Act accordingly

work in progress

• Home businesses. Martynas Nikolajevas launches Arrilo to democratize the second home dream for the Europeans (see how below). Danish Reform (think IKEA+Danish design) raised €25m round led by Experienced Capital and naturally LT is their production supply base via subsidiary here.
• Marketplaces. Top 100 marketplaces globally - including Vinted, of course (note how much growth potential there). Reading deep dive into Cazoo, European used car giant - an inspiration for Ovoko? Sustained growth, expanding to FR, PL.  
• Payments. Connecting growth of .kevin (150 people!), Montonio series A with Stripe annual letter: "On average, businesses from Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland have increased their sales from EU customers by over 40% after accepting popular European payment methods (such as Sofort, iDEAL, and Bancontact) and reduced transaction costs by 40 basis points..." Five LT startups at Lighthouse FINITIV 2022 Spring Program.

calendar

• Vilnius Tech Leads - The One with Stakeholders [April 21st, also youtube] Speakers from Toptal, Vinted, Nortal.
• Techchill [April 28th].  TEDxVilnius Live 2022 [April 24th]. Wix - How to break into UX writing [April 27th].

rounds and capital

• Pulsetto raises EUR 500,000 from Kilo Health, third startup in their portfolio. Pusetto has developed a device for vagus nerve stimulation - to address depression and other health issues.
• Montonio raises EUR 11m series A, led by Index Ventures. They have been first investment in Estonia for Practica Capital, who took part at both pre-seed and seed.
• Pijus Makarevicius (via WeChange.group) is investing EUR 100k into Ikrautas - EV charger service providers.
• After leaving Oxygen Healtcare, Mindaugas Savickas co-founds InvArch, all-in-one solution for everyone seeking copyright protection within web3 (recently raised $1.75M)
• Lithuanian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association has a new Board.

insights

• The Diff (good newsletter) - The Gym Business
• Is a Bull Market in Europe's Future? from Adam Tooze.

founder guide

• Lessons from recruiting Bizops team at Opendoor
• "Power is earned and power is taken. It isn’t given away. You cannot wait for somebody to give you power. You need to take it" - On Career, Power, and the Australian Dream

roleplay

3 questions
Martynas Nikolajevas, Founder, Arrilo

What's your unique insight/proposition for the second-home market?

There is a shortage of second home properties across Europe, driven by significantly expanded group of people able to work remotely. Also, premium second homes are heavily underutilised - they sit empty ~10 months a year.

How large is this opportunity?

Our analysis estimates a shortage of second homes in the ballpark of 3-4M units in Europe. Assuming an average property value of €150k, we can talk about a sizeable TAM. We think that the shortage can be addressed with co-ownership, and consumer feedback suggests this model resonates with the audience.

What are key milestones for Arrilo to hit next?

Milestones for next 6 mo: match 5 homes in Southern Spain to co-owners from Northern Europe; rise financing to accelerate product development and geographical expansion; open 2 more markets; build a distribution network; and one more thing we’ll prefer to keep under wraps for now.

ecosystem

• The new High Potential UK Visa allows those who have completed a degree from one of 37 universities outside of the UK in the last 5 years to move there freely without an employer for 2 or 3 years (for PhD grads).