A Small Startup Workforce of 19k Accounts for 2% of Lithuania’s National Budget
Lithuanian startups are thriving, with record-breaking exits, and a growing global footprint – making them a key driver of the country’s economy and an integral part of your everyday digital life.
On a weekday morning in Vilnius, employees of globally focused startups log in to serve tens of millions of customers far beyond Lithuania’s borders – while their salaries and payroll taxes flow back into the local economy. In fact, you may have interacted with Vilnius-based startups this morning. You may have sold clothes on Vinted, secured your VPN connection with Surfshark, or hosted a website built on Hostinger – and many other companies with roots or headquarters in Vilnius.
Today, that quiet global presence has taken a distinctly economic form. In 2025, startups and the technology companies that grew out of them contributed €544.5 million ($588 million) to the national budget – €70 million ($76 million), or 15% more than in 2024 – according to Unicorns Lithuania. Average gross monthly salaries rose roughly 9.5% to €4,600 ($4,970).
“Last year, taxes paid by Lithuanian startups exceeded the €0.5 billion mark ($545 million). The number of employees reached 19,100, and the ecosystem welcomed its fifth unicorn, Cast AI. In addition, the number of companies paying more than €1 million ( $1.09 million) in annual taxes continued to grow. In 2025, there were 102 such startups, which is 13 percent more than the year before. All of this demonstrates the ecosystem’s exceptional regional leadership and its strong potential for further growth,” says Gintarė Verbickaitė, CEO of Unicorns Lithuania.
According to Mangirdas Šapranauskas, Head of Business Department at Go Vilnius, the city’s official tourism and development agency, the city’s startup ecosystem speaks with a collective voice that amplifies its global presence: “The voice of a single startup can get lost on the global stage, but when the ecosystem speaks as one, Vilnius becomes a common denominator.” Nearly a third of the ecosystem’s total value of revenue comes from startups founded between 2005 and 2010.
Top 5 startups by taxes paid in Lithuania in 2025
Vinted – €44.2M ($47.7M), up 16% year on year
Binance – €31.8M ($34.3M), up 14%
Nord Security – €27.9M ($30.1M), up 17%
Wargaming – €24.7M ($26.7M), down 6%
Baltic Classifieds Group – €22.9M ($24.7M), up 19%
Top 5 startups by highest average salaries (2025, gross monthly)
Pixelmator – €26,700 ($28,800), up 247%, and recently acquired by Apple.
Game Insight – €20,500 ($22,100), up 125%
Planner 5D – €16,500 ($17,800), up 109%
Payhawk – €10,200 ($11,000), up 10%
Syntropy – €9,400 ($10,150), up 78%
Investment trends in 2025 highlight both the strengths and untapped potential of the ecosystem. Overall early-stage investment fell, but the most promising startups attracted larger individual rounds. Newcomers nexos.ai and Sintra, both AI companies, joined Cast AI among the top three startups by capital raised, with nexos.ai securing a record-breaking amount in an exceptionally short time.
“Investors are looking for startups that can demonstrate real results. The strongest deals in 2025 were made by highly disciplined teams. The quality bar has clearly risen across the market. Early-stage startups led by experienced founders attracted the most significant investments,” says Donatas Keras, partner at Practica Capital.
Today, more than 1,100 startups and spin‑off technology companies operate in Lithuania, employing just under 20,000 people. For a country of fewer than 3 million, this results in roughly 195 startups per million people – a solid per‑capita figure that compares to around 360 startups per million people in the United States. While larger markets and hubs such as Silicon Valley still lead in absolute and relative density, Lithuania’s per-capita rate places it ahead of many European countries and highlights the country’s active, rapidly growing tech ecosystem. On a jobs basis, Lithuania’s ~19,000 startup employees are roughly equivalent to a mid-sized U.S. city like Austin, TX, giving the country a scale and density of tech activity that belies its size.