Dealflow, startup traction and news from Latvia: August

1 funding round, bubbling traction from 3 fintech startups, a new private VC fund and more. Stay on top of Latvian startup scene in one scroll:

Funding rounds

Files.fm brings total capital to € 1 million

Businessmen from Latvian business angel network have become investors and business partners of Files.fm, bringing the total capital to € 1 million.

Files.fm provides fast, secure and convenient data storage and file sharing solutions for business or private users. The company currently operates in English as Files.fm and in Latvian as Failiem.lv. At the moment the service has 150,000 registered users and over 700,000 visits monthly. 2/3 of their users come from Latvia and 1/3 from the rest of the world.

Read more here.

​Dealflow

QFer – the most discussed tech startup at LatBAN August session

All 6 projects presented at Latvian business angel network August session last Monday continue talks with investors. The most popular tech startup mong them is location-based offer app QFer that is now negotiating with 4 potential investors.

Find out more here.

Startup traction

CheeksUp will represent Latvia at Startup Nations Summit in Mexico

Intelligent face motion games for kids CheeksUp with a potential market of up to 700 million people will pitch at Startup Nations Summit in Monettey, Mexico. Each startup nation selected one best startup for the competition. The key criteria were that the startup must not be older than 2 years, must not have raised more than $50,000 and must address a need in healthcare, energy, fintech or education for at least 1 million people. See CheeksUp pitch deck here.

Two runner-ups from Latvian selection:

1. Visa and Martercard transactions without web page – Swipe. Pitch deck here.

2. World’s smallest manned aircraft – AirBoard . Pitch deck here.

Swipe closes a deal with Rietumu bank

Latvian startup Swipe which offers Visa and Mastercard processing that they promise to be easier than PayPal and faster than the banks. Swipe lets any merchant accept Visa and Mastercard payments, even without setting up a web page.

After being among the finalists of Rietumu fintech challenge, Swipe has closed a strategic partnership with Rietumu bank and was the first Baltic startup to join theirDecta startup program.

Read more about Swipe here

Fintech startup Monea signs up 4 major Latvian retail banks

Instant micropayment app Monea that allows you to send cash to your phonebook contacts has managed to sign up 4 banks in their quest for a cashless society. Swedbank, SEB, Citadele and Nordea Latvia clients can now enjoy micropayments with one tap by downloading Monea from App Store or Google Play.

Mintos is now available in German

Secured P2P lending platform Mintos founded in Riga that has processed over €2 million investments from all EU countries to date is now available in German. It it a logical step, as their growth primarily relies on word of mouth from investor to investor and though there are many interested investors in Germany, language barriers are still notable, particularly among the older investors. Moreover, as Mintos loans are still sourced in the Baltics, it makes sense to focus on German investors who traditionally are more comfortable investing in the region.

Startup Roadway now has partners on 4 continents

Latvian startup from Liepaja Startup Roadway now lets aspiring young talent travel the world and work in coworking spaces across 19 countries on 4 continents, including Mill Riga in Latvia and HUB13 in Finland.

Explore other spaces here.

Rention rocks BetaList

Rention platform for landlords, tenants and real estate service providers to manage their interaction has been featured on BetaList before launch. The project was shared 154 times on Twitter alone.

The platform is now signing up first customers here.

Other news

Livonia Partners – a new international private VC fund in the Baltics

Livonia Partners Fund I, a pan-Baltic private equity fund, has held its first close at €70 million. Livonia Partners is an independent fund management company founded by Kristīne Bērziņa, Rain Lõhmus, Mindaugas Utkevičius, and Kaido Veske. The fund seeks to acquire both majority and minority interests in businesses. Livonia has offices in Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius, and is domiciled in Latvia, which has a transparent legal, tax and regulatory framework for investment funds.

Find out more here.

Latvian startup support program submitted for approval

Ministry of Economics has submitted the program that foresees acceleration funds for Latvian startups for final approval. The goal of the program is to support the development of products and services for international markets with higher added value and creating higher-paid jobs.

Within the new EU funds’ planning period the investment in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship within Ministry of Economics programs is foreseen to be €463 million, including €75 million focused on startups.

Find out more here.

#StartupTheSeason kicks off with several events

A joint initiative off TechHub Riga, Mill Riga and Eegloo running under the hashtag #StartupTheSeason has kicked off this week. The initiative proclaimed September the startup month in Latvia and has put together a rich program of startup events. The web page is both in English and in Latvian, which aims to encourage people outside of Latvian startup scene to find out more and potentially join it.

This week four #StartupTheSeason events took place: Mobile Monday, Startup The Season opening party, Startup Sauna visit to Riga & pitches and StartupBus Estonia stop in Riga.

Our special quiz: Are you a serious founder or just a kid thinking startups are cool?

We asked Kevin Hale from Y-Combinator, Nicole Glaros from TechStars, Marvin Liao from 500 Startups, Alex Farcet from StartupBootcamp, Mark Turrell, Bob Dorf and Roy Vella to share how they navigate between startup kids and serious founders.

Answer the 12 questions that help them here.