30 Top VC-Recommended Baltic Startups to Watch in 2026

Here’s our 2026 list of the most promising Baltic startups to watch, featuring early-stage teams from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Baltic startups raised €608M in 2025 and another €218M in H1 2026, with pre-seed on track for a record year as first cheques get bigger. This year’s picks show where that momentum is heading: AI agents that do real work, defence and resilience tech, and deeptech tackling energy and space.

To put this list together, we asked 15 VCs and angel networks active in the region for their picks. There was one rule: every fund had to nominate startups outside its own portfolio.

The result is a list of pre-seed and seed-stage startups that the investors closest to the Baltic startup ecosystem are watching most closely right now.

Top Lithuanian Startups to Watch in 2026

Lithuanian startups raised €64M in H1 2026, following a record €238M in 2025, and Lithuania now leads the Baltics by deal count with 33 rounds in the first half of the year. Pre-seed keeps climbing, with €12M raised in H1 alone, and Oxylabs’ €114M round in H2 is set to lift the full-year total significantly. This year’s nominees lean heavily into AI agents that take real actions, from customer service and loan collections to marketing, alongside a strong defence cohort led by Onodrim, which raised a €40M seed round.

1. Onodrim (Defencetech): A European defence and industrial technology platform building the hardware, software and manufacturing capacity Europe needs for its long-term security, from border protection to resilient supply chains.
2. Holo (AI): An AI marketing team in one tool. Paste in your website and Holo plans, writes and publishes your ads, social posts, emails and SEO content, while you simply approve.
3. Ace Waves (AI): AI agents that resolve customer service cases end-to-end, taking real actions like refunds and returns inside existing tools, across chat, email and phone in 90+ languages.
4. Condense.chat (AI/DevTools): Context compression for AI coding agents that cuts the tokens agents resend on every turn, significantly lowering AI coding bills.
5. Broswarm (Defencetech): Drone-mounted radar sensors and AI that create 3D subsurface images to detect landmines, including non-metallic ones, making demining faster and safer.
6. Chaseit (Fintech/AI): AI voice agents built for loan servicing and collections, handling tens of thousands of calls a day for European lenders in 10+ languages.
7. Guideless (AI/SaaS): Record a software workflow once and get a narrated video guide and step-by-step doc in 42+ languages, already used by teams at Vinted.
8. Fieldy (AI/Hardware): A wearable AI note-taker, worn as a pendant or watch, that turns conversations into summaries, tasks and reminders.
9. Mainline (Defencetech): A “sovereign stack” for defence, with custom firmware that makes consumer-grade hardware and foreign chips safe to deploy and a quantum-safe encryption layer to build secure applications on top. Founded by Audrius Zujus, former co-founder and CTO of Argyle.
10. EnforceShield (Legaltech): Autonomous brand protection with legal expertise built in, detecting and removing counterfeits and IP infringement across marketplaces, social media, search and ads.

“Lithuania’s story this year isn’t in the headline number, it’s underneath it. We now lead the Baltics by deal count, pre-seed has already raised more than half of last year’s total in just six months, and the region is producing a new unicorn almost every year. More founders are getting their first cheque earlier, and that’s exactly where the next Cast AI or Oxylabs comes from. The 30 VC-recommended startups on this list show how deep that pipeline already runs,” said Andra Bagdonaitė, General Partner at FIRSTPICK.

Top Latvian Startups to Watch in 2026

Latvian startups raised €19M in H1 2026, after a strong €76M rebound in 2025, with Giraffe360’s €9M growth round the largest of the half. Latvia’s nominees stand out for deeptech and hardware: Deep Space Energy, the first Latvian startup accepted into NATO DIANA, is building radioisotope power for the Moon and satellites, while EngyCell and Flintt bring energy storage and hardware engineering into the AI era. Swotzy also returns from last year’s list, and it keeps appearing on Sifted’s rankings of Europe’s fastest-growing startups year after year.

1. Radiant Robotics (Robotics/Energytech): Autonomous inspection drones and an AI agent for utility-scale solar parks. The Sparrow drone scans every panel for visible and hidden faults, and Glance turns the findings into prioritised repairs and work orders.
2. Swotzy (Logistics): A multi-carrier shipping platform that gives e-commerce brands better rates, store integrations and automated shipping in one place, now used by 2,000+ brands.
3. EngyCell (Energytech): Battery energy storage systems combined with trading algorithms and a virtual power plant platform for commercial, industrial and utility-scale customers.
4. Silent (Deeptech): Turning ultrasound into intelligence, led by a three-time founder who previously built a 14PB AI training-data business, alongside ex-Meta and Imperial College wearable-ultrasound researchers.
5. StackRadar (DevTools): AI agents that keep software dependencies up to date, fixing vulnerabilities and outdated packages and merging the changes under rules each team sets.
6. CAIA Care (Healthtech): An AI-native operating engine for private clinics that scans patient records against clinical guidelines to find care gaps, then uses AI agents to run personalised, continuous care with patients between visits.
7. Deep Space Energy (Spacetech): A radioisotope power generator that needs up to five times less fuel than traditional systems, built to power lunar missions and make satellites more resilient.
8. Spotwise (AI/Media): Listens to every ad on radio, TV and podcasts in real time and turns it into work for media sales teams: new leads, pitch preparation and proof of delivery.
9. Handwave (Fintech): Palm biometrics for retail. With one wave of a hand, shoppers can pay, collect loyalty points and verify their age in about four seconds, secured by palm geometry, vein patterns and liveness detection.
10. Flintt (Hardware/DevTools): A collaborative, AI-assisted workspace where hardware teams can share, review and move board designs forward together.

Marija Ručevska

“What excites me about Latvia right now is the depth of what founders are taking on. Deep Space Energy becoming the first Latvian startup in NATO DIANA shows our teams can compete at the frontier of space and defence tech, Silent is turning ultrasound into intelligence with a team of repeat founders and world-class researchers, and companies like EngyCell, Radiant Robotics and Flintt are bringing serious engineering to energy and hardware, exactly where Europe needs new champions. Alongside them, a new generation of AI-native companies such as StackRadar, CAIA Care and Spotwise are building for global markets from day one. Latvia has always been strong in engineering talent; what’s changing is the ambition. I believe several of these companies have the potential to become category leaders far beyond the Baltics,” said Marija Ručevska, General Partner at Outlast Fund.

Top Estonian Startups to Watch in 2026

Estonia remains the Baltics’ capital leader, raising €135M in H1 2026, or 62% of all Baltic capital, driven by larger Series A and growth rounds such as Frankenburg Technologies’ €30M raise. Pre-seed is on pace for a record year, with 17 deals worth €14M in H1 alone, and Zobi’s €5M pre-seed in August shows how a few outlier rounds are resetting what an early-stage round looks like in the region. Estonia’s nominees show the ecosystem’s range, from defence tech like Wayren, which closed a €7.9M seed round, to AI-native companies such as Zobi and Bilt, and Creem, which returns from last year’s list after closing a €5M seed round in September to build billing infrastructure for AI-native software companies.

1. Zobi (AI): An applied AI lab in Tallinn training models on more than a million live conversations to run sales conversations for brands.
2. Bilt (AI): An AI agent that turns a text prompt into a real native mobile app and ships it to the App Store and Google Play.
3. Creem (Fintech): Billing, payments, tax compliance and revenue operations for AI-native software companies, built so AI agents can run the store alongside the team.
4. Wayren (Defencetech): A communication platform that keeps teams connected and data in sync under jamming, over difficult terrain or when infrastructure fails.
5. KrattWorks (Defencetech): Jamming-resistant reconnaissance drones and aerial target drones for frontline units and military training.
6. Spiral Hydrogen (Climatetech): A centrifugal, bubble-free electrolyser reaching over 90% efficiency, aiming to make green hydrogen cheaper than fossil-based alternatives, with a pilot at the Port of Rotterdam.
7. 1ROLLO (Robotics): Autonomous security robots, co-founded by Cleveron creator Arno Kütt.
8. ApexMake (AI): An AI-powered expert network for investment due diligence that screens and interviews operators with its own AI agent and turns the insights into a searchable knowledge base.
9. Leio (AI/Supply chain): An AI supply planning agent for food and beverage producers that predicts shortages, emails suppliers and updates the ERP on its own.
10. display.dev (AI/DevTools): A publishing layer for AI-generated work. One command turns any HTML or Markdown file an agent creates into a permanent, secure link behind company login.

Tim Vaino

“What stands out to me is the range. AI now runs through almost everything on this list, from sales and billing to supply chains and due diligence, and next to it sits a serious hard-tech bench in defence, climate and robotics. The early-stage momentum is clearly there. The task now is turning it into seed and Series A rounds, and from what we see in our pipeline, H2 should bring a few,” said Tim Vaino, Investment Manager at Practica Capital.

Key Trends in the Baltic Startup Ecosystem 2026

The startups featured in this list show how the Baltic startup ecosystem is evolving in 2026. Across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, founders are moving beyond AI features to AI that does the work.

From AI Tools to AI Agents That Act

Last year, AI was embedded across almost every sector. This year, AI is the most active vertical by number of deals in the Baltics, and the shift is from AI that answers to AI that acts. Ace Waves resolves customer service cases end-to-end, Chaseit runs collection calls, Holo runs marketing, Leio places supplier orders and StackRadar merges code fixes. A new layer of tools is also emerging around these agents, from Condense.chat cutting their costs to display.dev giving their output a home.

Defence and Resilience Become a Core Baltic Strength

Defence, security and resilience accounted for 15.4% of all Baltic startup funding in 2025, and in H1 2026 defence raised more capital than any other vertical. That was driven by a handful of later-stage rounds, such as Frankenburg Technologies’ €30M raise, which alone made up 42% of all Series A capital in the region. This year’s list includes a full spectrum, from Onodrim’s industrial platform and KrattWorks’ jamming-resistant drones to Wayren’s resilient communications and Broswarm’s landmine detection.

Bigger First Cheques, Earlier

2026 is shaping up to be a record year for pre-seed in the Baltics. The first half of the year alone brought in 64% of 2025’s full-year pre-seed capital, and the share of pre-seed rounds of €1M or more doubled from 16% to 33%. Outlier rounds like Zobi’s €5M pre-seed show how the line between pre-seed and seed is blurring. Many of the startups on this list are at exactly this stage, which is why investors are watching them now.

Deeptech Tackles Energy and Space

Baltic founders are increasingly taking on hard, capital-intensive problems. Spiral Hydrogen is working to make green hydrogen cost-competitive, EngyCell is building energy storage and trading, and Deep Space Energy is developing power systems for the Moon and satellites.

This article wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of BSV Ventures, byFounders, Coinvest Capital, Contrarian Ventures, Curiosity VC, FIRSTPICK, Inovo, Iron Wolf Capital, LatBAN, Outlast Fund, Practica Capital, Superangel, Superhero Capital, Wave Ventures and Wix Ventures. Thank you for sharing your insights and helping spotlight the region’s most promising startups.

FIRSTPICK is a first-check VC fund backing Baltic founders at inception and pre-seed. We’re a generalist early-stage fund with a strong focus on AI-first software, writing first checks of €100K–€500K and backing founders with follow-on capital up to €1M. In addition to capital, portfolio companies gain access to a platform of a 250+ founder community, experienced operators, and practical early-stage know-how.