web-based VR platform that helps architects and urban planners turn their designs into explorable 3D models. Founder and CEO Gunita Kulikovska trained as an architect, and wants to show the design and construction industries how VR tools could change the way they communicate. “We’re not just a company that develops one technology; at this point we serve as technological guidance that helps to show immersive tech in its full capacity and potential,” she says. "To that end, Vividly is focusing on removing barriers to entry by creating a platform that is device-agnostic and easy to use."
Founders: Gunita Kulikovska, Alina Dolmate, Aris Semertzidis, Konstantinos Mougios Founded: 2016 Investment raised: n/a
Fintech startup Nordigen gives banks and lenders a new way to assess people’s credit risk, based on their transaction data rather than historic repayment information. “What we’re trying to do is build a completely new score, based on actual spending behaviour and income behaviour,” says co-founder and CEO Rolands Mesters. He gives the example of a gig economy worker; existing assessment tools might write them off as not having a regular income, but Nordigen’s algorithms could help detect if they are a stable prospect based on information from their bank account.
Founders: Rolands Mesters, Roberts Bernans Founded: 2015 Investment raised: €200,000
CEO Sandis Kondrats describes Anatomy Next as “Google Maps for the human body”. Aimed at medical schools and hospitals, the company makes detailed simulations of the human body for desktop, mobile and Microsoft HoloLens. Kondrats’ appreciation for the human form was initially triggered by his training as a sculptor, but he soon realised that a 3D anatomical atlas could have even greater applications in the medical community. The company has clients in the US and across Europe, and is now working on adding new features and new body parts to its simulations.
Founders: Sandis Kondrats, Uldis Zarins, Janis Kondrats Founded: 2015 Investment raised: €300,000
In 2004, Lauris Liberts co-founded social network Draugiem.lv, Latvia’s answer to Facebook. He is now CEO of Printful, a print-on-demand startup that originated from the Draugiem Group incubator in the US. Printful offers a printing and fulfilment service for online businesses to customise products such as T-shirts, posters and hats. “In other words, we make it really easy for anyone to start an online e-commerce store for printed products,” says co-founder Davis Sisknans. The company launched in 2013 and now has 350 employees across Latvia and the US.
Founders: Davis Siksnans, Lauris Liberts Founded: 2013 Investment raised: n/a
Atlas Dynamics builds commercial drone technologies intended for applications including infrastructure inspection, emergency first response, precision agriculture and perimeter surveillance. Its Atlas Pro drone can carry different sensors and payloads depending on the data it needs to collect and can autonomously dock in a charging station when its batteries are low. In July 2017, the company announced it had raised $8 million to build its presence internationally, with a particular focus on the US.
Founders: Ivan Tolchinsky, Igor Zhydanov Founded: 2015 Investment raised: $8 million
Anna Andersone is a recognised character in the Riga startup scene, having previously founded web design tool FROONT. Her latest venture is something completely different: Be-With makes clothing with pockets on the back that let you put your hands through to feel the wearer’s skin. “The reason for it is that physical contact releases the ‘love and trust’ hormone oxytocin,” says Andersone. She had the idea for Be-With following her own experiences of the founder lifestyle; she and her husband both worked at startups and had little time to connect. She hopes her tops and dresses will allow people to enjoy discreet physical contact more easily.
Founder: Anna Andersone Founded: 2017 Investment raised: n/a
DigiPulse is an “autonomous digital safe” that allows cryptocurrency owners to pass on their digital assets when they die. Users can choose to integrate their online accounts such as email and social media with their DigiPulse vault, so that it can track their activity. “If the activity drops to zero, the user can automatically pass these assets on to pre-defined recipients,” explains Normunds Kvilis. Everything is encrypted client-side, and recipients have to enter pre-determined information and answer security questions to access the digital assets left to them. DigiPulse raised around $1 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) last year, and is currently in beta, with a full launch planned for July.
Founders: Normunds Kvilis, Dmitry Dementyev-Dedelis Founded: 2017 Investment raised: $1 million (in cryptocurrency)
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
