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Riga Venture Summit - from visions to actions

BC, Riga, 19.02.2019.Print version
On February 20th 2019 already fourth year in a row Riga Venture Summit - an international startup ecosystem policy roundtable - will bring leading Baltic startup minds together. This policy-making event will host local and international experts to discuss how to turn visions and innovative ideas into actions driven by governments and ecosystems.

Riga Venture Summit is an international event that aims to foster cooperation between Baltic countries and support startup initiatives. The representatives of organizations from all three countries - ‘Startup Latvia’, ‘Startup Lithuania’ and ‘Startup Estonia’ - is going to present a brief overview of startup ecosystem progress and initiatives last year. Official opening remarks will be given by Latvian Startup Association Startin.lv, the new Minister of Economics Ralfs Nemiro and advisor of the Prime Minister Jānis Upenieks. Ministry and other governmental institutions already previously has expressed continous support to the local startup ecosystem and it will continue with the new minister as well.


Further the event will be divided into two directions with the first focusing on how governments could work towards applying innovation in practice and the second on how the startup ecosystem organisations could better build their communities. Both main blocks will be moderated by Janis Kreilis.


Startin.lv this year will put even bigger emphasis and effort on making the regulatory framework suitable for starting scalable businesses locally to ensure that Latvia can truly become a launchpad for global startups. Startup community know that ideas are nothing without execution. Thus we want to start the movement of effective practice on how to support innovations among government organisations and startup communities all the way from visions to actions,” says Chairwoman of the Board Egita Poļanska.


During the first part of the ‘Riga Venture Summit 2019’ there is going to be the opportunity to take a closer look at successful existing government initiatives. There will be case studies from Ministry of Finance of Lithuania as well as ‘La French Tech’ - collective trademark launched in 2014 by the government in France to kindle tech champions, promote French know-how abroad and attract foreign investors. Afterwards the roundtable discussion will bring together government representatives from the Baltics - Martynas Pilkis from the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania and Eriks Eglitis from the Ministry of Economics of Latvia - with the leaders of the startup ecosystem community organisations. Discussion will focus on how these case studies and other new initiatives towards innovations can be multiplied and implemented in the future moderated by Stewart Rogers.


On the second part of the ‘Riga Venture Summit 2019’ speakers will focus on how to build ecosystem around different initiatives. Voitto Kangas from Finland will share his experience with Maria 01 - co-working space and startup hub for tech companies in Helsinki. It is 70 000 square meter campus with 650+ tech companies and 4000 professionals under one roof - one of the driving forces of Helsinki startup community. The other story is going to be from Austin, US. Kevin Koym is the CEO and the founder of Tech Ranch - venture accelerator for companies around the world. It is a community of vibrant tech startups surrounded by the people, processes and materials needed to drive business success. Kevin emphasizes that it wouldn’t have been possible without creating a strong community.


Afterwards Voitto and Kevin will be joined by representatives of local startup ecosystem to discuss how to build collaborative communities - strategies that foster synergy. The member of the Board of Latvian Startup Association ‘Startin.lv’ and co-founder of the ‘Digital Freedom Festival’ Dagnija Lejiņa, co-founder of ‘TechChill Foundation’ Marija Ručevska, co-founder of Riga TechGirls movement, Anna Andersone, Chief Startup Instigator Olga Barreto Goncalves from Startup Latvia and representative of Ministry of Economics of Latvia Raimonds Aleksejenko will also join the roundtable moderated by Deeptech investor Ton van 't Noordende.


Supporters of the ‘Riga Venture Summit 2019’ is Sorainen Law Office and Ministry of Economics of Latvia. This event is happening in collaboration with “Techchill”.


“‘Sorainen’ cares about the startup ecosystem in the region. It collaborates with accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists and connects startups with them. We want to mentor, support and advise startup ecosystem players at every stage of their development - starting from advising on founder relations to raising additional capital and securing a successful exit. It is such a rewarding experience for us to play a small role in a birth of a unicorn or advise on a well-deserved exit,” says Jānis Bite, Attorney-at-law, Senior Associate at Sorainen and Board Member at Latvian Startup association.


Event is invitations only. If you want to join please contact organizers via e-mail [email protected].


About Riga Venture Summit

Riga Venture Summit (RVS) is an international startup ecosystem policy roundtable that brings together leading Baltic startup minds and host international experts to discuss the hottest startup topics and find solutions for the better development of Baltics startup ecosystem. On agenda we have the real case studies showcasing different approaches, the interactive discussion panel to tackle good and bad practice, as well as fruitful networking! RVS in 2019 is happening in the partnership with Ministry of Economics, TechHub Riga, Sorainen and TechChill.







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