Living outside of Latvia? Develop your idea, project or business with Latvian support tools!

This spring, 100 diaspora of Latvia can start an online pre-incubation programme to develop their business idea. Also, new business owners outside of Latvia, who want to begin developing their business, product or service, can start their journey to a globally competitive and exporting company in Latvia by utilising the incubation programme of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA).

After returning from Norway, Artis Babris started his business in Latvia by founding the screen printing workshop TingPrint, which specializes in textile printing. His thoughts about participation in the LIAA business incubator in Kuldīga: “Participating in the pre-incubation programme was inspiring and creative, the idea that we were the only crazies disappeared, as it turned out there are many passionate people. It was easier to move forward with this community. Therefore, it was only logical to continue our work in the incubation programme. I definitely suggest you sign up. You have to try. it is an opportunity to test your idea and understand if you should move forward with it. In my eyes, these are the three most valuable aspects of the programmes: First, the members – we still stick together and help each other. Secondly, the opportunity to receive “grants” – they allow you to move forward faster, especially in the first few years, which are tough enough because you have to invest your own resources. Third, training and expert consultations – they allow you to learn the necessary in a faster and more focused way, than if you had to learn it yourself by dealing with different situations.”
The pre-incubation programme is for idea authors, who are still on the way to their product or service. The applicant must have a business idea, a wish to learn and participate in online training for 6 months. Together with other idea authors, the pre-incubation member will practically learn to test their idea’s viability, as well as get feedback from other pre-incubation programme members and business owners from the business incubator community.
The pre-incubation programme for Latvian diaspora (nationals abroad) will take place only online. It is possible to study the program in English as well.
To sign up for the pre-incubation programme, first, you have to register on the Electronic Declaration System of the State Revenue Service (VID EDS), where you have to fill in the de minimis form. Secondly, you have to fill in the pre-incubation application and submit it with an eSignature (www.eparaksts.lv) or another e-signature recognized in Latvia. The application must be submitted to the LIAA by sending it to diaspora@liaa.gov.lv. The application can also be submitted using the service of www.Latvija.lv.
If any of the mentioned conditions cannot be met (for example, you cannot electronically sign documents), it is possible to sign up for the pre-incubation training – on a team with an individual, who has access to Latvian e-services (eID, eSignature, eSignature mobile or internet bank in one of the banks of Latvia). Both team members can join the online training. An individual or team can sign up to the respective pre-incubation programme with one business idea.
Whereas, the incubation programme invites companies, that have already developed their product or service and have begun implementing them. The incubation programme is for companies that have been registered in the Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia for no more than 3 years. The common goal of the incubation members and the business incubators is to develop products and services, as well as grow incubation member resources and knowledge pool, so they can become globally competitive and exporting companies in the future. No more than 2 team members can participate in the incubation and pre-incubation activities.
Arta Krūze, LIAA Senior Project Manager on Diaspora Issues, addresses all Latvians in the world by saying: “The applicant can be a Latvian youth studying in a EU university with a business idea they would like to develop while studying, simultaneously receiving financing for testing the idea, if it were to be implemented by founding a company in Latvia. The applicant can also be a Latvian professional working in another country, who after long years of work and accrued capital is considering returning to Latvia, or a family with children planning to move to Latvia. We also invite people whose ancestral roots are in Latvia, while they themselves have been born and have grown up far away.”

You can sign up for the LIAA incubation and pre-incubation programmes to develop your business and business idea in the largest co-working and new business community in Latvia from 1 March until 22 March 2021. To learn more, visit: inkubatori.magneticlatvia.lv. To learn more, as well as sign up for a flash consultation on the programmes and preparing an application, visit: www.go.liaa.gov.lv.
Useful:
 Information on the pre-incubation programme: inkubatori.magneticlatvia.lv/en/preincubation
 Information on the incubation programme: inkubatori.magneticlatvia.lv/en/incubation
 LIAA business incubator member catalogues and catalogues sorted by product type:
https://inkubatori.magneticlatvia.lv/en/our-clients/
 Consultations: www.go.liaa.gov.lv
 For more information, write to: diaspora@liaa.gov.lv.

FOTO: LIAA