It is about ten o’clock in the morning. Young professionals walk briskly between tall glass buildings in the Cyber City of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. On one side is the office of a world famous unicorn like Nord Security, while on the other side is Hostinger’s office just a few steps away. Hostinger is a startup which has users in more than 150 countries. Here words like future, AI and startup are heard in every conversation. Vilnius is now also being called the ‘Silicon Valley’ of Europe. The population of this small country of Europe, Lithuania, is only around 29 lakhs, but thousands of startups are working here. Even though this country is small in size and population, the thinking is big and global. Gintare Verbikaite, CEO of Unicorn Lithuania, says that today Vilnius is the fastest growing startup city in Europe. In this matter it is also at number 13 in the world. Here business starts with global thinking, not local. People here say that when we start a startup, we create it keeping in mind the problems and needs of the world, because we do not want to be limited to Lithuania only. In terms of population i.e. per capita, Lithuania is among the countries with the highest number of unicorn startups in the world. There are Vinted, Nord Security, BCG, Flow, Cast AI and OxyLabs, the six unicorn companies. Vinted has introduced a different model of building unicorns. She started an online model of buying and selling old clothes and became the first unicorn here. Diana Girdenaite, strategist at Invest Lithuania, says growing skilled workforce, financial incentives and government policies are the main reasons why Lithuania is becoming a startup powerhouse. Culture of learning and teaching, India is their big market, four reasons… How Lithuania is becoming a startup powerhouse 1. Startup ecosystem is expanding rapidly, more than 300 fintech companies are working in the country. Between 2020 and 2025, the value of the startup ecosystem will increase 5.9 times to about Rs 1.56 lakh crore. Done. Startups will invest around Rs 2400 crore in 2025. Raised venture capital. 2. Confidence of global investors increased. World’s leading investor companies like Accel, General Catalyst, Insight Partners, who have invested in companies like Facebook, Spotify, Air BnB, are also investing in Lithuanian startups. Lithuania ranks first in public Wi-Fi speed and sixth in cyber security index. 3. A strong foundation built with AI talent More than 77,600 ICT (information and communication technology) experts are employed in the country. The government has allocated about Rs 457 crore for AI development. Invested more than Rs. 10,000 and implemented the National AI Strategy in 2018 itself. 13 thousand students are studying ICT. Reskilling programs are being run on a large scale. 4. It is easy to start a company. Here the registration of a new company is done within a few days. With government processes being simple and online, entrepreneurs save both time and cost. Corporate profit tax ranging between 0-16%, 0% tax for the first 10 years in free economic zones, RD incentive, patent box, faster licensing process, world-class digital network and the target of 100% renewable electricity by 2030 – these are all the reasons due to which investor confidence has increased.
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यूरोप की सिलिकॉन वैली बना विलनियस: शहर की आबादी 29 लाख, 6 यूनिकॉर्न काम कर रहीं; स्टार्टअप के मामले में दुनिया में 13वें नंबर पर
