BalticVC

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).

The turnover of Estonian deep technology companies increased  to €227,2M in 2023, which is 14% more than in 2022. These companies paid €45,1M in labor taxes, which is a 20% increase from the previous year. 

Estonian employees in startups and growth companies received  an average gross salary of  €4253 in 2023, while Lithuanian employees who worked in the startup sector earned  an average gross salary of €3800. 

According to the Lithuanian startup landscape report , in 2023, Lithuania maintains its position as the fastest-growing startup ecosystem in the СEE region. The report shows that between 2018 and 2023, the Lithuanian ecosystem's value grew by 7.1 times. This is more than in Estonia and in Latvia, as well as in other Central European regions. By 2023, the value of the ecosystems in CEE increased only by 3.6x, in Estonia - by 2x, and in Latvia - by 5,9x.

According to the Baltic Startup Funding Report , conducted by Lithuanian accelerator and VC Firstpick and Estonian Change Ventures, Baltic startups raised €540M in the second half of 2023. €425,65M was invested in nine growth companies. It is five times more capital raised by growth technology companies compared to H1 2023. 

Estonian deeptech companies received 11% of total venture investment in the country from 2018 to 2023. According to the third annual European deep tech report provided by Amsterdam-based startup database Dealroom, European VC Lakestar, and San Francisco-based VC Walden Catalyst, Estonia is in the 16th place out of the top 19 European countries with the highest interest in venture investments in deep tech from 2018 to 2023. Estonia overperforms Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Belgium.

Lithuania is expected to be among one of three European countries and the only one in the Baltic region to increase venture investment in 2023 compared to last year. In addition, it ranks at the 15th place among the top 30 European countries by amount of venture capital invested in startups, outperforming Estonia in two positions.

The startups from Estonian county Ida Virumaa reached  a turnover of €2,3M in the three quarters of 2023, which is 45% more than in the same period of 2022. In the first nine months of 2022, Idu Viru's startups reached €1,6M in turnover.

Estonian tech companies showed growth in turnover by 11% to €1.69Bln in the first nine months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, when the turnover reached €1.52Bln. Bolt (€904.9M), Veriff (€53.8M), Swappie (€47.8M), Crezu (€24.1M) and Viseven (€23.9M) had the highest turnover.

During first three quarters of this year Latvian startups raised €18,2 M. 13 deals were completed.

Estonian, Lithuanian, and Latvian startups raised €516M of venture investment as of September 1, 2023, according to the report of Lithuanian firm Iron Wolf Capital and data provider Dealroom.co. In H1 2023, the venture capital funding of Estonian startups was €220M, Latvian - €65M, and Lithuanian - €59M. 

The average gross salary of Estonian startup workers reached €3,243K and grew up by 14% in the first half of 2023, compared to the same period of the last year. The data was provided by the governmental organization Startup Estonia and the state agency Statistics Estonia. An employee of Estonian origin gets an average paycheck of €3,163K and an employee of foreign origin - €3,288K. Cyber startups pay the most: the average salary there is as high as €4 230. Communication services pay a little less, with an average monthly paycheck of €3,967. Transport and logistics startups are also in the top three, with an average monthly pay of €3,742.

Estonian young tech companies showed growth in turnover by 17% to €1Bln in the first six months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022. Bolt (€592M), Veriff (€38M), Swappie (€32,4M), Viseven (€16,5M) and Crezu (€15,8M) had the highest turnover. The turnover of Bolt, Crezu, and Viseven in the first six months of 2023 increased almost twice compared  to Q1 2023. 

Six Baltic fintech companies joined  a list of the top 200 businesses, made by German data platform Statista and the US business news TV channel and online media CNBC. 

Estonia joined  the list of countries, which invest in Generative AI startups the most. The Baltic country took the 9th spot. Before Estonia are Sweden, Germany, the UK, Canada, Israel, and other countries. The US is the leader in this list. All the data were accumulated by the data platform Dealroom starting from 2019 till 2023.

Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia topped Emerging Europe ’s annual ranking of investment promotion agencies (IPA). Estonia with its IPA Invest Estonia holds first place for four years already, outperforming the competitors in innovation, creativity, support, and community-building components. Invest Estonia is followed by the Lithuanian agency Invest Lithuania. This year it improved the indicator of support and community building. 

Baltic startups expect at least 15% turnover growth in 2023, according to the Baltic Business Outlook survey, which was conducted by Latvian SEB bank. 23% of polled Estonian startups, which participated in the survey, are expecting their turnover to grow by more than 15%, the same forecast has 50% of Latvian startups and 29% of Lithuanian startups.

Baltic countries ranked among the 40 top best countries to found a startup, according to the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2023. Estonia became a leader among the Baltic countries and got the 14th position. It is followed by Lithuania, which is in 17th place, and Latvia appeared 39th in this rank.

Former employees of five Estonian and two Lithuanian unicorns founded 60 new tech companies in the Baltic region. US venture capital fund Accel and data platform Dealroom published a report "The founder-factories and the founder's journey of European and Israeli startups", in which they made a list of unicorns, whose ex-employees founded the most amount of new companies in Europe and Israel. They took a period starting from pre-2010 till February 28, 2023.