TechHub Riga
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Check out the Latvian Startup & Technology Events calendar here |
TechHub Riga is the first international expansion location for TechHub and it creates a similar collaborative ethos to the successful London initiative, offering the same dedicated co-working space, community gathering point and international network to product-orientated technology start-ups. The fast-growing Riga start-up community will ensure that TechHub Riga becomes one of the key focal points for the technology community in the Baltic States. TechHub Riga has been open since January 2012.
TechHub Riga is based in 400 square meters of Class A office space in the center of Riga, at Citadeles iela 12. In the same way as TechHub London, the open plan space includes permanent desks for resident start-ups, a ‘drop-in’ working space for annual members requiring an occasional space to touch down in and a plenty of space to hold start-up and technology events.
The location is the center of start-up and technology events in Riga. Open Coffee Club Riga, an organisation with over 330 members, will now become TechHub Riga Meetup and will meet at TechHub Riga once per month as before. Pitch events such as StartupSauna Riga Warmup and LABACA Academy will be held there, as will hackathons, for example Garage48. In addition, technology meetups will be invited to move to the space, and a range of visiting speakers from the UK, elsewhere in Europe and Silicon Valley will come to TechHub Riga to bring new insights and contacts for members.
Who’s behind TechHub Riga?
TechHub Riga was founded by a group of like-minded start-ups and community members from Riga. Below is the list of founding start-ups: Amooz, CoBook, Livesheets, MightyFingers, QMinder, Reach.ly, RentMama, SunyRide and Videoavatars. These include Latvian companies, Pan-Baltic start-ups with at least one member in Riga and UK-based start-ups with development teams in Riga. The leadership team is composed of active members of the Riga start-up community:
Andris Berzins (Chairman of the Board)
Andris is an experienced global technology entrepreneur. He has founded Amooz, a digital loyalty and referral program that changes the way restaurants, bars and cafes identify and interact with guests. He is also non-executive Chairman of Reach.ly, a social media big data search tool. Andris is an angel investor and mentor, actively supporting the growing Baltic startup community. Previously he served in various C-level positions at Livebookings and AeroScout. Andris holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BSc in Management & Systems from City University.
Follow him on Twitter: @akberzins
Gunars Grundstoks (Board member)
Gunars is a start-up entrepreneur, currently CEO and Co-Founder of Rentmama, an innovative car rental service that brings together renters and small or mid-sized car rental companies. Rentmama is a graduate of Denmark’s StartupBootcamp and the UK’s Ignite 100 programs. Gunars is also a co-owner and CEO of IT House, a Ruby on Rails web application development company. He is a leader of the start-up community in Latvia, co-organising Open Coffee Club Riga and Garage48 events. Gunars holds a Masters degree in Socio-Technical Systems engineering and a Bachelors degree in Information Technology, both from the Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences.
Follow him on Twitter: @gunarsg
Ernests Stals (Board member)
Ernests is CEO and Co-Founder of Reach.ly, a social media big data search tool. Ernests has spent the last 6 years working in social media and web projects as a co-owner of SIA SOON. In 2008, together with Reach.ly co-founder Kaspars, he built a recommendation engine for geographic places and more recently an affiliate-driven direct marketing hotel bookings site. He is active in the Baltic rim and Nordic startup scene, organising events such as Garage48 in Riga. Ernests holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Ventspils.
Follow him on Twitter: @so_on
Viesturs Sosars (Board member)
Viesturs has served as CEO for the successful Latvian audio technology start-up Real Sound Lab for the past 7 years, leading the company through successful development of a licensing business model with major global consumer brands. Viesturs is also non-executive Director at start-ups E-tag and Petersoon, as well as Managing Director of TechVentures FVK and leader of the LABACA Angels investment group. Viesturs earned his MBA from the Open University Business School and his MD from Stradins University.
