Latvian Ministry of Economics will allocate €400K to support startups in 2024

Latvian Ministry of Economics plans to allocate €400K for support of startups in 2024. It is twice more than in 2023 when the Ministry of Economics allocated €200K. Next year, the financing will be spread between Latvian Startups Association Startin.LV, a non-profit organization TechChill, Latvian Business Angels Network (LatBAN), Latvian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LVCA), Riga Technical University (the RTU science and innovation center), and TechHub Riga.

The financial support from the Ministry will be used to organize various startup events at the international level, investor attraction sessions, startup training, etc. In 2025 and 2026, the Ministry targets to provide the same amount of funding as in 2024 to support the startup environment.

In 2022, Latvian startups raised €93M in investment and provided more than 3,2K jobs. Ministry of Economics expects the total investment in startups will increase by €300M by the end of 2025, and the number of employees in startups will also increase - by 1,5K.

Latvian Ministry of Economics plans to provide additional support in the form of various programs in the coming years, which will allow companies, including startups, to receive funding directly. The programs were approved for 2021-2027. One of them is capital investment in entrepreneurship with available funding of €93M.

As Minister of Economics Viktors Valainis noted, the state support of startups helps promote economic breakthroughs, produce more goods and services for export, attract talents from all over the world, and increase the professional skills, competitiveness, and income level of Latvians.