Latvia

Latvia's speciality is hardware everyone depends on and nobody thinks about. MikroTik routers from Riga sit in networks on every continent, and timber and engineering exports keep northern Europe building.

The startup scene is small but sharp. Printful built a print-on-demand giant, Lokalise translates the world's software, Aerones sends robots up wind turbines. Madara turns Baltic botanicals into cosmetics, Grindeks makes the region's medicines, and airBaltic connects it all.