Investment Highway takes effect: Lithuania opens Europe’s fastest development track
Lithuania is transforming the timelines for strategic investment development in Europe. The country’s Investment Highway initiative, entering into force on November 1, 2025, enables large-scale projects to progress from initial decision to active construction in as little as three months, thus positioning Lithuania as one of Europe’s most agile investment destinations.
Accelerating pre-construction timelines
The Investment Highway removes traditional bureaucratic bottlenecks in territorial planning and construction permitting processes. Qualifying investors can begin building immediately after publishing a construction notice, while permitting proceeds in the background. The framework also enables phased construction, allowing work to commence on completed sections of the technical project while other components remain in design. These changes deliver substantial time savings compared to previous timelines, where the journey from site selection to construction could stretch up to three years.
In practice, this means pre-construction timelines shrink by up to 50% for all large-scale projects – from 36 months down to around 19 months. Projects establishing operations in Lithuania’s seven Free Economic Zones, where territorial planning is already complete, can break ground even faster, reducing timelines from 24 months to just 9 months. Defence sector projects benefit from the most dramatic acceleration: timelines compress from 36 months to just 3 months in non-urbanised areas and from 36 months to 10 months in urbanised locations.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 3 Nov
Announcements are published as a service to readers. The sender is responsible for all content. Announcements for publication can be submitted to announcements@thehanseatic.com.
Estonia continues to adopt AI and build new success stories powered by it. This week, Estonian voice coaching platform Vocal Image raised $3.6M in seed funding to expand its AI-powered communication training app, writes TechCrunch. The funding was led by Paris-based Educapital, with participation from Estonian Specialist VC and German Generations Fund.
The investment will fuel expansion and new language localisations beyond the app’s current English, Spanish, German, French, Ukrainian, and Russian offerings.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 2 Sep
The Port of Gdansk has joined the European ports operating regular, direct container connections with the United States. Thus, it strengthens its position on the map of global logistics, becoming a real alternative to the largest ports in Northern Europe.
Gdansk was included in the transatlantic rotation, strengthening the MSC network between Poland and the US. Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s largest shipowner, has expanded its Albatros service with direct connections from Northern Europe to New York and Charleston, offering full integration of inland waterway and logistics services.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 2 Sep
The Latvian airline airBaltic will begin direct scheduled flights between Riga and Oulu – the European Capital of Culture 2026 – in March 2026. The return flights will operate five days a week (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) starting from 29 March until the end of October 2026.
Yrjötapio Kivisaari, CEO of Oulun Matkailu Oy, welcomes the new connection.
– We have been discussing the opening of this route in different settings for a long time. Now we finally have good news! airBaltic’s new connection strengthens the international accessibility of Oulu and the whole of Northern Finland at exactly the right time, bringing visitors to enjoy the cultural year’s offerings. Our clear goal is to establish the connection also for the coming years, Kivisaari says.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 2 Sep
The joint venture RB Rail AS, responsible for implementing the Rail Baltica global project, announces changes in its Management Board. Effective 1 September 2025, the Board will be composed of five members: Marko Kivila (Chairperson and Chief Executive Office), Marius Narmontas (Chief Operating Officer), Emilien Dang (Chief Technical Officer), Thierry Boussillon (Chief Programme Management Officer), and Ojārs Daugavietis, who joins as Chief Financial Officer. The Management Board provides strategic leadership and ensures the coordinated delivery of the Rail Baltica project across the three Baltic States.
According to Arenijus Jackus, Chairperson of the RB Rail’s Supervisory Board, the Rail Baltica project and the joint venture have faced notable transformation over the past two years considering external challenges and new geopolitical and economic realities. This has required adjustments to project planning, optimisation of solutions and implementation steps, optimization of the joint venture and the whole project management set-up as well as stronger risk and stakeholder management.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 1 Sep
Uspacy, a Tallinn, Estonia-based SaaS startup that provides a digital workspace for small and medium-sized businesses, has raised €420,000 in pre-seed funding.
The round included an investment of €250,000 from Startup Wise Guys, with contributions from several Ukrainian business angels. An additional €170,000+ was secured in the form of grants from Google for Startups, Seeds of Bravery, Glovo Startup Lab, and the Ukrainian Startup Fund, supported by UMAEF.
The investment will be used to develop the product further and expand active marketing, primarily in Ukraine and Poland. The team aims to confirm the ability to scale business in international markets and demonstrate significant foreign attraction.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 31 Aug
Discussions have been increasing in Lithuania about how artificial intelligence will change learning – but BBright is already doing it. The team founded just a few years ago is now helping thousands of school pupils in Lithuania to learn maths more efficiently, and the Elicėjus platform they are developing has already been recognised internationally. It has been recently selected for the Google.org-funded Grow AI Accelerator and received USD 140 000.
The idea to create a personalised learning platform came from personal experience rather than from market analysis, since both Mantas Vičius, the co-founder of the platform, and his classmates struggled with maths at school. “We didn’t know where to start – the gaps kept piling up, until eventually we didn’t know where exactly we were stuck,” he says. Having subsequently examined the national statistics, they realised that it was a systemic problem: 35% of graduates fail the maths exam and 40% fail the evaluation of basic education achievements.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 18 Apr
From 7 to 10 April this year, the global passenger cruise industry met in the heart of Miami for the 40th edition of Seatrade Cruise Global – the largest and most important event in the cruise shipping calendar. The Port of Gdańsk, which traditionally represents Poland on the international stage, had to be among this group of exhibitors and business people from all over the world.
Although the Seatrade Cruise Global trade fair is mainly associated with Florida today, its origins date back to 1985, when the first edition of this event was held in New York. The anniversary fair brought together representatives of the largest shipowners, ports and tourist organisations, who discussed the future of passenger cruises, sustainable development and technological innovations.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 18 Apr
Ignitis Renewables, an international green energy company, has completed the first stage of the largest wind energy project in Lithuania and the Baltics, Kelmė wind farm. The 114-megawatt (MW) Kelmė wind farm I has successfully reached the commercial operations date.
“Kelmė wind farm I is the largest wind energy project implemented by Ignitis Renewables in Lithuania to date. This is one of the cornerstone projects that will allow us to move firmly towards our main goal of reaching 4–5 gigawatts (GW) of installed green generation capacity by 2030. This stage marks the increase in local electricity generation as well as the creation of a more secure energy system domestically and across the region,” says Darius Maikštėnas, CEO of Ignitis Group.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 17 Apr
The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Swedish Gender Equality Agency (Jämställdhetsmyndigheten) have published a new roadmap aimed at strengthening Sweden’s response to trafficking for forced labour and labour exploitation.
The publication, Effectively Identifying, Disrupting and Countering THB for Labour Exploitation: A Roadmap for Sweden, offers practical guidance based on national and international research, study visits, and expert consultations.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 16 Apr
Estonian offshore wind opportunities unite investors from all around Europe. Estonian energy company Sunly has joined forces with France’s VALOREM Group and Norway-based Deep Wind Offshore to develop the Tuul Energy project, reports Oedigital.
The collaboration, announced on April 10, will focus on developing a massive 250 km² area near Saaremaa Island. The project aims to install bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines with a potential capacity exceeding 1 gigawatt (GW), enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 15 Apr