Justas Janauskas channels entrepreneurial vision into Baltic art philanthropy
The Vinted founder, stepping away from the tech world, established the Upė Foundation to connect Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia's art communities with the global stage. His journey appears in Frieze's Risk and Reward series, supported by Deutsche Bank.
AI-assisted voice playback. Starts only when you choose Play.
Stepping down as chief executive of Vinted, the unicorn startup he cofounded in 2008 following a conversation at a Vilnius house party, Justas Janauskas found himself adrift. The sudden absence of purpose, he explains, led to depression. Yet this difficult passage opened a different door: a deepening connection with contemporary art and ‘a feeling of real curiosity, which I followed’.
In 2025, Janauskas founded the Upė Foundation, named for the Lithuanian and Latvian word for ‘river’. The vision is clear and ambitious: to create genuine currents of exchange between the art communities of the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and the wider world. Rather than working in isolation, he recognised from the outset that the foundation could not succeed through his vision alone, drawing instead on collaborative partnerships and collective expertise.
The foundation’s work unfolds across multiple channels. Curatorial fellowship exchanges between Camden Art Centre and Sapieha Palace, and between Hayward Gallery and Tallinn Art Hall, enable practitioners to cross borders and share knowledge. A scholarship at the Courtauld Institute of Art extends opportunity to emerging voices from the region. At Frieze London, Janauskas introduced the Upė Foundation Curator Travel Grants, a direct investment in nurturing the next generation of cultural leaders from the Baltic states.
His journey from coding to contemporary art reflects a wider shift in how entrepreneurs engage with culture. ‘I had plenty of doubts about the art world initially’, he acknowledges, candid about his earlier scepticism towards what he perceived as exclusivity and pretence. That honest reckoning now underpins his philanthropy, a commitment to opening doors rather than maintaining barriers. The Upė Foundation represents not an escape from business acumen but its application to a different kind of growth: cultural exchange flowing without limits across borders.
Imagery courtesy of Frieze (@friezeofficial).
