News

Vilnius hosted the first Startup Olympics in Europe
2016
Aug 30

Oberlo, a startup that builds tools for e-shop owners, won the first Startup Olympics held in Lithuanian capital Vilnius last week. This event, organized to strengthen the ties between the local startup ecosystem, was the first of a kind in Europe.

Vilnius has been on the spotlight in terms of development of the startup ecosystem recently. A couple of months ago, the Lithuanian government has approved Startup Visa that will come into force from January 2017, making Lithuania the first country with this scheme in the region. Also, Barclays has opened its innovation programme, the Vilnius Rise platform, and Vilnius Tech Park, the largest and ICT hub in the region, is getting ready for the grand opening in the center of Lithuanian capital this autumn. 

Startup Olympics Vilnius 2016, organized by Startup Lithuania in cooperation with Vilnius Gediminas Technical University's Creativity and Innovation Centre LinkMenų Fabrikas, consisted of 9 different events, including basketball, table tennis, table football, dodgeball, darts, badminton and others. A total of 90 participants in 8 teams took part in the Startup Olympics. Teams from TransferGo, Epicwander, EcoCost, Unboxed and Play4Work also took part in the event.

Separate sets of medals was awarded for all events, and yet the overall winners were announced based on the total medal count. Oberlo, a dropshipping solution for ecommerce with a recent milestone of 1M orders, came first, Trafi, a public transport app that was the official app at Rio Olympics and recently launched in the US, was second, while a joint startup team was third in the final table.

Startup Lithuania plans to hold Startup Olympics in Vilnius every year in addition to its traditional hackathons, dozens of professional and community events and the annual Login Startup Fair, the main startup event in the Baltics.

We thank all our friends that helped to make this event happen: Kęstutis Navickas Badminton Academy, Donut Lab, Tichė, Raudonų plytų alaus dirbtuvės, Vitamin Well, Copictures, and Magnum.