No one knows these 3 large startups are from Vilnius, Lithuania. Do you?

3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 324

VPN is boring? It’s not with champion NordVPN

Nord VPN is the leading VPN (virtual private network) provider in the world, grew mainly by sponsoring YouTube videos, always with heavy discounts (like 60% off).
Besides VPN, they offer a growing range of cybersecurity products. Sounds boring, it’s not. NordVPN has a lively education blog and tutorial around VPN. Opinion: First and only VC financing in 2022 ($100m), now with ambitions of building a large cybersecurity offering around its VPN core product. We like the very good blog with perspective and advices around security.

Based in Vilnius, founders studied at Vilnius university.

Vinted, Europe’s largest fashion second hand marketplace

In Germany, Vinted was known as Kleiderkreisel, until rebranding to its central brand “Vinted”. Vinted is the largest second hand fashion marketplace in Europe, next to rival Depop. Ranking in the Top 50 app downloads in most European countries. Opinion: Also grew by acquiring smaller marketplaces like Rebelle. To compete against Zalando’s pre-owned section and Depop, which is owned by Etsy.

Founded in Vilnius in 2018 and started with Lithuanian market, then grew out from there into Europe and even the US.

Revolut — important Vilnius office for EU market

Revolut is not based in Vilnius but according to LinkedIn employees 230 in Vilnius + more than 80 open positions.
In EEA, Revolut operates under Lithuanian banking license. Vilnius acts as EU headquarter. Opinion: 70% of Revolut customers are in EU, a very important market for Revolut and banking license for this market is Lithuanian.

Lithuania offers a fintech friendly banking regulation, the reason for Revolut to be in Vilnius.