Why Latvia

Since 2004, we’ve been enjoying all the benefits EU membership offers. Free mobility of goods and labor, no roaming charges within EU – you name it, we have it. In 2014 we also joined the Eurozone. Latvia is not only the very heart of Baltic States, it is also a point where West meets East. Riga International Airport is the largest air transportation hub in the Baltics – 3 times the population of Latvia travels through in a span of a year. The airport serves more than 100 direct flights, including those to New York, Dubai, and adds several new direct flights every month. The international bus and train transit is also comfortable, affordable and frequent.

Not only is Latvia ranked as the country with the 10th fastest internet worldwide, free wi-fi can be found almost everywhere in the centre of Riga, the capital city. The largest telecommunications company of Latvia, Lattelecom, has ensured an average of 3 free wi-fi connection spots per square-kilometre. Cherry on the cake: 5G is currently being tested! #cantwait.

Latvia really wants you – we introduced a startup visa and a whole Welcome Pack to support your business as you kick-off. We are keen to guide you through practical matters and mundane realities of daily life. With this idea in mind, we have started our own transformation towards becoming a startup one-stop-shop – Magnetic Latvia Startup – which will provide all foreign founders with nowadays concierge service. We are ready to hold your hand when you need us to.

We’re tri-lingual, well-educated, creative and we kick ass*s! Our startup talent pool is diverse by age, gender and nationality. Rumour has it, we are introvertish. Guilty as charged: we respect private space and reflect on life a lot. Doesn’t change the fact we make great friends with people worth opening up to.

We throw great startup parties like DFF and TechChill; we’re equipped with thousands of sqm of modern cosy offices and co-workings; we understand our internal market is non-existent and we think global from day zero. Start-up Association has your back covered, while Business Angel Network and PE&VC Association are working hard towards increasing the available pool of investments. We’ve witnessed several startups exit and we want more.

With 400+ solid startups in Latvia and growing financing opportunities, the market is far from saturation point and is responsive to good ideas. What does that mean? To succeed in Silicon Valley, you have to be a genius. In Latvia – at the moment – you just need to be very very good. However, as both quantity and quality of startups increase, this window might be closing soon. Act on it.

Short, yet hot, summers are known for open-air festivals, concerts and street food hang-outs – we camp and barbeque a lot during these crazy long days; romantic autumns drive us out of the cities to enjoy the variety of colours in nature, we drink buckets of tea, we savour time at opera and ballet, and lose a lot of umbrellas in the process; crispy winters smell like ginger-bread and hot-wine – we enjoy movies with friends, we make angels in the snow, we become sloth-like, we want to cuddle and sleepzzzzzzzz; the whole spring we only talk about summer, we prepare for the beach season and we kill ourselves in the gyms trying to lose all the winter fats. We then press “Repeat”.

54% of Latvia is forest; 33% of its border is a white-sand-pine-tree seashore. Come dip your toes in the serenity. Get lost in the woods, picking mushrooms and wild berries. Give your soul a make-over and witness your energy peak!

“Smart city” is a new buzzword we hear everywhere! We seek to boost productivity, hack efficiency, increase mobility. That’s all great! What we all forget in the process: city also needs to be liveable – with human interactions, challenges and spontaneity. All those things will convert into anecdotes we’ll tell our grandchildren one day in smart future... Riga is exactly that city! So pack your bag and come live a life here!