Latvia as most European countries has suffered high youth unemployment since 2008, but many young Latvians are now starting their own small-scale businesses. Ērenpreiss and Inforgam are among the best, Washington Post writes.
Analysts caution that the change in working patterns is not enough to put a major dent in young people’s unemployment. Credit, which is crucial to start businesses, is still choked tight.
In an old warehouse Toms Ērenpreiss, 28, started manufacturing bicycles last year. He quickly sold out his first year’s collection, whose swooping curves were modelled on the bikes that a famous relative manufactured in Latvia in the 1920s.
Erenpreiss plans to double the number that he will build this year, and his employees have grown from four to nine people. Eighty percent of the bikes will be exported, he told Washington Post.
In a loft space near the wide Daugava River in Riga, entrepreneurs are working on dozens of new tech-based companies at a business incubator called TechHub Riga.
One of the most successful companies at this TechHub is Infogram, which was launched at the beginning of 2012 and offers easy tools to make online infographics. Its founders claim to draw 15,000 new users every week, have travelled the world to promote their product and say they have global ambitions.