For the first time in the history of Lithuania, the IT startups that had the most impact on the country's image, economy and development of technologies in 2013 were awarded last week. Based on a survey of startups conducted by Enterprise Lithuania at the beginning of the year, the advisory board of the Startup Lithuania community selected winners in eight categories. Only companies that were established in the past three years and that have existing products or prototypes thereof were assessed.

Check out the survey results here.

Mantas Nocius, managing director at Enterprise Lithuania, the host of the startup awards, was pleased that 2013 was a breakthrough year for startups. "In 2013, Lithuanian startups secured a total of 19 investments amounting to EUR 16 million. Meanwhile, the investments in startups that we know of from 2007 to 2012 came to a total of EUR 34 million, of which EUR 31.5 million was invested in GetJar," says Mr. Nocius.

Photo gallery of the event is here.

Short video of the event is here.

MoboFree team received the Breakthrough of the Year award. This mobile social network attracted approximately one million new registered users last year, and has more than 2.8 million in total – mostly residents of Africa.

TransferGo, a company involved in international money transfers, was recognized as Employer of the Year. Over the course of 2013, this startup hired 11 people.

Dragdis – a program that makes it easy to store and organize material found on the Internet – was selected as the best technological solution.

The WoraPay mobile wallet infrastructure took the glass statue for the most advanced mobile technology.

During the event the exit of the year was also announced: Arieso GEO was sold last year for USD 85 million.

During the awards ceremony, TrackDuck founder Edmundas Balčikonis was applauded for bringing the most global attention to the Lithuanian startup ecosystem; applause also echoed for the Investor of the Year – Practica Capital, the group of venture capital firms, which carried out 14 investments last year for a total of approximately LTL 8 million.

The Startup Lithuania Advisory Board is composed of: GetJar founder Ilja Laurs, entrepreneur Vladas Lašas, public relations specialist Artūras Jonkus, venture capital fund Nextury Ventures general manager Mindaugas Glodas, venture capital group Practica Capital partner Donatas Keras,  founder of the Vinted startup Justas Janauskas, co-founder of the StartupHighway business accelerator Darius Žakaitis, and Dovydas Varkulevičius, director of the Entrepreneurship Department at Enterprise Lithuania.