TESTBED in Riga

Rīga has emerged as a pioneering testbed for startups and companies eager to deploy and test cutting-edge solutions in the realm of sustainability and climate action. With a strategic focus on becoming a carbon-neutral city by 2030 , Rīga offers the city infrastructure as an environment where technological innovations can meet the real-city challenges.

Since technology plays a pivotal role, the primary aim of Rīga’s testbed is to accelerate the development and deployment of solutions that would help to achieve city’s priorities and make Rīga an environmentally friendly and livable city for its inhabitants.

Collaboration between the city, industry and academia is at the core of the process, fostering new partnerships and collaborative projects. Rīga supports various initiatives such as hackathons, incubators, accelerators, ecosystem events, and competitions to accelerate the development of new impactful solutions. Rīga also has internal initiatives to foster the culture of innovation and sustainability within the city.

Key benefits

Access to city infrastructure (streets, engineering networks, public spaces, building belonging to municipality)
Fast track deployment
Point of contact during the piloting process
Evaluation and feedback
Showcase opportunities
Sandbox data access

Rīga living labs: a special place for your solutions

Rīga has established three living labs to mitigate red tape hurdles, allowing innovative solutions to be deployed, tested and implemented in a real city environment. With the support of innovation experts, it can be done way faster than other cities in Europe. Each of the living labs offers unique infrastructure and character that allows to meet different needs.

Support programs

Rīga Innovation Fund – This fund is administrated by the Rīga City Development Department to finance projects, programs and activities of municipal institutions related to the development of smart Rīga city and the implementation of innovative ideas, digitization, modernization and development of new and innovative municipal services. The aim is to support projects within the municipality. Each year, the fund commission approves 2 to 3 priority areas allowing institutions submit and request funding for their projects that address issues in the priority areas.

Innovation support – Rīga supports various ecosystem activities implemented by our partners. These activities include business creation activities, conferences, training and other activities. These activities are open not only for local ecosystem stakeholders, but also for experts, start-ups, companies from abroad. Follow our news section and social media accounts to know more about the latest participation opportunities.

Start-up Ecosystem Support Program – Riga Investment and Tourism Agency provides support for activities such as training, consultations, events that promote the development of the startup ecosystem in Rīga. The program is available for entities that already implement ecosystem related activities, regardless of the Agency’s support.

Accelerator and Incubator support program – Riga Investment and Tourism Agency provides support for various business acceleration and incubation activities, providing co-financing for activities implementation. The program is available for entities that on a daily base work on facilitating startup development, regardless of the Agency’s support.

TESTBED in Riga

Key benefits

Rīga living labs: a special place for your solutions

Support programs

About us

Priorities

Projects