December 9 in the evening at the event "Wrap Up of 2021 & Startup Awards" held at Talent Garden Vilnius, the record year of startups was reviewed and Vilnius startups that create the most value were awarded. Event organizers - "Go Vilnius" and "Startup Lithuania" - in this way thanked the companies for promoting the city and contributing to the country's economy. The awards are held for the third time - this year startups and other participants of this ecosystem competed in as many as six nominations.
"Vilnius is becoming more and more open to new ideas, so at the same time it is more attractive for startups to create. On the other hand, it is their ideas and initiative that encourage the city to change, open up, change everyday life and learn about technologies. We are happy to see how many people, organizations, companies, accelerators support startups. This proves that our ecosystem is ready for more than one unicorn, that there is a very strong start-up ecosystem in Vilnius," says Inga Romanovskienė, head of the Vilnius city tourism and business development agency "Go Vilnius". According to her, the awards, which have already become traditional, are a great opportunity to acquaint the public with the achievements of companies that make Vilnius and the whole of Lithuania famous.
Elected startup of the year
At this year's awards ceremony, winners were announced in as many as 6 categories. The main ones - Startup of the Year (eng. Startup of the Year) - the winner of the nomination was the company "TransferGo", which aims to ensure faster international transfers. Over the years, the company has become one of the fastest growing money transfer companies, attracted new investments and currently operates in more than 160 countries. In total, TransferGo already has 3,5 million. customers and were nominated not only in Lithuania, but also in Ukraine, where it received the "Cross Border Solution of the Year" award for the innovation of international transfer services.
The winner of the startup of the year nomination was chosen from all the submitted nominees by the members of the startups already exhibited in the Startup Museum - there are 13 of them in total. This nomination is intended to honor a company that is especially valued by the startup community, this year TransferGo will also complement the museum's exposition.
Awarded technology, science and other companies
"This year was special for the Lithuanian start-up ecosystem - the start-ups not only managed to attract a record 420 million EUR investments, but even to increase the total value of Lithuanian startups several times, which in 2021 reached 7,1 billion EUR limit and, judging from 2016, it has increased even 17 times. Not only that, the number of employees in startups grew by 15 percent during the year, the growth of their goods and services export reached 192 percent. and was almost 3 times higher compared to the first half of 2020. All these results show that the Lithuanian start-up ecosystem is gaining more and more development momentum and is becoming visible on a pan-European scale. Therefore, we are glad that the individual works or achievements of specific startups are noticed and appreciated in these awards", says Roberta Rudokienė, head of Startup Lithuania.
The startups nominated for the awards will be evaluated in five more categories. Rising stars Rising Star) award this year went to the rapidly growing company "Ondato" - money laundering prevention (eng. anti money laundering) and customer knowledge (eng. know your customer) for a technology company that provides services to financial institutions.
"Ondato" also won the public's sympathy - it won the audience's favorite award (eng. Public's Favorite). A few weeks before the awards, the public could choose their favorite in a public vote.
Breakthrough technologies of the year Best Emerging Tech) is a startup recognized as Biomatter Designs, which develops artificial intelligence-based technologies to simplify and accelerate the process of creating new proteins. With the help of the solution created by the startup, completely new enzymes are being developed for the efficient and environmentally friendly synthesis of chemical compounds, as well as therapeutic and DNA code editing proteins.
In the business relocation category (eng. Relocation of the Year) was won by Wargaming, a company that develops computer games. Operating since 1998 this company is now considered one of the leaders in the gaming industry, with more than 5 thousand. employees and 19 offices worldwide. This year, Wargaming opened an office in Vilnius, where it plans to hire several hundred employees in a few years.
The association "Vienaragiai LT", which was established this year and has already brought together 32 startups, won the "Hero of the Ecosystem of the Year" award. Ecosystem Hero) title. The aim of the association is to solve education and talent attraction issues relevant not only to startups, but also to Lithuania as a whole, to support the development of the Lithuanian startup ecosystem, to ensure the sharing of experience, to represent the sector and to improve its image in society.
Annual Startup Ecosystem event "Wrap Up of 2021 & Startup Awards" united two traditional events of the startup ecosystem: "Wrap Up of The Year" organized for the seventh year by the startup ecosystem development unit "Versli Lietuva" VšĮ "Versli Lietuva" and "Go Vilnius" startup awards organized for the third time .
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius 
Photo: Mantos Gudzinevičius
