This is our annual report on early-stage startup funding in the Baltics, drawing on original data collected by FIRSTPICK, Practica Capital and Change Ventures (2019-2024).

Throughout the year, we stay close to the market. We track every pre-seed and seed round across the Baltics and work directly with founders to gather key round terms – shared with us in confidence. The report covers companies headquartered in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as startups with primary operations in the region but HQs elsewhere.

The result: transaction-level data from more than 62% of all pre-seed and seed rounds closed in the region over the past 6 years. That’s 741 rounds with real numbers behind them – and a growing set of new datapoints that allow us to go beyond snapshots and start showing clear trends over time, which we’ll continue to build on in the years ahead.

We’re excited to share what we’re seeing on the ground and offer a sharper, more honest view of how early-stage funding really works in the Baltics.

Baltic Ecosystem: A high-level overview of the Baltic startup landscape, its scale, strengths, and key shifts.

Funding Trends: How capital flows across stages and sectors, including volumes, round sizes, and graduation rates.

Founder Profile: What are the main traits of the Baltic founders and their teams that successfully raised funds.

Investor Profile: Who is backing Baltic startups, how investor behaviour is changing, and where capital comes from.

Exits: The evolving exit landscape, highlighting key deals, country breakdowns, and long-term trends.

Rounds

Early-stage funding (pre-seed to Series A) increased year-over-year, despite only a marginal rise in deal count. This confirms a continued shift toward fewer rounds with materially larger average ticket sizes. Growth-stage funding remained episodic with higher volume of smaller rounds.

Founders

Funded Baltic founders are largely experienced operators. Most build within their prior domains, have leadership experience, and half are serial founders - reflecting investor preference for proven, domain-expert leaders.

Investors

Investor activity concentrated around a core group of Baltic funds, angels, and syndicates. Foreign investors participated in 43% of all deals, reinforcing the region’s increasing integration into cross-border VC capital flows.

Trends

AI dominated capital allocation across all stages. Defence, energy, and infrastructure-adjacent technologies gained weight. The market also shows clear capital concentration, wider valuation dispersion, and longer exit timelines.