Tomas Okmanas
Birth nameTomas Okmanas
Birth date5 November 1987 (age 38)
Birth placeVilnius, Lithuania
EducationVilnius University
Mykolas Romeris University
Known forTesonet; Nord Security; NordVPN
Titleco-founder of Tesonet and Nord Security[1]

Tomas Okmanas (born 5 November 1987) is a Lithuanian tech-driven entrepreneur and investor, and co-founder of multiple global startups across both B2C and B2B sectors.[2] He co-founded and is co-chief executive officer of a global cybersecurity company Nord Security, which operates the virtual private network service NordVPN. He also co-founded Tesonet, a founders-led group that builds, invests in, and accelerates products within cybersecurity, AI, web intelligence, sportech, edtech and other verticals.[3] Under his leadership, the combined talent pool across his ventures now exceeds 3,600 people.[4] He sits on the supervisory board of Artea Bank, one of the biggest banks in Lithuania.[5][6] In 2024, Okmanas’ net worth was estimated to be €1.2 billion.[7]

In 2022, Okmanas became a part-owner of EuroLeague team BC Žalgiris[8] two years later, he bought the BC London Lions.[9]

His latest venture is nexos.ai, an all-in-one AI platform for enterprises. Launched in 2025 January, nexos.ai secured $8 million early investment from Index Ventures, ten months later it closed a $35 million Series A round co-led by Evantic Capital and Index Ventures at $350 million valuation.[10][11]

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.[12]

Career

Okmanas founded Tesonet with Eimantas Sabaliauskas in 2008.[13][14] After trying 34 projects and ideas, from computer games to web hosting solutions, they finally focused on network security, business hosting, and big data solutions.[15][16] Both individually and through the Tesonet accelerator, Okmanas invested in more than 50 projects and ventures.[13] He mentors Lithuanian startups and helped launch an association to nurture them.[17][18]

Tesonet helped develop the web intelligence platform Oxylabs, the hosting provider Hostinger, and the cybersecurity firm Surfshark, three companies ranked among Europe's fastest-growing by The Financial Times in 2024.[19][20] Tesonet is a shareholder of Šiaulių Bankas, one of the biggest banks in Lithuania,[5] where Okmanas holds a seat on the supervisory board.[6]

He is a limited partner in other venture capital funds, including Creandum, Plural, and Moonfire.[21]

In 2012, Okmanas co-founded the VPN service company NordVPN.[12] 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.[22] Okmanas is listed as one of the inventors of this method in the US patent office database.[23]

In 2017, Okmanas co-founded Nord Security, an umbrella company for several cybersecurity solutions both for clients and businesses, like NordVPN, NordLayer, and NordPass.[24]

Since 2020, Okmanas has been a member of the Forbes Technology Council.[25]

He is a member of the board of trustees at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, along with the eighth President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė and other prominent Lithuanian figures.[26]

In January 2025, Okmanas announced the launch of nexos.ai, intended to help enterprises adopt AI.[27][28] He said that the idea came to him on October 28, 2024, and the product was ready in 30 days.[29]

Advocacy

Okmanas is a member of the board of directors of the Internet infrastructure coalition (i2Coalition),[30] which aims to ensure 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 VPN Trust Initiative (VTI),[31] which the following year released a set of principles for VPN providers.[32]

In 2023, Okmanas and fellow Tesonet shareholder Eimantas Sabaliauskas helped raise one million euros for Ukraine in an hour, then doubled the donation.[33] For their philanthropy, Okmanas and Sabaliauskas were named National Patrons of Lithuania.[34]

References

  1. ^ "Leadership at Nord Security". Nord Security. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  2. ^ "Tomas Okmanas". World Economic Forum. Archived December 4, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  3. ^ Global, Tesonet & UAB (2025-11-19). "Tesonet Announces Six New AI-Focused Investments, Including a Unicorn". AP News. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  4. ^ Tesonet Global, UAB (2025-10-10). "Nationwide initiative “Generation AI” launched by Tesonet: 40,000 Lithuanian students begin using next-gen AI tools". Yahoo Finance
  5. ^ "Tesonet announces agreement to invest in Siauliu Bankas". Tesonet. 2021-12-23.
  6. ^ "Bank's Supervisory Council". Šiaulių bankas. Archived December 4, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  7. ^ ELTA (2024-11-26). "The list of the richest people in Lithuania has been published: V. Germanas takes the 19th place". MadeinVilnius.lt. Archived December 20, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  8. ^ "Tesonet invests in Zalgiris Kaunas". Tesonet. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  9. ^ "London Lions announce new ownership and Zalgiris partnership". Basket News. 2024-08-19.
  10. ^ Sawers, Paul (2025-01-17). "Nord Security founders launch Nexos.ai to help enterprises take AI projects from pilot to production". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  11. ^ Heim, Anna (2025-10-21). "European AI rising star Nexos AI raises €30M to unlock enterprise AI adoption". TechCrunch. Archived February 12, 2026 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-12-10.
  12. ^ Gewirtz, David. "Meet NordSec: The company behind NordVPN wants to be your one-stop privacy suite". ZDNet. Archived March 8, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  13. ^ March 2020, TechRadar Pro 31 (2020-03-31). "Moving the VPN industry forward: a Q&A with NordVPN". TechRadar. Archived August 9, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  14. ^ "Tesonet Foundation Launch: Not Just Charity—Strategy". Yahoo! Finance. 28 February 2025. Archived January 4, 2026 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  15. ^ "The Story of Tesonet | We are Tesonet". 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  16. ^ "Okmanas: If We Want More Unicorns, We Need to Invest in Youth Education and the Modernisation of Spaces". Vilnius University. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  17. ^ "Tesonet - Accelerating the digital future and innovation | We are Tesonet". 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  18. ^ "Lithuania hopes for new unicorns this year". DELFI. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  19. ^ "FT 1000: the eighth annual ranking of Europe's fastest-growing companies". 2024-03-01. Archived December 4, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  20. ^ James Capell (2024-05-30). "Hostinger becomes the world's fastest growing web hosting company". TechRadar. Archived December 3, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  21. ^ Novakova, Natalie (2023-10-09). "Tech Wrap Oct. 9: Lithuanian VC Leads Pre-seed Round of Germany-based Climate Tech Startup, Estonian VC Firm Backs AI-based Content Moderation Platform". Icebreaker. Archived December 3, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  22. ^ "Moving the VPN industry forward: a Q&A with NordVPN". TechRadar. 2020-03-31. Archived August 9, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  23. ^ "Multi-part TCP connection over VPN". No. 11050587.
  24. ^ Prakash, Prarthana (9 January 2025). "From bootstrapped to billions: How Nord spent 'hundreds of millions' getting customers to use controversial VPNs, and became Lithuania's tech darling". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  25. ^ "Tom Okman". Forbes Councils. Archived August 9, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  26. ^ "Board of Trustees". TSPMI. Archived August 9, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  27. ^ Sawers, Paul (2025-01-17). "Nord Security founders launch Nexos.ai to help enterprises take AI projects from pilot to production". TechCrunch. Archived July 24, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  28. ^ "nexos.ai emerges from stealth to launch an AI orchestration platform for the enterprise with funding led by Index Ventures". nexos.ai. 2025-01-13. Archived July 15, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
  29. ^ Nord's Tomas Okmanas on why he had to launch an AI startup - Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast. 2025-02-21. Archived April 23, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-07-11. – via podcast.sifted.eu.
  30. ^ "Tom Okman". i2Coalition. Archived October 24, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  31. ^ Castro, Chiara (2023-09-28). "Top VPN providers get recognized as secure and ethical products". TechRadar. Archived September 14, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  32. ^ "VPN Trust Initiative releases VPN principles for providers and users". securitybrief.asia. Archived August 9, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  33. ^ "Lithuanians raised €1m in one hour for Ukraine – and IT company doubled it". lrt.lt. 2023-02-06. Archived December 20, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  34. ^ administrator (2024-06-13). "Tesonet Global Shareholders Named National Patrons for Donation to Ukraine". Lithuania. Archived December 8, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2024-12-04.