Yessica Klein
8 min read
09 November 2025
Born and raised in Riga, Aleksandrs Parfinovičs is shaping Latvia's deeptech landscape from the inside. Rather than importing innovation models from abroad, he’s helped shape a locally grounded approach to industrial tech ventures that balance scientific research with commercial viability. With a background in management consulting and a track record in industrial innovation, Aleksandrs cofounded his first startup in 2010 after meeting Prof. Valery Mitin at an incubator event. The two teamed up to commercialize Mitin’s nanocoating method for the automotive sector, ultimately selling the business to the Schaeffler Group and spending five years implementing the technology within the German company. In 2020, Aleksandrs launched Naco Technologies with a broader ambition: to accelerate the green transition through high-performance nanocoatings for green hydrogen, green chemicals and other green technologies.
What was different about starting your second company?
The second time is much easier. The first time around I had no idea what to do, no access to money, no local examples and no real advice. But once you've done it, you have experience. You’re braver, more ambitious, and it’s more fun. You can relax more and focus on building a bigger company. In our case, we’ve gone from R&D to full production in just five years. We now have 50 customers, a dedicated innovation center and a production floor with capacity to coat up to half a million components. That was unimaginable the first time.
How has the startup landscape changed in Latvia since 2010?
Completely. In 2010, there were hardly any startups in Latvia and people didn’t want to leave corporate jobs to join one. It was seen as risky. Getting investment was also incredibly hard. But in the past decade, Riga has changed. It’s cleaner, more developed, and people see startups differently. Latvia is now known for deeptech. There are more role models, more investors, and more support. It feels like the city and the ecosystem matured together.
What has been your biggest learning as a founder?
The biggest learning is that loyalty matters. You need to be able to trust your cofounders and team. Otherwise you waste time on internal problems instead of building the business. I’m lucky, my father is our COO, and he brings decades of production experience. He’s also been through tough situations with bad business partners before, so I knew how important it was to choose people carefully. At Naco, we’ve defined our values clearly: we care about the green transition, people power, customer centricity, science and innovation. We move fast, stay honest and work collaboratively. We actually have these values printed all over the office, as well as an image of Prof. Valery Mitin, the inventor of our technology, who has already passed away.
“If you only start one company, it’s quite stupid. You already went through the trauma, the sleepless nights, the health issues. The second time is when you get to enjoy it.”
What makes Riga a good place to build a deeptech startup?
There’s strong technical talent here. Riga has a solid-state physics institute, a technical university and lots of foreign students studying in English. Many stay and join local companies. We have team members from Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. There’s also a cultural proximity that helps with integration. It’s growing steadily, and you can see the quality of talent.
What’s your perspective on investor relationships?
We made some mistakes in our first company by taking money too quickly from investors who weren’t the best fit. With Naco, we were much more careful. We vet investors like team members, we look at their personalities and how well we can work together. A bad investor can ruin your enjoyment of the whole journey. It’s like a marriage; you’ll spend more time with them than with your actual partner. A good one supports your vision. When I started, Latvians were too modest. Estonian investors told me to triple our numbers, raise our ambitions. That advice changed our trajectory.
What’s next for Naco?
We’re still committed to green hydrogen and green energy, but we’re also expanding. Our nanocoatings help reduce or replace critical raw materials, so we’re now looking into mobility, water purification, exhaust systems, even batteries. We want to be active anywhere we can reduce environmental impact and critical resource use. Whether it’s hydrogen, ammonia, or steel, if we can make it greener, we want to be there.
Any advice for new founders?
Choose your partners wisely. If you get that wrong, it can drag everything down. Once you have the right cofounders, the rest starts to follow. And choose your investors just as carefully. Don’t go with the first person who offers money. Think long term. Founding a startup is hard enough; you don’t want extra pressure from people who don’t share your values or pace.
“Responsibility is one of our core values. We don’t blame others. If something goes wrong, it’s on us. That mindset changes everything.”