Winners of "Startup Weekend Riga" Decided

The event is organized by StartupLatvia. Rietumu Bank and processing centre DECTA were represented as "Startup Weekend Riga" technology partner.

"Startup Weekend Riga" is a 54-hour event, which allows budding entrepreneurs try themselves in a "start-uper" role — present an idea, build a team, develop basic product, prototype or model, and submit it to experienced jury. The invited professional mentors help the participants to achieve better results within just one weekend.

This year Riga "Startup Weekend" observed more than 20 ideas and projects, from which the participants chose the best nine ones. After that, there were teams created to support each of them and develop their business ideas, create product prototype or service under the guidance of experienced consultants and mentors. In the end the results of all teams were presented to the jury that selected the winners. The jury included representatives of Rietumu, Microsoft Latvia, Forbes Latvia, TechHub Riga, and others.

This year the work of "House Heroes" project team was recognized as the best one. As noted by a representative of this team Lev Bass: "House Heroes is a useful application aimed to involve children into helping their parents on household work and turn it into an exciting game. And afterwards – show children that you should always work to get what you want in your life. This application would be especially useful for families, where encountered discipline problems cause conflicts between parents and children. We are very glad to have taken part in the "Startup Weekend Riga", as this is the place we’ve built our team and realized our idea".

The second place went to the team involved into development of a solution aimed at improving communication between travelers and travel agents; the third place was given to a team that develops P2P alternative to courier service.

As said by the Rietumu Bank Board member Renat Lokomet while handing over a special prize from Rietumu Bank and DECTA processing centre: "I am glad that Latvia is a part of the "Startup Weekend" ecosystem for startup creation. As demonstrated by the Riga working session, there are lots of interesting and unconventional ideas offered by young people. Of course, not all of them will be realized. According to statistics, only 12% of such projects are proceeded with after completion of the startup marathon and even less become profitable. However, this is a great educational event that allows young entrepreneurs to believe in themselves, the prospects and feasibility of their ideas. After all, the future leaders of the industries are among those 12%".

Bank Rietumu has been supporting initiatives in the area of financial technologies since 2014. In particular, the Bank maintains Latvian startups engaged into FinTech area making it possible to accept online payments and get access to SWIFT and SEPA in 18 currencies.

This spring Riga hosted the first major international competition for startups Rietumu FinTech Challenge by TechHub Academy organized with support of Rietumu Bank as general sponsor. The contest was attended by several dozen young teams from all over the world involved into technologies in the field of finance.

"Startup Weekend" is a global network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors united by a common goal to inspire and educate young entrepreneurs, as well as provide them with opportunities to realize their business ideas. The first working session of the "Startup Weekend" was held in 2007 in the United States. The event format making it possible for participants to share their ideas within short period of time, build up a team, and run a startup has quickly gained popularity in the startup community. Now, each year dozens of sessions like this are annually held all over the world.