The Lithuanian startup ecosystem has raised 3 unicorns so far, each of them being valued at over USD 1 billion. These are the success stories of Vinted, Nord Security and Baltic Classifieds Group, which have been widely reported in the media. However, with the recent announcement of the unicorn status of Flo Health, the startup with the largest number of employees in Lithuania, the number of unicorns that could be associated in one way or another to our country could be at least 3 times higher.

“The Lithuanian startup ecosystem is truly vibrant and capable of launching high-value innovations into the world, attracting investment and producing successful unicorns. A number of promising startups and acclaimed unicorns have their roots in or links to the Lithuanian startup ecosystem. Many of them rely on our talent and infrastructure for their operations and growth, pay their taxes here and thus bring significant benefits to our country,” says Karolis Žemaitis, Vice-Minister of the Economy and Innovation.

According to Mr Žemaitis, 3 Lithuanian unicorns that we hear about most often are just the tip of the iceberg, because considering the origin of the unicorns, the distribution of their units and the concentration of their key operations, Lithuania could be associated with at least 9 companies worth more than USD 1 billion.

That is the number of unicorns associated with Lithuania in Iron Wolf Capital’s latest overview of the Baltic Deep Tech startup ecosystem in the Baltic States, prepared together with Dealroom.co. According to its criteria, unicorns associated with Lithuania are considered to be former startups valued at over USD 1 billion and meeting at least one of the following three conditions: at least one of the co-founders of the company is a citizen of Lithuania, the company currently has, or has had at any stage of its life, a headquarters in Lithuania, and the company has, or has had at any stage of its life, a significant part of its research and development operations in our country.

“When preparing the overview of the startup ecosystem, we wanted to apply the same methodology to all the Baltic States to better reflect the unicorn’s links to a particular country. Based on this methodology, we counted 9 unicorns related to Lithuania,” says Kasparas Jurgelionis, Managing Partner at Iron Wolf Capital, a venture capital fund company that contributed to the Baltic Deep Tech report.

Karolina Urbonaitė, Head of Startup Lithuania, confirmed that there is no shortage of companies with a unicorn status in our country. In addition, we also have a number of potential unicorns, i.e. companies that could be valued at up to EUR 1 billion, although this has not been officially confirmed yet.

“Both the unicorns that have grown in Lithuania and that are operating in Lithuania are important, because the latter not only create economic value by paying taxes and creating well-paid jobs, but also nurture new talent who can also take on the task of founding new innovative businesses in our country in the future,” says Ms Urbonaitė.

Unicorns rooted in Lithuania

Among the unicorns operating in Lithuania, the Baltic Deep Tech report mentions Flo Health, a company that has recently achieved this status, which is developing a women’s health app based on artificial intelligence. Nearly two-thirds of its team is based in Vilnius. Wargaming, one of Europe’s leading video game companies, also has its largest studio in Vilnius.

Another unicorn associated with Lithuania is Kayak, a travel planning platform. The technology centre of this company in Kaunas is responsible for many development and support functions of the platform.

The most prominent representative of the financial sector on this list is Revolut, a banking startup with 45 million customers. It received its first financial service provider licence in Lithuania, which became the basis for the company’s rapid growth. Today, Revolut has more than 250 team members in Lithuania.

Cloud banking startup Mambu is also closely linked to Lithuania and has an engineering centre with around 100 employees in the country. They have contributed significantly to the company being listed among the unicorns.

The Baltic Deep Tech report also links Unity, a well-known video game development platform founded in Copenhagen, to Lithuania. This unicorn has concentrated a significant part of its operations in Vilnius, with around 140 employees.

According to this year’s Dealroom report, the value of the Lithuanian startup ecosystem reaches EUR 13.7 billion and has grown as many as 7 times since 2018. The ecosystem consists of almost 600 startups that have raised investment.

The full Baltic Deep Tech report on the startup ecosystem in the Baltic States can be found here.