# Tomas Okmanas

Tomas Okmanas (born November 5, 1987) is a Lithuanian tech entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of several global startups. He is best known as the co-founder and co-CEO of Nord Security, a global cybersecurity company that provides a popular VPN service NordVPN.
Okmanas focuses on bootstrapping and leveraging technology to grow businesses in multiple different industries. As the co-founder of Tesonet house of brands, he built a diverse investment portfolio. It currently includes a web intelligence collection platform Oxylabs, a hosting provider Hostinger, and a cybersecurity company Surfshark. All three were listed among the fastest-growing European companies by The Financial Times. Hostinger was also named the fastest-growing brand in its market. Tesonet is a shareholder at Šiaulių Bankas, one of the biggest banks in Lithuania, where Okmanas currently holds a seat on the supervisory board.
In 2022, Okmanas entered the sports industry as a part-owner of EuroLeague team BC Žalgiris. In 2024, he expanded his ownership by acquiring the BC London Lions.
Through Tesonet, Okmanas is also a venture-capital investor in various industries, including gaming, adtech, AI, retail, and deep tech. He is also a Limited Partner in several venture capital funds, including Creandum, Plural, and Moonfire.
In 2024, the combined workforce across all his ventures was 3,200 people.

## Early life

Okmanas was born and raised in Vilnius. He earned a bachelor's degree in history at Vilnius University and later earned a master's degree in e-business management at Mykolas Romeris University.

## Career

Okmanas founded Tesonet together with Eimantas Sabaliauskas in 2008. After trying 34 various projects and ideas, from computer games to web hosting solutions, they finally focused on network security, business hosting, and big data solutions. Both individually and through the Tesonet accelerator, Okmanas invested in more than 50 different projects and ventures. He is actively involved in mentoring new ventures in the Lithuanian startup ecosystem and has taken part in launching a new association aimed at the growth of active Lithuanian startups.
In 2012, Okmanas co-founded the VPN service company NordVPN. He contributed to the development of the solution, significantly reducing the time required for TCP packets to travel between the client, the VPN server, and their ultimate destination. Okmanas is listed as one of the inventors of this method in the US patent office database.
In 2017, Okmanas co-founded Nord Security, an umbrella company for several cybersecurity solutions both for clients and businesses, like NordVPN, NordLayer, and NordPass. However, a near-future vision for Nord Security, according to Okmanas, is to have one app that users could forget about after its activation: it would cover all the important areas of consumer security in the background.
Since 2020, Okmanas has been a member of the Forbes Technology Council.
He is also a member of the board of trustees at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, together with the eighth President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė and other prominent Lithuanian figures.
In 2023, together with Eimantas Sabaliauskas, Okmanas helped raise a million euros to Ukraine in an hour, and then doubled the donation. For their philanthropy, Okmanas and Sabaliauskas were named National Patrons of Lithuania.
As of 2024, Okmanas’ net worth is estimated to be €1.2 billion.

## Advocacy

Okmanas is a member of the board of directors of the Internet infrastructure coalition (i2Coalition). This initiative ensures that those who build the infrastructure of the internet have a voice in public policy. In 2019, i2Coalition and six leading VPN service providers launched an initiative called VPN Trust Initiative (VTI). A year later, VTI released a set of VTI Principles to offer a comprehensive set of best practices for VPN providers. Speaking on behalf of NordVPN, a member of VTI, Okmanas stated that the release of VTI Principles and Standards sets the bar for the whole industry.