BalticVC

Markus Villig, founder and CEO of Bolt, has joined the board of directors of a Swedish fintech company Klarna . 

Startup Estonia presented data on Estonian startups for the year 2024.

Andres Kitter will lead Lightyear 's pan-European operations, while Alvar Lumberg will join the development team, focusing on building the company's global infrastructure. 

Estonian blockchain technology developer Guardtime   has announced plans to cut its staff by 25 people. Given that the company employed 48 people as of the fourth quarter of 2024, this means that just over half of its employees will be cut. 

Kristian Sägi, who headed the Tallinn office of global IT company Dynatrace , has announced that he is no longer with the company. According to Sägi, he simply felt that he wanted to create something unprecedented again, rather than work within fixed boundaries. 

Madis Lehtmets, co-founder of Estonian construction software developer Remato, will head the Estonian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association ( EstVCA ). He will take on the responsibilities of the new CEO in January 2025, which will include maintaining and strengthening the organization’s position as an advocate for the industry's interests and developing relationships with its members, legislators, and other organizations representing the industry in Estonia and abroad.

Wages in the information technology sector in the Baltic countries grew by 7.4%, almost twice as much as in 2023. This is 0.1% less than the forecast (7.5%), according to the study conducted by Figure Baltic Advisory.

Gintare Verbickaite-Baciuliene, former head of the technology sector team at state investment promotion agency Invest Lithuania, has been appointed as the new CEO of Unicorns Lithuania.

Estonian supercapacitor designer Skeleton Technologies has appointed David Arsenault as a senior vice president of business development. He will take over the role of Sebastian Pohlmann, who has been working as Skeleton's VP of business development from 2021 until 2024.

Inga Langaite, CEO of the startup founder association Unicorns Lithuania , will leave her position on 1 June. She has been the head of the association for the past three years.

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.