work in progress

Growing together. Tesonet + INVL first major into education - just acquired Siaures Licejus, which is two schools and three kindergartens. Robotikos Akademija founders are now locked in with ExoClass - see the interview. Edtech is hard to get right, but won’t stop builders trying - list of Estonian products.

Vibes shipped. Martynas at 70k MRR with Livity + building Buma in public. Adas (ex-Vinted) built personal finance app - in two months - give it a try (Mihkel has built Bilance, tried it, very handy). Elina Pika left 15 yr corporate career for anna app — day-ahead guidance for perimenopause. Tomas gets some builders in a house in Spain for a week - Vibe House (video). Brigita built Hurive for men - “wellbeing app built like a car dashboard, for the most important machine you own” Tomas and Vilune launched Maxwriter - LinkedIn content engine for busy founders. Rokas built Overvisual for social media content.

For all builders out there — you can get noticed via Sharks - third season is here.

Ventures. Two Romanians and Sarunas started Elephant.Broker - the memory and control layer for AI agents. Duncan Titmarsh, a legend of professional LEGO building, finds himself at Sort A Brick office.

Dual use. Krattworks making real revenues - over EUR 20M in the last four quarters. Mainline shows what EFDI infra can do at NATO integration sprint. RSI Europe keeps ramping up the team, including corporate finance function (M&A considered). Business Insider covers Astrolight, as alternative for Starlink in Europe. New team to track - 3P Defence. NATO DIANA hiring in Estonia.

Brazil. Baltics should do anything and everything to get founders like Gabriel starting their business here. Danius - building Footy Labs - surely had to visit Rio given the market they are in - and had adventures. Brazil is also huge market for Hostinger, as well as Eneba (massive traffic from Mexico and Brazil to their platform).

VCs that turned founders themselves:
JB Daguené - ex 70V - Evergrowth
Alexey Morgunov - ex Metaplanet - AI x Bio (stealth)
Tomas Martunas - ex Iron Wolf - WhiteBridge
Lauri Lehtmaa - ex Creandum - Fundra
Lukas Kairevicius - ex Contrarian Ventures - Chaceit
David Clark - ex Tera Ventures - Logman Defence
Jonas Kavaliauskas - ex Contrarian Ventures - Unive AI
Jokubas Vaiciulis - ex FIRSTPICK - OpenMail
Martynas Pocius - ex Iron Wolf - founding engineer at Drafted.AI
Kristi Kurvits - ex Tera Ventures - founders associate at TerraSpark
Peteris Ozolins - also started Weby.vc and other projects - VamosPRO

Poland / CEE. Many Lithuanian entrepreneurs breaking into Polish / CEE markets for growth. InRento adds EUR 11M (!) to portfolio in July only. ROIX has also launched private credit in Poland. Poland is important market for Ovoko - ex Uber GM runs it.

People moves. Aivaras lands Director of Growth role at Burga, and Goda is the new CHRO. Valeriia becomes a Partner at Darkstar. Aurimas leaves Vinted, joining Hostinger as Head of Cyber Security. Anuka joins Eneba to find more talent, Verica joins as Affiliate Manager. Darius joined Pulsetto as Head of Manufacturing & Supply Chain. Justinas moved back to Kaunas after 15 years in the UK and joined Hostinger. Also Hostinger for Mantas, ex-Spike. Akvile is Head of Comms at Ondato. Benita joins Pulsetto as Community and Brand Activations Manager. Benoit, ex-Earthbanc, looking at new roles in business development (in LT). Migle (ex Mailerlite) is ready for new product role.

brand + design

Not every company can become culturally ingrained, nor does every company need to. But for brands with that potential, it can become one of the strongest forms of long-term equity.

True brand-building relies on cultural resonance and integrating a company into society.

By announcing this latest investment in a foundational cultural institution, alongside existing investment in Žalgiris which is arguably the strongest Lithuanian brand with the highest cultural equity, Tesonet seems to be doing just that.

founder's guide

• “You’re not depressed. You just need to find your creative quest”
• How to be The Post-Agentic Founder

listed

• Lithuanian VCs Abroad
• ex-Vinted Founders
• Lithuanian Founders in the US
• ex-Oxylabs Founders

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