The European Investment Bank (EIB), in cooperation with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and the international professional services company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has presented the preliminary findings of an assessment of Latvia’s startup and scale-up financing ecosystem, while also introducing the new platform “Future Finance Programme Latvia”, designed to help companies navigate financing, investment, and innovation support opportunities.
The assessment was initiated by LIAA in cooperation with the European Investment Bank’s advisory support initiative “EIB Advisory”, which helps European Union member states strengthen investment, innovation, and business development ecosystems.
Viktors Valainis, Minister of Economics of Latvia:
"This assessment confirms that Latvia possesses all the key strengths needed to become one of the leading innovation and technology hubs in the Baltic region. We have talented people, a strong scientific base, a vibrant startup and scale-up ecosystem, and an increasing number of companies capable of competing globally. At the same time, the findings clearly highlight areas where further progress is needed, particularly in ensuring access to financing instruments that match companies’ growth needs and enabling more businesses to scale from Latvia into globally competitive enterprises.
The role of government is not to pick future success stories, but to create an environment in which they can emerge and thrive. That is why we will continue working to strengthen the business environment, improve access to investment, accelerate the commercialisation of innovation, and foster closer cooperation between science, entrepreneurs, and investors. Our ambition is to ensure that ideas born in Latvia not only start here, but also grow, scale, and become international market leaders from Latvia. Because in the long run, a nation’s prosperity is determined not by the number of ideas it generates, but by its ability to turn those ideas into world-class companies."
Latvia Demonstrates Strong Technology and Deep Tech Potential
The preliminary findings of EIB Advisory describe Latvia as a country with strong technological potential, high-quality scientific and technical expertise, and a rapidly growing startup ecosystem. Latvia is currently home to more than 500 startups, while approximately 26% of the ecosystem already consists of deep tech companies — one of the highest shares in the region. The assessment particularly highlights Latvia’s potential in fintech, artificial intelligence, deep tech, and dual-use technologies.
Paulina Brzezicka, Head of EIB Group Office in Latvia:
“Latvia has all the ingredients of a strong innovation ecosystem – talent, sector diversity and international ambition. Yet too many companies struggle to move beyond the early stages or scale at home. Strengthening access to growth-stage financing and improving participation in European innovation programmes will be key to unlocking this potential. The EIB’s role is not only to finance, but also to advise and connect the right financial instruments. Together with LIAA, we are helping Latvia build a more competitive innovation ecosystem and remove bottlenecks in access to EU funding, so that Latvian companies can grow and compete beyond borders.”
Key Development Challenges for the Startup Ecosystem
At the same time, the assessment identifies several challenges limiting the international growth potential of Latvian companies. Among the most significant are limited availability of growth capital, insufficient venture capital intensity, fragmented innovation support structures.
Particular attention is devoted to the so-called “Valley of Death” — the stage between research outcomes and market entry, when a company already has a developed technology prototype but still requires resources for testing, pilot projects, validation, and market readiness. According to EIB Advisory, Latvia still lacks specialised financing instruments for this critical development stage, particularly for deep tech companies.
The assessment also concludes that Latvia has one of the highest scale-up relocation rates in Central and Eastern Europe, with approximately 70% of scale-up companies relocating operations abroad. At the same time, the findings emphasise that the issue is not a lack of talent or ideas, but rather access to capital, international competitiveness instruments, and ecosystem coordination.
LIAA: Latvia Must Think on a Baltic and European Scale
Ieva Jāgere, Director General of LIAA:
“This assessment is highly significant for Latvia, because for the first time we now have internationally benchmarked, expert-based data showing what works well within Latvia’s startup and deep tech ecosystem and where new solutions are needed.
Latvia is already developing strong technology companies with global potential, and we increasingly see growing international interest in our innovation ecosystem. This is demonstrated both by Deep Tech Atelier — which this year took place in Riga for the eighth consecutive year and brought together more than 2,300 participants from 69 countries — and by companies such as LIAA business incubation programme participant ‘Supliful’, which is developing an international e-commerce platform from Latvia and has already become the largest taxpayer in its category in the Zemgale region.
At the same time, these findings clearly demonstrate that the next stage of development will require new financing instruments and closer cooperation between policymakers, support institutions, investors, and the industry itself. Competition for talent, investment, and technology companies is now taking place on a Baltic, European, and global scale, meaning Latvia must think much more ambitiously about how to retain and develop high value-added companies here over the long term.”
International Expertise and Data-Driven Analysis
As part of the assessment, EIB Advisory and PwC consulted with 48 ecosystem stakeholders, including startups, investors, universities, business accelerators, public institutions, and industry organisations. The analysis also incorporated data from international innovation and investment intelligence platforms such as Dealroom, the European Innovation Council database EIC Data Hub, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the investment analytics platform CBInsights.
Among the key directions identified by EIB Advisory for strengthening Latvia’s startup ecosystem are the development of a unified and entrepreneur-friendly financing and support navigation system, stronger Baltic and Nordic cooperation, and more targeted support for attracting European Union funding.
New Startup Support Platform Introduced
Alongside the assessment, the new platform “Future Finance Programme Latvia” has also been launched, bringing together in one place information on financing opportunities, investors, innovation programmes, and support organisations available in Latvia.
The platform is designed to help companies navigate available support instruments more efficiently, particularly during early-stage and growth phases, while also fostering closer cooperation between startups, investors, research organisations, and the public sector. The platform includes information on European Union programmes, investment opportunities, innovation support instruments, and key participants within Latvia’s startup ecosystem.
Platform available at:
https://advisory.eib.org/future-finance-programme/index
About the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA)
LIAA promotes the competitiveness of Latvian businesses, export growth, and investment attraction, while also developing the tourism sector and implementing Latvia’s national branding policy. The agency acts as a national partner for business development — from idea to international markets. Through an extensive network of representative offices abroad and regional business centres across Latvia, LIAA helps companies grow and positions Latvia as a safe, innovative, and open economy within the global marketplace.
About the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group
The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion in new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects under eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. In addition to financing, the EIB Group offers advisory services that help public and private clients develop markets, build capacity and support high impact investment projects. In 2025, EIB Advisory helped accelerate project delivery and crowd in finance for 179 projects worth more than €80 billion in the European Union and beyond.