Lithuanian startups raise €295M and are worth €9.5B, up 16.8 times since 2017 — Dealroom report

The rate of investments in Lithuania actually accelerated in 2022 despite a global softening in tech investments that began in 2021. Excluding megarounds, funding in Lithuania reached €295 million in 2022 and showed 16.8 times growth between 2017 and 2022. It makes Lithuania one of the fastest-growing Central and Eastern European ecosystems — CEE growth average of 4.2 times for comparison. Dealroom has published a new report on the Lithuanian startup ecosystem. AIN.Capital shares the key points.

Startup ecosystem value in 2022

• The Lithuanian startup ecosystem grew in value by a factor of 16.8 between 2017 and 2022, reaching a total of €9.5 billion. In 2021 this number was €7.3 billion.
  • Apart from Lithuanian, Croatia became the CEE nation with the fastest growth rate over the same period. And Ukraine was the third fastest-growing ecosystem, seeing its startup ecosystem grow by 8.8 times. 
• In 2022, the total amount of funding for Lithuanian startups reached €295 million. Last year, the startups raised €465 million with €250 million Series F round for Vinted. Nevertheless, the numbers of 2022 places Lithuania on the 6th among Central and Eastern European countries for VC investment and 3rd for VC investment per capita.

“Based on data, we can see that the Lithuanian tech ecosystem has reached an inflection point and will inevitably follow the trailblazer Estonia. The accelerating network and knowledge spill-over effects, second-time founders, increasing startup top and mid talent pool, top-tier VC exposure to the region, a growing number of active angel Investors and one of the best governmental policies globally are catalytic effects next to the actual capital efficiency of Lithuanian startups. Maturing ecosystem and ready-to-be-deployed capital create the foundations for future growth,”

Donatas Keras, Founding Partner at Practica Capital, comments about the reports.

Notable Lithuanian startups:

1. NORD Security, a country’s new unicorn.
2. kevin., a potential unicorn, valued at about €200 million or more.
3. PVCase, a global solar technology company.

Dealroom also noted great new startups such as Kilo.Health, a digital health and wellness startup, laser tech Litilit, and Oxylabs, specialise in web data gathering. Further notable startups include Vinted (Lithuania’s first unicorn), CityBee, Ondato, SME Finance, Interactio, and Whatagraph, all based in Vilnius.

Investors

Foreign investors are increasingly active in Lithuania, with domestic investors more active at early stages. In 2022, 9% of VC funding came from Lithuanian investors, 36% from the rest of Europe, and 35% from the US.

Currently, the top investment sectors are security and fintech, followed by transportation, ecommerce, energy, food, health, wellness beauty, lasers, and edtech.