When you talk to Aurimas Bakas, one thing becomes clear quickly: he doesn’t chase trends — he builds on megatrends. Over the past two decades, he’s founded and scaled startups in fintech, sustainability, and IT infrastructure, leading multiple successful exits, including Paysolut’s acquisition by SumUp in 2021.
His newest venture, Copla, aims to redefine how organizations think about cybersecurity and compliance — bridging the gap between “on-paper compliance” and true operational readiness.
Riding the Megatrends
“I always start from megatrends,” Aurimas explains. “If you build in the direction the world is already moving, you don’t have to fight for momentum; you can scale with it.”
That philosophy has guided him through very different industries — from fintech infrastructure to green tech, from antipiracy to mobile payments. But beyond strategy, he emphasizes curiosity and resilience. “I never stop looking, even after failures. Curiosity and resilience are the real drivers. If you stay curious, hungry, and willing to try again, you eventually find the opportunity that does.”
The Origin of Copla
After the successful exit of Paysolut, Aurimas took time off — but only briefly. “Building businesses is probably the one thing I know how to do really well,” he says with a smile. “At Paysolut, we were a critical vendor to the financial industry, so compliance and security were always front and center. I saw firsthand how much pressure companies are under to trust their vendors without always having the right tools to assess and manage that risk.”
That realization became the seed for Copla, an ICT compliance company created to make risk management and information security easier for businesses. In a world of ever-growing threats and increasingly stringent requirements, it’s difficult for companies to keep up with a perfect storm: a shortage of compliance professionals on one side, and a rapidly increasing burden of regulatory reporting on the other.
From Policies to Practice
For Aurimas Bakas, the gap between perception and reality in cybersecurity is vast. “Many companies invest a lot of effort into looking secure on paper — with policies, certifications, and checklists — but only a few are truly prepared for real incidents. Copla was created to close that gap.”
Copla’s mission is to make security operational, not theoretical. It’s about proving that controls don’t just exist in documents — they actually work when it matters.
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A Founder’s Second Wind
Having gone through several startup cycles, Aurimas Bakas approaches Copla with a new kind of clarity. “I know what works, what is noise, and where early mistakes usually happen. We’re very intentional about focus, hiring, and customer validation from day one.”
That experience has also brought him calmness. “I genuinely enjoy building businesses now. If I stay focused, surround myself with the right people, and give my best every day, we will make Copla a success.”
Balancing Vision and Reality
“Vision is the starting point, not the final product,” he says. “I begin with a strong hypothesis about where the world is going — and then I expect the first version to be wrong in some way.”
In deep-tech ventures, it’s easy to get lost in the technology. Aurimas insists on staying obsessed with the problem, not the product. “We keep the long-term direction clear but are ruthless about adjusting the product, positioning, or business model based on real feedback. That’s how you stay innovative but still build something that works.”
Leadership Through Example
Culture, for Aurimas Bakas, begins at the top. “People don’t follow slogans; they follow what they see,” he says. “So I focus on leading by example — being transparent, taking responsibility, and staying calm under pressure.”
His leadership philosophy is grounded in emotional intelligence and accountability — values that are as important in startups as in cybersecurity.
Timing and Megatrends
Looking back, Aurimas admits that timing has shaped every venture he’s built. “I even had a business that would have boomed during Covid — but we shut it down just before the pandemic. That experience reminded me that external timing can be as important as execution.”
Now, he intentionally builds around “megatrends that are almost, but not yet fully, obvious.” As he puts it: “We look for shifts that are five minutes away from the mainstream — early enough to shape the space, but not so early that we spend years waiting for the market to catch up.”
People First, Always
Working with teams across Europe and beyond has taught Aurimas Bakas that great companies are built on trust and shared purpose. “You can’t scale without alignment. No matter how global your team is, people must believe in the same mission — and see how their work moves that mission forward.”
Defining Success and Legacy
After multiple exits, his definition of success has evolved. It’s no longer just financial. “Success for me today means building something genuinely useful,” he says. “I want Copla to help raise the standard for what good security looks like.”
Looking ahead, his vision for Copla blends human intelligence with AI automation. “In the long term, I believe most compliance work will be handled by AI agents that collect and analyze information,” he predicts. “But truly resilient organizations can’t be built without people. Copla will help employees understand what’s being done, why it matters, and how to act on it.”
From Compliance to Real Resilience
Ultimately, Aurimas Bakas sees Copla not as a cybersecurity company, but as a movement toward real operational resilience. “We’re building a platform that helps companies move from being ‘compliant on paper’ to genuinely secure in practice,” he says.
And as with all his ventures, he’s doing it with the same mix of curiosity, discipline, and timing that has defined his entire entrepreneurial journey.
