Startups and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) with experience and interest in deep tech are invited to apply for the Startup3 Virtual accelerator program to upgrade the business to the next level. Applications close on April 20th, according to the Labs of Latvia website.
On March 25, entrepreneur and patron of the arts Jānis Zuzāns said he'll cut €1 million in funding that he had planned for the arts this year.
The government has extended support to businesses and employees affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
Latvia's government on March 24 announced some further measures designed to counter the spread of the coronavirus.
Kalsnava Distillery, a maker of organic spirits, has upped production and will redirect most of its offering to the domestic market to meet the rapidly increasing demand for disinfectants, the company told the press March 23.
Latvian parliament will allow the sale of alcohol through the internet during the state of emergency related to the spread of the Covid-19 novel coronavirus, according to LETA news agency on March 20.
Latvia's first fully virtual hackathon, HackForce, reached its conclusion March 19 with an idea named 'Face Shields' emerging triumphant from the 28 ideas pitched to the judges. You can watch the full pitching process in our earlier story or in the linked video below.
The Latvian cabinet on Thursday endorsed the Finance Ministry's bill on measures for overcoming the crisis caused by the coronavirus Covid-19, and its effect on businesses, which encompasses a comprehensive set of state support measures, including benefits that will be paid to employees laid off by companies, reported the LETA newswire.
Tonus Elast began producing protective face masks in Liepāja at the beginning of March as a social project, and the company urges other sewing companies in Liepāja to also begin production, hoping to organize this with a common plan of action, according to a Latvian Radio correspondent on March 18.
Authorities for consumer rights and competition in Latvia have called on businesses to act in good faith during the emergency situation and not indulge in unjustified price hikes and profiteering.
Latvian policymakers on March 13 said a billion-euro fund was being made available to assist businesses through the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.
Two entrepreneurs from Valmiera have teamed up to create “Mans Peldkostīms” (My Swimsuit), which creates functional, comfortable and bespoke swimsuits out of Italian material made from recycled PET and other plastic waste, according to a Latvian Radio broadcast on March 12.
One of the giant alcohol retail stores near the Estonia-Latvia border said March 5 it was sticking to selling booze instead of paint, nails and laminated flooring.
Raccoons may not be the commonest sight in Latvia under normal circumstances, but a group of them are inviting people to hack, create and learn coding skills in a 48-hour STEM hackathon.
Living in Denmark Krista Miltiņa came to look at Latvians from a different perspective, and now she's turned the artwork she created featuring these observations into a business after one of the drawings she posted blew up on social media.
A European Commission (EC) report found that the transition to environmentally friendly farming could be the most challenging for the Vidzeme and Latgale regions of Latvia, so it suggests allocating almost 68 million euros to these regions for creating new workplaces, according to a Latvian radio broadcast on February 27.
Rīga turned into the Baltic tech capital for two days during the international Techchill tech conference on February 20 and 21, gathering around 2,000 attendees to discuss green tech, blockchain and 5G, while giving startups the opportunity to battle it out in a pitch competition for the grand prize of 10,000 euros, according to organizers.
Latvia's European Union Commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, on February 20 announced a new initiative aimed at stimulating small business financing in the Baltic States.
Banks Citadele and Luminor have announced joint financing for another shopping mall on the outskirts of the Latvian capital.
The first timber cargo load has reached the former historic “Liepājas metalurgs” steelworks factory territory, but to keep up with the increasing cargo volume the Liepāja Port stevedoring company Mols L is creating wood cargo storage areas in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) territory.
Businesses in Latvia, including start-ups, small and medium sized enterprises and scale-ups, have until March 6 to apply for the PowerUp! Challenge competition hosted by EIT InnoEnergy and supported by the European Union.
Spring has already begun in the Aizpute greenhouse where the first pansies have already been picked and the momentary sunshine is enough for the microgreens to sprout, according to a Latvian Radio broadcast on February 13.
Trikata butter, which is owned by the Jelgava-based company Latvijas Piens (Latvian Milk), is currently being produced in Germany, while a new company has been producing organic dairy products in the Trikāta dairy plant for three years, according to a Latvian Television broadcast on February 9.
Startup and entrepreneurship event TechChill has announced the names of the 50 hopeful companies laying it on the line in this year's Fifty Founders Battle.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved a new European Union support fund program to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) access capital markets, which will be the first such program in the Baltics and will be implemented by the Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFLA) once every quarter, according to the Ministry of Economics on January 21.
One of the most important Latvian scientific accomplishments of the year, the development of a new direct current power supply system for manufacturing, has made its way to the new Daimler AG car factory in Germany, helping to make the S-Class Mercedes Benz more cheaply by using less electricity, according to Latvian television's “Rīga Panorāma” broadcast on January 20.
The Central Statistical Bureau announced that 53.8% of the Latvian population uses the internet to purchase goods and services and that the percentage is slowly increasing, with the biggest e-commerce users between the ages of 16-34, according to Latvian Radio's “Eiro Fokusā” (“Euro in Focus”) broadcast on January 20.
Latvia's financial regulator, the Financial and Capital Markets Commission (FKTK) said January 16 it had imposed a fine of EUR 10,000 on JSC "Rīgas kuģu būvētava" (Riga shipyard) for violation of the Financial Instruments Market Law and ordered it to immediately publish financial information for the first nine months of 2019.
The Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL) presented its annual Sentiment Index at the Stockholm School of Economics in Rīga January 15, and the occasion revealed that while things seem to be improving in general, the pace of improvement could certainly be picked up.
The State Environmental Service (SES) announced that Latvian residents have no need for concern about the waste water from the Grigeo Klaipeda factory that ended up in the Baltic Sea, as it has dispersed off the coast of Liepāja and meets all water quality standards, according to a Latvian Radio broadcast on January 16.