In 2008, Milda Mitkutė, co-founder of Vinted, faced a seemingly simple dilemma: she was moving and had too many clothes to take with her. A friend, Justas Janauskas, offered to help, and built a website so that Mitkutė could give them away to friends.
What followed was far from simple: such a modest solution became the foundation of a billion-dollar company – Lithuania’s first to reach unicorn status in 2019. Today, Vinted employs more than 2,000 people across its headquarters in Lithuania and offices throughout Europe.
From startup story to ecosystem signal
Vinted’s trajectory reflects the broader momentum of Lithuania’s startup ecosystem. According to the January 2026 Dealroom report by Startup Lithuania, the total value of the country’s startup ecosystem reached €16.4 billion last year.
In 2025, Lithuanian startups also attracted €220 million in venture capital (VC) from 77 investors. The ecosystem’s growing strength was further confirmed earlier this year with the addition of a new unicorn to Lithuania’s startup map: Cast AI.
Cast AI also emerged from frustration. Its co-founders explained that they “couldn’t stop thinking about the massive growth of our cloud bill,” for which they built a platform that could optimize cloud infrastructure and reduce costs – without any manual intervention.
Thus emerged Cast AI as a solution built for every cloud-native company to effortlessly scale performance.
Lithuania has built one of the strongest early-stage startup pipelines in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), driven by a steady flow of VC-backed companies and a deep base of strong founders. The country has already produced global outcomes, including unicorns, €100M+ revenue companies, and a growing pool of experienced repeat founders.
Two characteristics stand out: Lithuania has the lowest startup relocation rate across all CEE nations, and the country leads the region in diversity.
Only 26% of Lithuanian scaleups move their headquarters abroad, highlighting the ecosystem’s ability to scale globally while remaining rooted locally, and 11% of all Lithuanian startups are founded by women; since 2020, nearly 20% of startups founded include a woman founder.
The role of local capital
Despite these strengths, the Dealroom report also highlights a challenging funding environment. Early-stage VC investments dropped by half, making 2025 a slightly dry year in terms of available funds from both venture capitalists and business angels.
Regardless, Lithuanian angels and local VCs remained committed to supporting local talent as the main source of capital. Coinvest Capital, for one, stepped in as a market catalyst and gap filler, co-investing in 78% of all deals signed in 2025 across the country.
Founded in 2018, Coinvest Capital aims to strengthen the Lithuanian business angel ecosystem by offering a generous profit-sharing scheme for accredited private investors while improving access to risk capital for early-stage startups. It operates as a sovereign VC fund, fully funded by the Lithuanian state and the European Union.
Giedrė Čiuladienė, partner at Lithuanian business law firm Triniti Jurex, emphasized the role of policy in sustaining momentum:
“Lithuania is consistently building a startup-friendly environment, and it was proven in 2025 once again. For the second year in a row, tax policy has been at the forefront of major changes,” she stated.
Startups now benefit from reduced personal income tax for option holders and a lower corporate income tax rate for newly-incorporated companies with limited revenue.
“Ongoing reforms to the Law on Companies, shaped by venture capital needs, continue to cut legal obstacles. All of those are just a part of the tools paving the way for bold ideas to scale faster,” Čiuladienė added.
Investment growth in 2025 reinforced the country’s regional position. Attracted VC increased year-over-year from €131 million to €220 million. In fact, the country has ranked second in CEE for VC per capita since 2020, exceeding the regional average by more than fourfold.
The largest investment of 2025 was secured by Cast AI, which raised $108 million USD (€91.37 million) in a Series C round, the second-largest funding round in the history of Lithuanian startups – surpassed only by Vinted.
Vilnius’ regional leadership
At the city level, the country’s capital, Vilnius, continues to anchor this growth, remaining the fastest-growing city in CEE by startup-created value, and ranked third among regional capitals for VC attracted in 2025. The southeastern city, in fact, is one of just five CEE hubs where more than 90% of national enterprise value is concentrated in a single city.
“The majority of Vilnius-headquartered or founded startups and unicorns continue to scale from the city. In 2025, Vilnius-based companies expanded internationally while retaining headquarters and decision-making locally. Global firms including Revolut, Unity, NIUM, Eurowag, Mambu, and Visma operate from Vilnius, citing EU market access, cost efficiency, and digital and physical infrastructure as key drivers”, said Dovilė Aleksandravičienė, CEO of Go Vilnius, the city’s business and tourism development agency, in the Dealroom report.
Taken together, these elements point to the growing maturity of Lithuania’s startup ecosystem. From companies that scale globally without relocating to sustained public and private support, regulatory adaptation, and an increasingly diverse founder base, the ecosystem has moved beyond early success stories into structural strength.
Featured image: Via lithuania.lt.