While Lithuania has in recent years emerged as one of the most active crowdfunding markets in Europe, the sector in Latvia is still at an early stage of development. According to the latest report by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), more than €4 billion was raised across the European Union in 2024 through over 180 licensed crowdfunding platforms. The five largest markets — France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Lithuania — together account for more than 80% of total crowdfunding activity in the EU, with Lithuania alone raising approximately €280 million.
Crowdfunding platforms already operate in Latvia, yet industry experts note that closer cooperation with public institutions will be essential for further market development. Lithuania’s experience demonstrates how the sector can grow when supported by a favourable regulatory environment and effective public-private collaboration. The country’s success has been driven both by the rapid development of local platforms and by a dedicated national crowdfunding law in place since 2017.
“Lithuania’s crowdfunding market did not grow overnight. It took years of regulatory clarity, the development of strong local platforms and gradual trust-building among investors and with supervision,” says Dr. Vytautas Šenavičius, who chaired the Crowdfunding Association starting from the creation of the national regime. “A dedicated national regulatory framework introduced in 2017 created a stable environment for the industry. While this stable ground was helpful navigating compliance requirements was initially a challenge especially when competing with platforms in other countries that were completely unregulated. Later, after building investor trust and establishing a strong dialogue with the supervisor, cooperation with public institutions such as ILTE helped accelerate the market by combining private investor capital with public financing instruments.
Platforms operating in both Lithuania and Latvia experience these differences in everyday practice — investor activity and investment culture remain stronger in Lithuania, although interest in crowdfunding solutions in Latvia is gradually increasing.
“Until now, state support instruments in Latvia have largely been oriented towards cooperation with commercial banks, which has limited the development of alternative financing,” says Juris Grišins, CEO of Capitalia. “To broaden companies’ access to capital and reduce dependence on the banking sector, it is important to develop additional financing channels – including crowdfunding platforms and other alternative financiers.”
Lithuania’s experience demonstrates that such an approach can be implemented successfully in practice. There, an important role in the development of the market has been played by cooperation between crowdfunding platforms and the state development institution ILTE (formerly Invega).
Last autumn, agricultural crowdfunding platform LANDE became an official cooperation partner of Lithuania’s state development bank ILTE, enabling joint financing for farmers and agricultural businesses.
“Lithuania’s experience clearly shows that cooperation between crowdfunding platforms and state development institutions can be a highly effective way to expand companies’ access to financing,” says Nikita Gončars, founder of LANDE. “Working with ILTE allows public and private capital to be combined, attracting additional investment and enabling financing for a wider group of farmers. Based on our experience, a similar model could work successfully in Latvia as well, where cooperation with ALTUM could allow crowdfunding platforms to become an important addition to the country’s business financing ecosystem.”
To develop a similar mechanism in Latvia, investment platforms together with the Fintech Latvia Association are already working with public-sector partners, including ALTUM, on solutions that would expand companies’ access to financing. More specifically, work is underway on a potential co-financing mechanism that would allow the development institution to cooperate with crowdfunding platforms – similar to the model that has already been successfully implemented in Lithuania for several years. Industry representatives note that such an approach could become an important step towards expanding alternative financing opportunities and strengthening competition in Latvia’s business financing market.
“We see this as a highly important initiative that could help address several challenges across the sector,” says Tīna Lūse, Managing Director of the Fintech Latvia Association. “It would improve access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises while also supporting the growth of the fintech sector and the development of capital markets. Public sector participation in such initiatives can set an important example for the market and help mobilise private capital.”
The ESMA market report can be accessed here.
