There are different types of start-ups establishing themselves in the world. Lithuania, referred to as a hidden gem by many, is one of many places with successful start-ups. What are the factors that make them successful? The top 50 Lithuanian companies from Startup Lithuania (chart from Unicorns Lithuania), Dealroom, and Seedtable were compared to find out.
The coordinator of atTRACTION project activities in Lithuania, by Horizon Europe programme, Jurgita Šarkienė says that Lithuania maintains its position as the fastest-growing start-up ecosystem in the Baltic region. “Global reports show that the combined enterprise value of Lithuanian start-ups has grown 7x between 2018 and 2023, double the average in the wider Baltic and Central Europe regions. Also, Lithuania ranked 2nd in CEE by VC investment in 2023, ahead of Poland”, explains the head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship department at Tech-Park Kaunas, Mrs. Šarkienė.
All websites rank start-ups differently. Unicorns Lithuania sort by the amount of taxes paid, Dealroom has a “dealroom signal”: various data points showing the likelihood that a start-up will receive funding. Seedtable also has a unique ranking: “seedtable score”, it is qualitative and quantitative data points calculated by an algorithm showing the most prominent start-ups.
The top sector in all websites was Fintech & Payments. Other prominent sectors were:
“What we notice in our community, is that Urbantech and Medtech are the dominant sectors our Tech-Park Kaunas startup community innovates for. These tendencies also align with global interests”, adds Mrs. Šarkienė. She emphasizes Enterprise Software, Security, and Energy as Lithuania’s most funded industries. Another prominent sector, biotech, has 15 start-ups in Vilnius alone, they have raised almost €68 million in 2023. Some of the most well-known companies are Atrandi Biosciences, BioMatter, Oxipit, and Caszyme.
The different sorting led to variations in the top 50, but tendencies were still found with Vinted, Kevin., PVcase, Interactio, and Trafi. Others overlapped on two websites or were only mentioned once.
The most prominent business models were B2B and B2C. Surprisingly, some companies decided not to disclose their business models, while others focused on both. Also, Unicorns Lithuania showed companies that operate on B2B2C and B2G. Seedtable includes marketplace, SAAS, and freemium as business models, but Dealroom puts these together with the company type.
Overall, to be a successful start-up in Lithuania, one should focus on finance technologies and B2B business models. The same way companies such as SME Finance, SME Bank, Kevin., and Heavy Finance have. But don’t forget the other sectors, there are hidden gems in there as well!