He is one of several Baltic startup founders trying to strengthen the region’s defense capabilities as NATO’s eastern member states face their own hybrid threats from Russia and its close ally Belarus.
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“The start of the war was like a call to action for us,” R. Markevičius told AFP.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he, collaborating with his co-founder from the space technology sector, began implementing a research and development program to “understand what technologies we could actually deliver to the front.”
Since NATO’s eastern flank countries face numerous hostile actions from Moscow and Minsk – from drone incursions to cyberattacks – experts say startups like this improve the region’s economic resilience and help deter Russian aggression.
Over the past decades, an active startup ecosystem has formed in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Several companies based here are now well known far beyond the Baltic countries, such as Vinted and Bolt.
Entrepreneurs fill gaps left by traditional arms suppliers. The conflict in Ukraine has driven a huge technological shift on the battlefield, as most combat actions are now carried out by drones and robots. This makes rapid development and the ability to quickly scale production especially valuable.
“The current technology that will promote and is currently promoting the restructuring of European armaments must be not only high-tech but also easily adaptable technology,” said R. Markevičius, adding that startups usually “create quite effective, economical, and easily adaptable solutions.”
Defense spending in the Baltic states, compared to other NATO countries, is among the highest: Lithuania allocates 5.3% of GDP to defense, the highest among all 32 NATO members.
Given how rapidly warfare is changing, governments are more inclined to cooperate with less experienced contractors. The Lithuanian Armed Forces provide monthly access to training grounds and airspace so new technologies can be tested in practice.
The war in Ukraine also gives companies real-time feedback on how their technologies perform in combat against the Russian military.
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“You can test your product with soldiers from Ukraine, Lithuania, or any other NATO countries,” said Elvinas Kukys, one of the founders and head of Luna Robotics, whose company develops advanced video capture systems for FPV drones.
Under such circumstances, defense startups across the region have managed to attract significant foreign investment.
“Over the past four years, the Baltic states have truly been tested and proven. They needed to restructure their economies, reorient, and actually invest in their defense capabilities,” said Mario Bikarski, senior Europe analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft. “Now they are truly among the best-prepared countries to withstand various new forms of attacks.”
“A thriving defense startup sector is not what will stop a possible Russian offensive,” Fitch analyst Milan Trajković told AFP. “But it will certainly make it more difficult.”
The agency promoting foreign investment in Lithuania, Invest Lithuania, says that due to the Baltic states’ geographic location near Russia, some investors need reassurance.
“We understand that this is the new normal,” said the organization’s director, Elijus Čivilis.
He said that meetings between investors and ministry representatives – sometimes involving confidential information – can help alleviate some concerns and promote a better image of the country and region.
“We have many international soldiers, we have armored vehicles, we have transport vehicles, we have everything we didn’t have before,” he said.
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