Accelerace Fund will foster the creation of deep-tech start-ups in Latvia

To increase investments in the commercialisation of research and the establishment of deep-tech and technological start-ups, UniLab, the business incubator for Latvian universities, signed an agreement with Accelerace, the leading venture capital and acceleration fund in Scandinavia on 17 January. The agreement will further cooperation in creating an investment fund.

UniLab is made up of Riga Technical University (RTU), the University of Latvia (UL), and Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU). The Latvia University of Biosciences and Technologies (LUBT) will be joining soon, making UniLab a national initiative of research universities for the development of science-intensive and technological business ideas and the creation of high-added-value start-ups in Latvia.

‘Innovation and the development of high added value products are the basis for the transformation of Latvia’s economy. Universities play an important role in this process as this is where scientific excellence, innovation, and the founders of future start-ups are concentrated.

UniLab's vision is to create at least one unicorn from the university ecosystem within a decade. A unicorn is a start-up with a market value exceeding one billion dollars. The world's leading universities, such as the University of Cambridge, have produced 12 unicorns, and another 22 companies are potential unicorns. Therefore, we will continue to identify technological business ideas at an early stage and provide all the necessary support for their commercialisation. In cooperation with Accelerace, we will create a full-cycle acceleration and investment tool,’ explained Andris Baumanis, head of UniLab.

UniLab has already supported 43 start-ups that develop high-added-value products and services. For example, Smart Packaging has created biosensor technology for food quality control, SUBmerge Baltic has developed technologies for underwater drone search and survey operations, while P-Agro Minerals has developed phosphorus recovery technology for wastewater under industrial conditions. Bdetect's advanced technology for skin cancer diagnostics and many others have also received support.

The agreement was signed by Baumanis, on behalf of Latvia's research universities, and Peter Torstensen, CEO at Accelerace. RTU Rector Tālis Juhna, UL Vice-Rector for Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine Valdis Segliņš, RSU Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Dins Šmits, and LUBT Vice-Rector for Science Irina Arhipova, as well as representatives of the government institutions and start-up ecosystem also took part in the event.