Building up

work in progress

Vertical SaaS is beautiful once you pull it off – and Ovoko stands out as the leading example here. Today Ovoko announced their series B round – EUR 20m from Smash Capital to expand even faster (open roles in LT and new markets, too). The nuance (and success behind Ovoko) is to go beyond just a product and focus on all relevant customer processes and pains; therefore Ovoko is also a marketplace for part sales, and covers shipping, too. PVcase might get there too, becoming vSaaS – they started with solar-focused tools, but increasingly are taking on more workflows for energy companies and developers. GoRamp is expanding its scope within warehouse management needs. InterioApp started as CurtainsCalculator, super niche – but they can surprise.

So what's the recipe? This podcast walks you through finding and choosing the industry to tackle; NfX talks about verticalization with AI; and see Invisible asymptotes in vertical software.

Classifieds. That unbundling of Craigslist graph is only 13 years old – and many great tech companies have been built focusing on one category (from Etsy to AirBnB). Baltic Classifieds Group doesn't seem worried – started 1999, they recently closed FY24 with 19% revenue growth to EUR 71m, and more impressive – further growing EBITDA to 77% (which is EUR 55m!). This is lucrative to go after for Horizontal Media (backed by LitCapital), but looks like they are leaning towards scaling other platforms - sena.lt (second-hand books, games) and tempo.lt (refurbished electronics).

Healthtech. Enjoyed 20VC pod with Dmitry Gurski, founder of Flo. He talks about all the journey from picking mushrooms and growing potatoes, to the most successful femtech unicorn – EUR 200m revenue business. Very humble, he mentions never flying business class – instead would "spend this 5k for an engineer in Vilnius, to work on product for a month." More health: inspired by Huberman, Martynas made Sunflower, an app to track exposure to the sun. Vitalijus (Pulsetto) has some clear takeaways from building in this space. KaiSense (Baltic Sandbox) is launching wearable sensors for training progress – available for pre-order.

Important effort here: Lithuania's first (streamlined) case of a startup receiving secondary medical data, to enable better cancer treatment Q&A algorithms. That is BrachyDose, another Baltic Sandbox portfolio startup.

Web scraping. Oxylabs hosted web scraping conference – Oxycon. Event focused on AI applications to reduce increasing costs for cat-and-mouse game of antiblocking. Two new product announcements by LT teams: Oxylabs launched chat-based assistant Oxycopilot and City Now brought data acquisition marketplace ScrapyProject.

People. Veta joins Whatagraph as VP of Marketing. Milda joins Superhero Capital as an associate. Adriaan stepped down from CEO role at Hyarchis. Klaudija leaves Open Circle Capital, exploring next. Arturas is a technical co-founder in search of building something new.

rounds and capital

• Ovoko closes Series B, EUR 20m from Smash Capital - marking Lithuania’s largest startup investment of 2024.
• The biotech startup ÄIO has raised EUR 6.1m from Voima Ventures, 2C Ventures, SmartCap and Nordic Foodtech VC. The funds will be used to build a demo plant in Estonia to produce environmentally friendly oils and fats from wood and agricultural residues.
• Mifundo closes investment round led by Tera Ventures, joined by Opus11 VC, Mihkel Karu (ex-Skype) and Sergei Anikin (ex-Pipedrive). It is EUR 1.2m pre-seed round, but Mifundo also secured EUR 8.8m with grants. Another Baltic tiger solving cross-border friction – credit scores in Minfundo's case.
• FIRSTPICK, Change Ventures, and HEARTFELT are investing EUR 0.7m in Certific, an Estonian startup which optimizes workflows for clinics.
• Orion Ventures invested in Statzon, a subscription-based market intelligence platform from Finland.

three questions

Saulius Cesnulevicius, COO & Co-founder, Ovoko

When and how did you join the Ovoko team? Did you see the potential straight away?

I first got to know Ovoko just under five years ago when the team was still nine people. My introduction came through Practica Capital, just before their seed investment. From the moment I looked at the business, the potential was convincing. Customers from Italy, Spain, France were already navigating and trying to purchase through a Lithuanian-language-only website (RRR.lt) which was a clear sign of strong product-market fit. The market size was undeniably massive, no matter how you measured it.

My conviction was also reinforced by a personal connection - my best friend who owned a scrapyard that was later successfully acquired (one of the few M&A cases in the field). After spending hours discussing the ins and outs of the industry with him, it became clear that this is a huge opportunity. In fact, he’s now working with us as well. One thing led to another and I was later offered to join the team as a late co-founder, treating the company as my own ever since.

Ovoko combines a vertical SaaS + marketplace model. What have you learned about scaling and expanding in such a traditional industry?

Our model goes beyond just SaaS and marketplace - it’s SaaS + Shipping + Marketplace and all three components are critical to our success. The SaaS platform helps scrapyards digitize their inventory faster, addressing the largest gap in the industry. Shipping enables scrapyards to sell globally without friction and the localized marketplace with support on our end delivers a smooth buyer experience, making the whole ecosystem work.

When it comes to scaling in such a traditional industry, I’ve learned three key lessons. First, you need to know your customer problems inside out. Building trust by demonstrating a deep understanding of the challenges scrapyards face is key to onboarding them. Second, our problem is global and so the leader in this field will be too - you have to think globally from day one. Third, none of us had built a used car parts marketplace before so hiring based on traits more than experience is key to forming a strong team. Open-mindedness, a sense of urgency and extreme ownership are foundational qualities I’d highlight most.

Ovoko is not your first startup. What advice would you give to founders just getting started?

In the early days of a startup, there’re a lot of unknowns - whether it’s finding product-market fit, dealing with competitive pressure or figuring out how to scale. But one thing you can determine very quickly is whether you’re building the company with the right people. Surrounding yourself with the right co-founders or early team members is crucial.

For me, that’s been one of the biggest realizations. My previous co-founder Gajus at Applaudience became one my closest friends and here at Ovoko (back when it was still RRR), I knew I was working with the right people after meeting Justinas and investors like Arvydas Bložė from Practica Capital, Mantas Mikuckas and others. It felt like we had the team to build something truly special. I’m extremely grateful that they trusted me and that has been one of the factors in our success.

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