Funding, startup traction and news from Latvia: September

1 funding round, 11 startup traction reports, 4 news on policy, science, education and more. Stay on top of Latvian startup scene in one scroll:

Funding rounds

Edurio raises €230,000 from Imprimatur and Australian angel.

Edurio feedback tool for schools, which has been tested in Latvia, UK and India, is now buffing up for expansion. Alex Wyatt, a business angel from Australia with impressive background has invested in the company together with Imprimatur Capital who had provided them a €50,000 soft loan earlier.

Find out more here.

Startup traction

Sorry as a Service wins the Pirate Summit.

Estonian service for business apologies Sorry as a Service co-founded by Latvian Sabine Sipunova has rocked the plank in Cologne. Another Latvian startup – BranchTrack was among the finalists.

Latvian president opens the launch of Monea cashless society.

One of Rietumu fintech challenge finalists, Monea app has launched its cashless society on Sep 10. The service lets any iPhone or Android user send money directly to their phonebook contacts. Four major banks are on board of the initiative – SEB, Swedbank, Citadele and Nordea. The launch event was opened by the president of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis. Upon launch the app was trending among finance apps in Latvian App Store, was second most downloaded free app as of September 13, according to App Annie, and was later even rivaling WhatsApp for its 1st place in top charts.

Mintos expands to Georgia.

P2P marketplace for secured loans Mintos that has so far been offering loans from the Baltics to investors all around Europe, has announced that short-term unsecured consumer loans from Georgia originated by Creamfinance are now added to the platform. Loans are up to €600 with a term of up to one month. The average expected net annual return on these loans is up to 14%. All loans are secured with a buyback guarantee.

Total loans on Mintos platform have just surpassed €6 million and the activity shows no signs of slowing down.

Read more about Mintos here and see their June slide deck here.

Anonymous messenger second most popular Latvian product on US ProductHunt.

Stealthy is not the first Latvian product to be featured on American ProductHunt. However, the app has gathered 531 upvotes so far, which makes it second only to Infogr.am and is higher than any of its closest competitors.

Check their ProductHunt page here.

Latvian MapOnShirt gaining popularity on ProductHunt.

MapOnShirt aggregates Open Street Map data, transfers it as design elements and together with enhanced production process provides a solution to produce unique one-off items in very short time. They offer shirts, pillows and multifunctional headwear, with hoodies and bean bag chairs coming soon.

The product is now gaining popularity on ProductHunt.

MAHYDY accepted into Skolkovo.

Riga-based MAHYDY accelerated at Commercialization Reactor is accepted into Skolkovo. This entitles the company to receive a grant for advancing their anti-corrosion technology to significantly reduce the cost of hot dip metal galvanizing.

Find out more here.

BranchTrack shortlisted for E-learning Awards 2015.

Latvian edtech startup – flight simulation for salespeople BranchTrack has been shortlisted for E-learning Awards 2015. E-learning awards competition rewards excellence in e-learning worldwide since 2009. This year the finals will be held on Nov 25 in London.

Startup Roadway adds more partners.

Latvian platform arranging worldwide part-time business placements and mentorship Startup Roadway keeps adding new partners. The platform already has co-working spaces in 20 countries across 4 continents and continues to expand the network weekly.

100th ambassador joins Infogr.am mission to enhance data literacy.

Latvian data visualization tool Infogr.am that has been
successfully growing its ambassador network from Canada to Australia announced this month that they have signed up their 100th memb
er. The network is stretched around the globe, much like Infogr.am itself with their offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Vilnius and San Francisco and a HQ in Riga.

Swipe gets TechHub Riga as a customer and is hosting a business lunch with French chamber of commerce.

Latvian fintech startup Swipe provides a new way to process Visa and Mastercard payments, even without a web page. This month Latvia’s biggest and oldest coworking space TechHub Riga has become a Swipe customer. In addition to that, Swipe has partnered with French chamber of commerce and hosted their first business lunch.

Other news

Latvia adds €15 million to growth funding and prolongs investment period.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia has approved amendments to rules on technology transfer and venture capital. The total public capital committed to growth funding investments is now €15 million larger and the investment period is prolonged till Oct 31, 2016.

Find out more here.

Silicon Valley comes to the Baltics: Riga, Nov 7.

The biggest tech conference in the Baltics SV2B will gather more than 1000 startup founders, tech talent, experts and investors from Silicon Valley and Europe. Participants will share experience from Silicon Valley to stimulate innovation in Baltic region. Find out more here.

5 startups from the fall batch of TechHub Riga Startup Academy will pitch on SV2B stage. Applications are open till Oct 26 here.

RSU program by RHTU about to test academic startup degrees.

Can building startups be taught? The first program by Riga High Tech University at Riga Stradins University is about to find out. 38 students have signed up for 2 state-sponsored and 18 paid slots.

Find out more here.

Why is Latvia the perfect spot for science-based dealflow?

We explored why nuclear physicist, businessman and founder of Commercialization Reactor Nikolai Adamovitch established his science ‪‎startup powerhouse in Riga.

Find out more here.

Labs of Latvia is a startup community platform providing information from and about Latvian startup scene to the world. Check our site, sign up to our newsletter & contact us for dealflow from Latvia: http://www.labsoflatvia.com/