With the aim of promoting innovation development in the city, the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency (RITA) announces for the third time applications for the Start-up Ecosystem Support Program. The aim of the program is to promote the growth of the start-up ecosystem in Riga through co-funding, by supporting the activities of organizations whose daily work is related to the development of the sector [RP1], thus encouraging the emergence of start-ups. It is also important to raise the profile of Riga as a start-up-friendly city. The maximum co-financing per activity is up to EUR 20,000 and the total budget of the program in 2024 is EUR 120,000. Applications can be submitted by March 10.
The program is open to a wide range of private or public organizations whose day-to-day work involves organizing activities for start-ups. During the evaluation process, special emphasis is placed on the fact that the activities contribute not only to entrepreneurship, but also to the city of Riga.
On February 28 at 14:00, RITA will host an informative seminar on participation in the program at Torņa iela 4B in Riga. At the seminar, RITA staff will inform interested parties how to fill in the applications, common mistakes and the most important information to include in the applications. The seminar will also be available online via the MS Teams platform. Registration for the seminar can be found here.
Fredis Bikov, Director of RITA, says: "Riga's startup ecosystem is still growing and harbors huge potential. We see that Riga is a suitable place for world-class startups to emerge, so we are delighted that for the third year in a row the Riga City Council has found an opportunity to support this sector through the Start-up Ecosystem Support Program. I hope that all participants will be able to successfully achieve their goals, thus not only enabling the development of this sector in our city, but also putting Riga on start-up global map."
The 2023 Star-tup Ecosystem Support Program supported 6 participants who had applied for 18 activities. These included conferences, hackathons, regular ecosystem meetings, investor visits to Riga, like, for example, the TechChill Conference, Startup Day 2023 and Startup BBQ events. In addition, the budget available for the program has increased this year with the aim to better promote start-up activities and develop the innovation environment in Riga.
For information on how to apply and the conditions for support, please review the competition rules and the website: liveriga.com.
More information:
Mārtiņš Pakalniņš, e-mail: martins.pakalnins@riga.lv