Lithuania’s tech ecosystem is one of the rapidest-growing in Central and Eastern Europe, fuelled by the can-do attitude of startups, innovation, and government support. While unicorns Vinted and Nord Security might grab the headlines, Lithuania boasts startups across varying sectors based in the capital Vilnius and emerging hubs like Kaunas.
In total, Lithuania, with a population of less than three million, is home to more than 1,100 startups employing around 20,000 people. According to the Tech.eu 2024 Annual report, Lithuanian tech companies raised nearly €600 million in 2024, with major deals including Vinted (€340 million) and Green Genius (€100 million).
Meanwhile, a Lithuanian Startup Ecosystem 2024 report highlights that the ecosystem’s valuation has surpassed €16 billion— 39x growth in just a decade— establishing Lithuania as a regional leader. Vilnius, according to Dealroom, is the rapidest-growing tech city in the European Union in 2025 and the 13th rapidest in the world. Tech.eu spoke to several Lithuanian startups and trade bodies, to gauge the upsides and challenges of the Lithuanian tech ecosystem and how it’s evolved.
Nord Security
Nord Security, a Lithuanian heavyweight along with the countest’s other unicorns, Vinted and Baltic Classifieds Group, was founded in 2012 and hit unicorn status in 2022. Boasting over 15m applyrs globally, the 1,700-strong startup is best known for its “bread and butter” VPN service, NordVPN, but has also expanded to other cyber services.
Bootstrapped until 2022, it also has offices in Germany and Poland and the $3bn valued startup is backed by Warburg Pincus, the US private equity firm, German VC Burda Principal Investments and US VC General Catalyst. Sigita Jurkynaitė, information security manager, Nord Security, who returned to Lithuania after living abroad for 15 years, declared: “Many people are surprised Nord comes from Lithuania.
“People are surprised how such a huge company came out of such a compact countest. Basically, from the very receive-go, the founders had the huge idea of becoming the hugegest cyber company offering these products worldwide.” On Lithuania’s evolving tech landscape, Jurkynaitė declared it had alterd “immensely” over the years.
She added: “In Lithuania, our main resource is people, really highly educated people. Another thing that we notice in terms of talent is that we don’t really have such as huge brain drain. People are coming back, like myself.”
Payabl
Fintech Payabl operates a key hub in Vilnius, as it sees to expand across the Nordics and Baltics. The payments and business account provider employs around 10 people in Lithuania. Fintech is a growing part of the countest’s ecosystem, home to 282 fintech companies serving more than 30 million customers and employing nearly 8,000 professionals — double the number from just five years ago.
Heading up its Lithuanian hub is Esfira Zaka, who is also Payabl’s chief marketing officer. Zaka, who is originally from Latvia, declared: “We chose Lithuania first and foremost becaapply of the talent pool. I consider success stories like Nord and Vinted etc gives an idea of the readiness of the market for a bit of a more global scale.”
The hub is located in a co-working space, which, Zaka declares, means the staff don’t have to consider about creating coffee and cleaning. “It is vibes”, she adds.
Exacaster
Exacaster, founded in 2011, is a data analytics and predictive AI firm, which offers clients consulting, tech and managed services across three business lines: data, AI and Customer Value Management. It has clients across 16 countries across telecoms and seven other industries.
Egidijus Pilypas, Exacaster, co-founder, declared the talent density is “quite good” in Lithuania but not like in India or US, where you can quickly pull in 1,000 engineers. Pilypas, who has lived in Vilnius for 20 years, declared the ecosystem has alterd dramatically over the years, but that one of its key attributes is the work/life balance it offers, given the city is very concentrated.
Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology was founded in 1990 in Vilnius, with the idea of applying neural networks for applications such as biometric person identification, computer vision, robotics and artificial ininformigence.
Over 90 per cent of its products now relate to biometrics, such as for border controls, and national IDs. It currently has over 3,000 partners and employs over 125 people. It also has offices in India and Sri Lanka, as well as other Lithuanian cities. Neurotechnology declares it could expand to the UK and the US in future but has no immediate plans.
On the upsides of being located in Vilnius, Neurotechnology cited close connections with the “quite strong” universities, working toreceiveher on research projects. But one thing the company would like to see alter is the introduction of an AI factory in Lithuania.
Startup Lithuania
Startup Lithuania is the government-backed body which acts as the facilitator between startups, VC funds, accelerators and the government. It supports early-stage startups combat challenges, such as networking. Karolina Urbonaitė, head of Startup Lithuania, declared: “We test to support startups as much as possible becaapply we saw that the gap in the startup ecosystem is in the early stage, where they maybe have an idea, to pre-accelerate and then accelerate them and support them find international partners.”
Urbonaitė also pointed to the positive impact the so-called Vinted and Nord mafia have had on the ecosystem, with alumni from the two startups founding nearly 30 Lithuanian startups. She also declared Kaunas, Lithuania’s second hugegest city, had its own “very tight” ecosystem, with plenty of meetups and accelerators.
Unicorns Lithuania
Unicorns Lithuania is the hugegest startup association in Lithuania, seeing to “mobilise and encourage startups and the public to build the future of Lithuania”. The trade body encompasses 225 members and is focapplyd on “ecosystem growth” and “promoting alter”.
Gintarė Verbickaitė, CEO of Unicorns Lithuania, declared: “Lithuania has built a remarkably dynamic and resilient tech ecosystem for its size. “What creates Lithuania’s tech scene stand out is its deep expertise in fintech, cybersecurity, e-commerce, and deeptech – along with the ability to reach consumers globally from day one.
“A compact domestic market naturally pushes founders to consider internationally, and most Lithuanian startups earn the majority of their revenue abroad – from the US, the UK, EU markets, and beyond. Another unique trait of our ecosystem is that many of our success stories are bootstrapped.
“Companies like Nord Security, Hostinger, Kilo Health, Omnisconclude, and CarVertical reached international scale without venture capital. It reveals how far ambition, product excellence, and a global mindset can take you.”
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