THEO Growth: state support during product development helped maintain the team

Latvian company THEO Growth is developing an artificial intelligence solution that helps companies assess their competitors and define their brand positioning. Although the current version of the product has only recently become available on the market, it is already being used by its first international clients, including one of the Baltic region’s leading creative agencies MAGIC Agency. Investors have also recognised the company’s potential”at the TechChill technology conference last year, the company secured investments totalling over EUR 430 000. 

In planning its future development, the company is also utilising support instruments offered by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). Currently, THEO Growth is participating in the business incubation program at LIAA’s Ventspils office, while previously it received support available to start-ups in the form of tax breaks, which helped cover the costs of highly qualified specialists while the product was still in the development stage. 

“In this field, you can’t afford to build a team based on the cheapest available resources. Developing artificial intelligence solutions requires highly qualified people, and they are expensive specialists. Tax incentives gave us a very important opportunity to retain our team and continue experimenting,” says company CEO Guntis Čoders. 

He acknowledges that in the early stages of the company’s development, utilising state support instruments wasn’t always straightforward, as the product’s focus changed very rapidly. “In a start-up, the situation can change very quickly: while you prepare the application, a month later the product’s direction or priorities have already pivoted. In our case, this was one of the reasons why, at first, we couldn’t use all the instruments as actively as we would have liked,” he explains. 

Mr Čoders views the collaboration with LIAA positively overall, particularly highlighting the human connection and the diversity of available support. At the same time, working in the field of technology and artificial intelligence, he also sees several areas where government systems could still become more flexible and digitally efficient. “Compared to when I ran the incubator myself, a lot has improved. But when working with IT and artificial intelligence solutions, you can clearly see how many processes could still be simplified,” the CEO says. 

One of the most common challenges, in his view, is having to repeatedly provide the same information at different stages of the application process. “The system already has a lot of information about the company, but often it all has to be re-entered. If a company reapplies for support, it would make sense to indicate only what has changed, rather than starting the whole process from the beginning,” he says. 

He also criticises certain reporting processes in which a company manager must submit highly specific financial information. “Sometimes an absurd situation arises where as a company manager, I have to submit data the nuances of which only an accountant can really comment on. This results in having to resubmit information multiple times, correcting and explaining the same thing over and over,” he says. 

Despite this, THEO Growth plans to continue using state support instruments, as the availability of such support is essential for the company’s development. 

Information material prepared with the support of the European Regional Development Fund