work in progress

Serious games. Still thinking about small indie studios in gaming?

It’s an industry - we looked at headcount in LT specifically. Eldorado doubled the team since Jan 2025, now 170+, need talents. Wargaming is huge with 670 team members, Unity at 140, Nordcurrent at 240 and EUR 61M revenue in 2025. Eneba pushed revenue 42%, beyond 63M now, more than 160 people.

Shopify. Density of Shopify developers from the Baltics is high - and performance is punching way above the size! As Justas (Essential-Apps) has recently shared, per capita, Lithuania has more Shopify app reviews than any other country in the world. Pleased to see tech founders are committed to saving sports - Erikas (Kaching Appz) is putting 1M investment into Zalgiris football club!

Rytis launched Shopify App Store analytics tool Asomify - to follow competition, AI mentions, marketplace algorithm changes. Pro is free for a month with code AWESOME.

Lasers. Litilit is going ahead with new assembly plant. Altechna closed 25 at 21M revenue and already growing 20% in Q1. Light Conversion slowing down growth rate, but 25% net profit on EUR 146M revenue is fine.

New (and AI). Prometheus, Jeff Bezos' AI startup that acquired Jurgis Pasukonis’ startup, is now worth $41B. Voxstack - Voice AI infrastructure. Juicy Lucy AI, new from Mindaugas and Donatas. Dito, AI search for legal documents.

Recognitions. PAYSTRAX and InRento have been shortlisted at this year's Europe FinTech Awards, receiving six finalist nominations across both companies.

Defence + drones. Beautiful work lately by Ukrainian dronesm but cautionery call is fair (The current Ukrainian superiority in mid-range drone warfare is a brilliant advantage that comes with an expiration date). Audrius Zujus / Mainline introduced drone radar initiative - just use old android to capture sounds.

Founders + Unicorns Lithuania + StiprusKartu launches TotalDefence, association to cover resilience / security beyond military terms. Much needed - these % from GDP to the military is not the solution itself.

And yet another startup emerges: Lithuania’s PDKinematics raises €2M to scale precision guidance systems across NATO.

Talent moves. Giedrius steps into CEO role at Hostinger to further accelerate AI-native shipping mode; right after huge growth push by Daugirdas, that established the brand top globally. Audrius leads Data at IPRoyal. Emma joined Omnisend. Kotryna joined Kaching Appz. Bunmi Adekore joins Contrarian Ventures as Venture Partner. Justinas M leaving Coveron.

Asta (ex Bob W.) is exploring new gig in marketing / growth. Vytautas Butkus looking for a role in Product / AI. Zane, ex EA at Jeff App, is open for smth new.

rounds and capital

PDKINEMATICS secured a €2M investment round, co-led by Coinvest Capital and Iron Wolf Capital together with defence sector business angels and NGL Ventures, Orion Ventures (CVC).

Nanordica Medical raises €1.6 million to launch its antibacterial wound dressing - led by Estonian fund 2C Ventures with participation from existing investors, Specialist VC, Superangel, Amalfi, Health Founders syndicate led by Erki Mölder and EstBAN syndicate led by Heidi Kakko and Martin Goroško.

Granarium Technologies raises €1 million pre-seed round - led by BSV Ventures, with Beamline, and of course includes the BANs.

Wave Ventures closed 10M fund to invest pre-seed.
Vinted Ventures office hours.

Other type of exit - Globeducate is acquiring the network of schools and kindergartens of Austėja Landsbergienė in Vilnius; given the performance, the deal might easily be beyond 50M.

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founder's guide

AI-native firms are different: 25% smaller, 13% more engineers and 15% less junior staff as well as managers - compared to other tech firms.

Revised rules of engineering leadership.

Is it’s all about distribution and attention now? (also, full story how a16z supports startups with media).

brand + design

A New Era of Midjourney. Launches Midjourney Medical, a full-body Ultrasonic CT imaging project. Because curing cancer is a better goal than AGI or, in other words, perks of being bootstrapped.

Up for a run? Design community social runs are back in Vilnius

Billo rebrands. Shifting the platform from a transactional marketplace to a genuine growth channel for both brands and creators. Check it out.

Small reminder from one of the most influential music producers of the last 40 years branding matters

further insights

Ahead of behind? Summary of Paul Krugman debate with Luis Garicano regarding European stagnation.

Only in Brussels. To reduce European dependence on American technology firms, the European Parliament has replaced Google with a French search engine, Qwant (Qwant generates its search results by querying the Microsoft Bing API)

Taking the long view. Real power lies in the domains of deep, slow change

ecosystem

Lithuanian founders. Building in the US. 20 names. Includes world-famous Einaras von Gravrock and Marty Kausas as well as recently noticed founding engineers Martynas Pocius or Zygimantas Koncius.

List is here.