BalticVC

Estonian ride-hailing platform and application Forus has appointed Loukas Tzitzis as its new CEO. The current CEO, Eduard Dubrovski, will take over the role of chief operations manager at Forus.

In 2023, Lithuanian fintech startups raised only €5,5M of venture fundraising, which is 12 times less than the amount raised in 2022 (€67,9M). This data was noted in the 2023 fintech report of the government investment promotion agency Invest Lithuania. The report highlighted that regtech, green finance, and DeFi, where AI and quantum computing were used a lot, were the main areas that secured investments.

In 2023, Estonian startups and growth companies paid  €323M in employment taxes, which is 18% more than in 2022, when they paid €273M. The Estonian Tax and Customs Board statistics reveal that startups contributed 65% of these taxes, while growth companies contributed the rest 35%. Among the top 10 companies that paid the most taxes were Bolt (€36,9M), money transfer service Wise (€34,9M), and provider of web-based sales CRM Pipedrive (€16,4M).

Anneli Aljas, ex-CEO of bankrupt tax and customs technology company Eurora, has joined the Estonian autonomous delivery vehicle developer Starship Technologies as a vice president of finance. 

Ex-head of Vilnius-based governmental initiative Startup Lithuania Roberta Rudokiene became the new CEO of Lithuanian Business Angel Network (LitBAN). The current Managing Director of LitBAN Justinas Pasys, who will delegate his job to Roberta Rudokiene at the end of November, will work on the syndicate of business angels NGL, which he founded in December 2022. He will also continue facilitating syndicated investments, angel schools, and forming startup advisory boards.

Estonian tax and customs technology company Eurora   expands to the LATAM market and brings on board a new CEO of the Latin America region James Doyle. The LATAM e-commerce market has shown rapid growth recently. The company claims its presence there will make regional cross-border trade and compliance easier for companies wishing to export globally.

Estonian syndicate of angel investors EstBAN  (Estonian Business Angels Network) appointed Lauri Antalainen as a new president. He was the vice president of EstBAN from September 2021 until now. Lauri Antalainen will substitute for this position Lev Dolgatsjov. 

Angel investor, a former employee of Skype, Microsoft, and Pipedrive Sergei Anikin, left the banking platform Tuum . A former chief revenue officer of payments platform  DT One Myles Bertrand becomes the new CEO of the startup. He will focus on expanding Tuum’s client base and product offering and growing the team and international footprint to become a global market leader.

Venture capitalist and co-founder of Lithuanian Business Angel Network (LitBAN) and Belarusian Angel Band Cyril Golub was elected the second term as a Chairman of the Latvian business angel network (LatBAN).

Estonian tax and customs technology company Eurora assigned Anneli Aljas as the new CEO. The former CEO Egon Veermäe has left the company. 

Ex-chief of staff at Estonian CRM and intelligent revenue management platform Pipedrive and banking platform Tuum Liina Vahtras will become the new CEO of the Estonian e-Residency program. She was chosen as the best candidate for this position in the public competition organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the joint institution of Enterprise Estonia and KredEx. 

Ex-HR-director of Latvian retailer Rimi Baltic Group and Latvian distributor of beer and soft drinks Aldari Parsla Bashko became  the new global hr-director of Latvian a print-on-demand drop shipping and fulfillment company Printful. 

Ex-CEO of Latvian fintech TWINO Anastasija Oļeiņika became the new CEO of Latvian print-on-demand marketplace Printify . Current CEO, co-founder, and the largest shareholder of Printify James Berdigans will move to Executive Chairman, focusing on company strategy. 

Former hr-manager of software developer Skype (acquired by Microsoft) and Estonian unicorn Pipedrive Leelia Rohumaa became European hr-director of Estonian unicorn Glia . 

Daiva Rakauskaitė became  the chief executive officer of Lithuanian Business Angels Fund. She and other partners of the fund acquired management shares of the former CEO Arvydas Strumskis.

Estonian Verification startup Veriff makes  66 employees redundant, 42 of which had been working at the Estonian office. That is 12% of its teams around the world. After redundancy, the company will have over 500 employees.

Former board member of Estonian media group Ekspress Group and a business angel Kaspar Hanni became a new partner at Estonian venture fund Specialist VC .

Former Mambu Managing Director Edgardo Torres-Caballero became the new Chief revenue officer at the Estonian banking platform Tuum .

Estonian fintech Monese , which offers accounts and money transfer services, is to launch a new banking platform for banks and other companies. At the same time, management has to fire 22 employees in its Estonian office. 

Ex-head of sales in Dropbox's US and Canada departments Javier Ortega became Veriff’s new Chief Revenue Officer. He started to work in the US company office in January 2023.