This year, Startup Fair.Pulse 2024, the largest startup ecosystem event in Lithuania, attracted over 4,000 participants and 300 investors from 64 countries to Vilnius. The highlight of the event was the prestigious presentation of the Pitch Battle startups. During the Pitch Battle Lithuania’s best-performing startups BrachyDOSE, CBRX, Freya Cultivation Systems, KaiSense, Ligence Heart, and Psylink received an invitation to negotiate a record-breaking EUR 5.6 million in investment from partners – LitBAN, Coinvest Capital, and Baltic Sandbox Ventures.

“This event showed the strength and potential of Lithuanian innovation. In six years, the value of Lithuania’s startup ecosystem has grown more than sevenfold, from EUR 1.9 billion to EUR 13.7 billion, which is more than double the average of the ecosystems in Eastern and Central European countries. The Lithuanian startup ecosystem accounts for a third, or 31%, of the total value of the Baltic region. Global investors notice that we have earned an important place on the international stage. We are a technology country where innovative solutions are created and developed,” said Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of Economy and Innovation.

As the startup ecosystem grows, Startup Fair is becoming an increasingly attractive regional event for investors from around the world.

“This year we have welcomed many new investment fund representatives, as well as those who have invested in Lithuanian unicorns before. During the event, new businesses were able to present their ideas to investors from more than 60 countries, including the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia and Asian countries,” pointed put Karolina Urbonaitė, Head of the Startup Lithuania Division of the Innovation Agency.

Record investment of EUR 5.6 million

According to Ms Urbonaitė, one of the most anticipated parts of the Startup Fair event is the traditional Pitch Battle. 40 startups from 22 different countries took part in the Pitch Battle this year, with six Lithuanian startups being the most successful.

The total amount of the expected investment is as high as EUR 5.6 million – the highest in the twelve years of the event, and well above the previously estimated EUR 3 million. This demonstrates the commitment of the Lithuanian startup ecosystem to rapid growth and the development of innovative solutions.

This year, the highest number of startups to date received top marks from the international panel and prizes from sponsors. Participants of the tenth LitBAN Angel School chose BrachyDOSE, a startup developing technologies for safer cancer treatment, as their investment. Venture capital funds Coinvest Capital and Baltic Sandbox Ventures are also planning to contribute to this investment and are inviting the startup to negotiate the specific terms of the investment. These funds are also interested in investing in Psylink, a biotech startup, KaiSense, a startup developing smart sports sensors, Freya Cultivation Systems, a startup developing agriculture technologies, CBRX, a startup working in the field of cyber security, and Ligence Heart, a startup developing smart echocardiography solutions.

International acceleration opportunities and prizes for startups

Three startups – Psylink, OLEC Technology and Freya Cultivation Systems – have been invited to participate in the accelerator of Startup Lithuania and the innovation platform Plug and Play, as well as to apply for other international funding programmes.

In addition to the main investment opportunities, startups competed for valuable additional prizes. Cloudvisor provided USD 5,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits to the startup Stuart Energy and Sorainen allocated EUR 3,000 in legal services to AQ22. The Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International granted access to the KGAP+ accelerator programme in Japan to startup BrachyDose.

A look at Lithuania’s startup ecosystem from the outside

More than 60 world-renowned speakers inspired participants during the event. They shared insights on what’s new in the AI sector, told startup success stories and gave advice on how to attract investment in the international market for innovative ideas. Wouter Vorstman, an investor at the venture capital fund Piton Capital, highlighted that the Baltic startup ecosystem is not only distinguished by its innovative ideas, but also by the abundance of sustainable business models at an early stage.

According to the investor, Lithuanian startups are able to use their investments efficiently, which makes them attractive to funds looking for promising early-stage investment opportunities, whereas Western European startups are often used to highly liquid capital markets and are therefore not always focused on sustainable revenue generation from the very beginning.

Meanwhile, Kaan Eren, Head of 500 Emerging Europe VC, highlighted the competitiveness of the Baltic ecosystem and said that investors currently see the most opportunities in Lithuania of all the Baltic States.

Dmitry Gurski, co-founder and CEO of Flo Health, the women’s health app that achieved unicorn status this summer, talked about the road to success and stressed that it requires the same mindset as climbing Mount Everest – don’t expect it to be easy and fun, but be properly prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.

This year, Startup Fair was held in a new location – Paupys Market and the nearby Pasaka Cinema. The event is organised by the Startup Lithuania Division of  the Innovation Agency. The main partners of the event are SEB bankas, Karma Ventures and Vilnius TechFusion.