Latvian startup scene: January

1 funding round, 6 hot deals and 30 active deals, 6 notable traction reports. Stay on top of Latvian startup scene in one scroll:

Funding rounds

Vortex Oil announces over half a million investment

Latvian oil startup Vortex Oil born in Siberia and developed in Commercialization Reactor, has announced a funding round “exceeding 500 thousand euros” with a Polish investor, Startup Hub Poland. The investment deal was signed on Dec 8, 2015. The official announcement came in an interview to Labs of Latvia this month.

Find out more here.

Startup traction

Suite Story launches in New York

Latvian AirBNB for luxury apartments Suite Story has launched in New York this month. Founded by Dmitrii Beliakov from Latvia, the service is changing the way discerning travelers search and discover luxury suites. Powered by a machine learning algorithm and high-quality content, SuiteStory curates a bespoke booking experience for savvy travelers looking to book more than just a standard room.

The startup is now raising funding, has launched in London last week and plans to launch in another 19 cities in 2016.

Explore Suite Story here.

Taxify Latvia reaches 500,000 users

Estonian taxi ordering app Taxify has reached half a million users in Latvia. The startup has an office in Riga with Juris Krumins as co-founder. One of its funders is Latvian private B2C investor Rubylight, most known for their reliable tech used to scale Ask.fm, Odnosklassniki.ru and several other startups.

DEBIFO joins Mintos platform, lets clients invest in business invoices

From Tuesday 12th January 2015, Latvian peer-to-peer lending platform Mintos has expanded investment opportunities by introducing a cooperation with DEBIFO – the leading invoice finance provider in Lithuania. The cooperation lets Mintos investors invest in invoices issued by small and medium enterprises to large corporates.

Find out more here.

BitFury launches a mobile Bitcoin mining datacentre

World’s most funded Bitcoin miner BitFury co-founded by Valery Vavilov from Riga has launched a new product. The solution is a Drop-in mobile Datacentre, which can be moved around as needed. Centre’s size is 400 square feet or about two shipping containers, and it delivers a dozen petahashes of Bitcoin transaction processing hash power.

Find out more here.

Safe bike parking Bindio launches on Kickstarter

Latvia’s biggest IT group, Draugiem Group is launching another crowdfunding campaign – this time offering secure app-driven bike stands. Bindio is a smart bike stand made of a built-in hardened steel chain and an electronic lock that users can operate with their mobile phones. To ensure extra security, the chain has sensors that alert the user in case of an attempted theft.

Find out more here.

Giraffe 360 reports an amazing year 2015

Latvian interactive 360-degree visualizations solution Giraffe 360 has finished 2015 with some amazing results. +82% turnover growth, expansion across Europe and many more exciting highlights in this fun video:

Dealflow

Dealflow from Latvia doubled since last quarter

Early-stage and seed stage dealflow from Latvia has doubled since Q3 of 2015. 30 companies are raising over €11.5 million, more than twice the amount that Latvian startups were seeking in our last overview.

Explore investment targets from oil&gas to digital marketing here.

Dealflow from Latvia: all 6 projects from LatBAN January session are in negotiations with investors

6 projects were presented on Jan 20 at LatBAN monthly pitch session in Riga Business School. From virtual reality to perfume vending, all of them are now in negotiations with potential investors.

Find out more here.

Other

Latvian private investment funds recognized in TechStars investor list

Tech.eu has published a map and a list of 300+ European seed, Series A and Series B investors created by Techstars. The document is available for comments live and estimates a total of about €15 billion worth of funds.

The list excludes individuals, pre-seed investors, crowdfunding sites, and public sector programs. Latvia is represented by 2 private investors: hands-on B2C seed stage investor Rubylight and Series A and Series B investor iTechCapital.

Find out more here.

AirDog among Top 10 Northern European startups to follow in 2016

This month ArcticStartup has compiled a list of 10 Northern European startups to follow in 2016. Among world’s first computer as a service Solu from Finland and lightning-speed internet aiming to displace Wi-Fi by Velmenni from Estonia, Latvia is represented by the best drone of CES2015 – AirDog.

See more here.

10 finalists of TechHub Riga Academy announced

TechHub Riga revealed that this year their Academy preceeding TechChill Baltics conference has received more than 50 very strong and professional applications from startup teams of 10 countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Poland and Finland. The 10 winning teams include 4 Latvian startups: a flight simulator for sales BranchTrack, a network of storytellers Writer.is, electronic shooting system FOCUSD and automated screening of applicant bank statements Nordigen. Additionally, Giraffe 360, which is now headquartered in UK also has Latvian roots, growing from Cesis business incubator, Latvian co-founders and an office in Liepaja.

Find out more about finalists here.