work in progress

• A reminder, dear philomaths:

So here is the list of some friends trying hard – let's help them

• • Evaldas – Guideless – create AI-narrated video guides in mins
  • Valdemaras – dhub – Markdown editor for docs and static sites
  • Mantas and the team – Scout4.me – never miss a price drop for a product
  • Gintare and the team – ademt.ai – stop affiliate ad fraud
  • Lukas and the team – cashcoach AI – better personal finance
  • Marius and Andrius - Alterleap - AI analysis for alternative funds investors
  • Skarbe – AI CRM – hits #1 on product hunt
  • Rolands (ex Nordigen w/ exit) – BirdyChat – home for work convos
• Builder movement is incredible, a fresh new wave of talent is making things, and they need space with culture installed. Riga is launching, too – welcome SHIPYARDAI. This is a basedspace_ call for founders – EUR 10k and you go shipping. 20+ founders jumped headfirst into the basejump Weekend Challenge by Lost Astronaut. Come join: high-speed co-founder sprint (50 vetted founders, engineers, and builders in one room; 60 seconds each on the mic to pitch your mission, or your skills).
• • Iron Brand writes how not to wait – "A note to everyone waiting for the right idea".
• Auto and moto shows: which Baltic startups go? LABA7 brings Innovator Award from SEMA. Monimoto has become a leading brand in its segment. CarVertical, Elinta Motors and Elinta Charge, Inbalance Grid, also the likes of Mbito and OBDeleven.
• VC nature. Want to invest? It's all sales, all day and every day. Want to take from VC? That might be a great idea, but you need to understand the game on both sides.
• Vinted and nexos.ai are doing alright

• Water vehicles. Swedish X Shore sinks despite EUR 100M raised (Candela still pushing forward). SUBmerge Baltic is hiring a mechanical engineer. Superangel backed impressively designed Kranken.
• Platform. Kilo Health Turns Kilo™ – becomes true platform play, as they are looking at how to get from EUR 234M to 1B in revenue. There will be more ventures, investing, and co-founding: Kilo is interested in both early-stage (pre-seed) startups (50k to 1M tickets) and more mature Series A-stage businesses (up to 10M tickets).
• • Kilo's portfolio includes successful brands such as Moérie, Pulsetto, Bioma, Her Bodhi, ColonBroom, and RatePunk, as well as new brands Agava, Iteractive, and Go Health.
• Deeptech healthcare. What an impressive report on BBC about Sentante, enabling remote surgeries. Allergomedica turns self.co and raises EUR 1.2M equity + EUR 1.36M grant. Misslabaratory and Samphire Neuroscience will be meeting investors at Slush.
• Snowball – update from Kipras at Practica Capital: 50+ startup ventures have already been founded by Vinted and Nord Security alumni. Also, here is Localise mafia in Latvia.

rounds and capital

• BaltCap exits Biosala (later LIVIN) with a record return to LPs. From 2M to 20M in seven years, turnaround and expansion – great to see.
• Self.co (former Allergomedica) secured EUR 2.56M in combined venture and grant funding; round was led by Iron Wolf Capital, with participation from Coinvest Capital, NGL Ventures, and support from Innovation Agency Lithuania, who awarded a EUR 1.36M grant.
• Monopulse (Lithuania/Denmark) secured EUR 1.12M loan from ILTE Lietuva to expand our UAV production capacity within the strategic sector (see interview below).
• In Estonia, Leil raises €1.5 million to make hyperscale storage infrastructure accessible for all – led by Karma, with Specialist VC joining.
• Balnord Fund I launches with a 70M EUR fund (might reach 100M), backing frontier and dual-use technologies – like Astrolight they already have in portfolio. Go Gabriele!
• AI-first founders, meet Inception Fund – new New Nordics early-stage VC from Stockholm.
• 10M dedicated for AI grants about go live (138k per project), expect suddenly companies registering in Klaipeda and small towns.
• Egged Transport from Israel acquires 51% of TOKS.

further insights

• X is now very predominantely right-wing as you noticed
• Venture, especially in the US, became very much AI and power-law driven

ecosystem

As 🇱🇹 government struggles, here are software product ideas to help
(works for any government, but not likely to buy)

1. ReputationLess
Background screening for new public officials (WhiteBridge.ai could have helped already)

2. ProcureWatch
AI that spots favouritism in public tenders, detects bad timing, suspicious bidders, etc

3. GovCareer portal
Website that loads + some basic UX, current is https://portalas.vtd.lt/, unfortunately

4. PayMirror
Understand true pay - convert compensation coefficients into euros

5. GovGlassDoor
Avoid terrible managers and understand org structures

6. BackdoorScan
Security scoring for digital infrastructure - perhaps Buck4Bug could help

7. Go Lexical / Jargon Decoder
ChatGPT currently, translator

8. ShadowOrg
Needs manual input, maps de facto who runs things in every org

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