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“In just two years since founding the start-up, Surfshark has become the third leading virtual private network (VPN) provider in the world. We reached the first million paying users in just 30 months after the service was launched, a growth rate that matches Spotify's and outpaces Netflix's success. I am thankful for the dedication and effort of the teams in Vilnius, Kaunas, Warsaw, and Berlin offices, which earned the trust of users from 140 countries worldwide, enabling them to easily protect their privacy and security online”, – says Regimantas Urbanas, CMO at Surfshark.
R. Urbanas, who previously held the Head of Marketing for Baltics position at Google, is delighted that he can implement the knowledge he gained in his previous position growing and strengthening Surfshark.
Reveals the start-ups’ potential in the region
Inga Langaitė CEO of Unicorns Lithuania observes that this achievement by Surfshark, reveals the uniqueness of the start-up – in an incredibly short time, the company has become one of the worldwide leaders in the highly competitive field. “By joining forces with Nord Security and attracting the first investment, the company was deservedly awarded the title of a unicorn, and in 2023 the company’s value doubled. This is a perfect example of the speed, flexibility, and adaptability characteristic of start-ups”, – says I. Langaitė
According to her, “making it to the Financial Times 1000 fastest growing European companies ranking is yet another strong argument for investors, helping to reveal the potential of the entire Lithuanian start-up ecosystem”.
In the latest Dealroom review it was announced that from 2018 to 2023 Lithuanian start-up ecosystem’s value spurted in comparison to other European regions – it grew more than seven times (up to 13.7 billion Euro). In risk capital investment, Lithuania is currently second in Central and Eastern Europe – in 2023 a total of 292.3 million Euro investments were attracted to Lithuania. According to Unicorns Lithuania data, actively operating start-ups in Lithuania added 372 million Euro, or 23% or 70 million Euro more than a year ago to the national budget. 17,600 specialists work in the start-up sector in Lithuania according to the 2023 end of year data, their average salary is 3 800 Euro before tax.
The second unicorn in Lithuania
Surfshark began its operations in 2018, when they presented a virtual private network tool. By now the services offered by the company have been expanded with an antivirus software – Antivirus, user data leak reporting tool – Alert, private search engine – Search and a tool that masks the user's true identity online – Alt ID. The company has also created a now independently operational company Incogni, helping users remove their data from data traders.
In the Financial Times fastest growing European companies ranking it is stated that in the period 2019-2022 Surfshark’s annual income grew from 2.2 million Euro to 63.8 million Euro. In April 2022, Surfshark together with Cybernet security company Nord Security became the second official unicorn in Lithuania. In autumn of 2023, an investment of 100 million Euro attracted, for the second time, together with Nord Security opened even more opportunities for expanding the business in the international markets.
At the time of providing the data, the Surfshark team comprised of 330 specialists. Just in 2022 alone, more than 180 employees joined the company. Although from 2023 there is a trend of downsizing in the market, Surfshark has focused their human resources strategy on sustainable growth – by reducing the number of newly hired employees, they focus on attracting particularly strong specialists to their team and for the value each of them brings.
About the Financial Times fastest growing European companies ranking
Companies with the highest percentage growth in revenue in 2019-2022 entered the Financial Times list of the fastest growing companies in Europe. The income of such companies had to be no less than 100 000 Euro per annum in 2019, and in 2022 no less than 1.5 million Euro. The list includes only those companies whose growth in the period 2019-2022 was no less than 36.3%. This year, a total of 9 companies established in Lithuania entered the ranking.
