At the beginning of this year, we introduced 10 promising Latvia-based startups to watch in 2021. Since Latvia’s capital, Riga has a very active startup ecosystem and recently made it into our annual ranking of Europe’s biggest startup hubs, we decided to take a closer look.
In addition to popular startup events like TechChill, where over 2,000 startup enthusiasts gather in Riga each year, the city has a supportive innovation ecosystem with modern coworking spaces, accelerators, incubators, and access to seed funding.
For this post, we’ve scouted the hottest startups in Riga, founded between 2018 and 2021, taking into consideration many factors like team size, funding, growth rate, innovation, market size. With this in mind, here are the 10 Riga-based early-stage startups to look out for in 2021 and beyond.
Roibox
is a geospatial data modeling startup aiming to help companies earn more by spending less. They do data aggregation, modeling, geocoding, and visualization to help others beat the market. Launched in 2020, Roibox’s data-driven marketing tool for digital ad targeting efficiency empowers companies to boost their marketing ROI and grow their businesses at a faster pace.
Born in 2020, Mission Space offers custom sensors for advanced space weather monitoring. Their space weather predictive system is designed to serve as a decision support tool, and allow for a more accurate prediction of changes in the radiation levels and let industry leaders develop proper mitigation strategies beforehand. With €50K of external funding so far, they’ve built nano, pico, and femto satellite constellations to make this possible.
WeedBot 
is an agtech startup developing a computer vision-based weed recognition algorithm for high-precision weeding systems for organic and conventional farmers. Founded in 2020 with almost €200K of external funding so far, WeedBot’s innovative weeding laser technology gets rid of harmful weeds faster and more efficiently, improving cost efficiency.
Founded in 2019, Brette Haus
is an architecture-focused startup with the goal to make folding housing as available and usable as regular houses are. Using their own folding technology, Brette Haus designs and creates prefabricated folding houses that can be easily transported and installed on a site within 3 hours.
ZELF 
is a neobank with a global focus on financial services for Gen Z. Founded in 2019 and with more than €1.7 million raised, ZELF incorporates payments into online messengers where users spend their screen time. It takes customers less than 30 seconds to receive a digital ZELF card and open an IBAN account to send and receive money via instant messengers like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
Spell
is a SaaS fintech solution helping to change the economics of payment institutions. Launched in 2018, its white-label platform provides clients with additional payment tools, allowing them to increase the payment volume per account, and automation of onboarding and financial operations. This enables banks and PSPs to become more competitive, scale faster and at a lower cost, and handle the financial relationships with their clients more effectively.
Fixar
is a developer and manufacturer of integrated unmanned aerial solutions for industry-specific outdoor and indoor tasks. Launched in 2018, the startup has raised more than €2 million in funding. Fixar’s blend of hardware and software solves current problems in aerial photography, laser scanning, monitoring of linear-extended objects, mining, biosecurity, and precision farming in agriculture.
Founded in 2019, Kedeon provides innovative monitoring solutions for cold supply chain operations, with a focus on last-mile deliveries. Their mobile and easy-to-use IoT sensor devices in combination with advanced software tools enable companies to leverage their supply chain data beyond just statistics. Kedeon has raised over €280K so far, and provides a full-service package, helping clients to be more efficient, legally compliant, and proactive in the scope of supply chain operations.
PrintOnPack
is an online marketplace both for clients and packaging manufacturers aiming to simplify the complex process of finding the most suitable packaging. Born in 2020, PrintOnPack offers customers market analysis, packaging recommendations, manufacturers comparison in price, quality, and lead time. Having raised around €450K so far, the platform provides full service, including customs clearance and transportation arrangements.
DesignScan 
plans to make buying furniture online more accessible and convenient and to automate the selling and buying process with the help of neural networks. Launched in 2020 with more than €800K raised, the platform shows only high-quality furniture from different brands that are available in showrooms. Design Scan also makes it possible to contact retailers directly and put all your questions to them.
By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!
