Distribution guys

work in progress

• Vinted broadcast. Now #1 clothing retailer in France. Two major announcements: strong, profitable growth, and launch of Vinted Ventures. First, the group delivered consolidated revenue of €813M (36% increase), with a net profit of €76M, up 330% and continues to expand logistics (Vinted Go) and Vinted Pay. Second, thrilled to see launch of Ventures arm – built to fuel future growth opportunities in European re-commerce. It will target Series A to Series C, with ticket sizes ranging from EUR 0.5M to EUR 10M and led by Milda Jasaite.
• Fintech. TransferGo – EUR 70M ARR, 400 employees, and a new video interview with Daumantas Dvilinskas. Pocklet software is up for sale in the auction, find details here. Mastercard Fintech Forum in Poland was won by AMLYZE team, alongID - deverium spin-off, came second. VIALET x Klyme.io announced a partnership.
• YC. YC latest call for startups is out, and please don't even apply if not building with AI. Some interesting notes around Voice (new frontier?), Designers as Founders (it's all about taste when anyone can build?), Robotics and much more. Magnus (byFounders – one of the very few regional VCs with deep knowledge in AI), talked about building AI that works. Let's not forget what still stands true in this age: products are still important, and distribution is still critical.

• AI products, at scale. Proto industrija meets Tadas Jucikas, co-founder and CEO of Genus AI (video). Hostinger Horizons, an AI-powered web builder, now detects and fixes the most common errors automatically. Tomas (nexos.ai) talks scaling with Index Ventures, surprises all that Nord Security sales are LT-based. Swedish AI Reform launches (cool video) to give 2.3M Swedes free access to advanced AI tools – modelled after the famous PC reform in the 90s, which has put free computers in homes where people otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them.
• Motors. OBDeleven at EUR 15m revenue, doubled this bootstrapped firm since 2021 (FIRTSPICK backed Mbito to follow). BMW of North America and MINI USA have certified Lectrium. Aleksandrs in Riga is fundraising for Flomo, a cloud-based parking management platform.

When tech founders have other passions: Lithuania will finally have a new, modern racing track! Jonas (Tesonet) shares what is coming in Jonava: 3.3 km circuit for cars and motorcycles, meeting FIA Grade 3 and FIM C standards and a 1.4 km professional karting track. Huge project, lots of tech people involved.

• Defence. Miltech Summit reveals prior achievements: Granta Autonomy and Rheinmetall Electronics signed a Letter of Intent to further cooperate. Likewise, Aktyvus Photonics signed MoU with Quantum Systems, which recently closed funding above 1B valuation. Airvolve-aero unveiled their Airlift-U500. What's the pipeline? Harlequin Defense is building automated counter-UAV solutions. Luna Robotics, working on affordable night vision for drones, is one of the DIANA Hackathon winners. 8devices launched Robonode – long-range, low-latency data radio. DefSecIntel Solutions CEO Jaanus Tamm talks Baltic Drone Wall on CNN – highly relevant. ScaleWolf ended active investing last year and now ILTE is working towards MilInvest 2 call, expected by the end of 2025. Consider DefenceTech meetup in Riga on May 28th – yes, same day as Drone Summit.
• People. After 10 years, Agne Kaniutyte leaves Whatagraph. Super How? welcomes Antony Welfare as EVP and Board Member. Kristina, former Head of Finance at Orbio World, is available as fractional CFO.
  • Coinvest Capital welcomes new independent non-executive investment committee members: Eimantas Norkunas (MailerLite co-founder), Mary McKenna, and Jussi Savukoski.
  • LitBAN welcomes new Board Members: Sarunas Rackauskas, Gintautas Mežetis, Lina Astrauskė, Matas Jakubėlis, Renata Dinde and Sandra Golbreich.
• 100m. This was a hot poll! And these are surely not the only ones marching towards 100m revenue. Jury is still out, here is what we know so far:
  • Burga reported $80M revenue for FY2024, 50% growth.
  • Ovoko FY23 closed EUR 20.5M, doubling from the prior year.
  • CarVertical closed FY23 at EUR 40.9M, almost doubling.

• Calendar. Forward Product conf this Thursday – by Vinted + Wix, some impressive speakers there (Povilas will talk Mentum AI story, titled "MVP to RIP – product mistakes that led to our downfall").
• Founders meeting founders – if we can accelerate this, places will flourish. Kaunas here, Vilnius here, don't be a stranger.

sponsors

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
Hostinger [making online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
Presto Ventures [investing in startups – security, defense, aerospace]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
Superangel [Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A for tech companies]

rounds and capital

• VUGENE, an multi-omics data analysis company, secured EUR 1M seed round, led by Superhero Capital, along with NGL Ventures, Coinvest Capital and angels.
• Sort A Brick added another tranche, now closing EUR 1.5M pre-seed round. Great to see, and here Ilja explains why they went the unconventional path.
• WeSky attracts investment from Coinvest Capital and Business Angels – just above EUR 1m (something like seed?) to grow further. WeSky develops innovative USB In-Seat Power systems designed for airlines.
• ServicePower announced its acquisition of Inveniam, a French provider of AI-powered computer vision solutions for field operations. Inveniam founder and CEO, Ahmed Ghorbal, is Vilnius-based. Congrats on the outcome for this bootstrapped company!
• Mondelēz makes an impact investment in the agriculture platform eAgronom.

founder's guide

• Very much a founder's guide by Antanas

• How to run into US without relocation – sometimes that does not make sense
• How Keith Rabois discovers the world's top founders before anyone else (and before company is on fire: A. Founder has exceptional superpower; B. Founders have unique combination (Venn diagram) of strong skills.
• Mindaugas, CTO at Vinted, on personal change that growth requires.
• What makes a VC fund "Tier 1"? This follows great 20VC talk with Taavet Hinrikus, and Plular already is outstanding firm in Europe (we talked with Sten Tamkivi long time ago, here). Also, talking about Tier1, interview with Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital.

Premium community

• 99 AI-native Startups and Projects 🇱🇹
• Lithuanian founders in US, building something new.
• Baltic Founders with YC experience
• Repeat Lithuanian founders - 50+ serial founders building now

further insights

• Yoni Rechtman (Slow) predicts the rise of real-world entrepreneurship, and I think this vibe is quite real.

• Newsletters: content strategy of MKT1.
• M1 gets a brand update after recent acquisition by 15min
• New study shows that people trust legal advice generated by ChatGPT more than a lawyer
• Why skyscrapers are so short

ecosystem

• Nicely summarised: Europe's Technology Blindspots. This includes
  • Consumer Platforms as Launchpads for Scale and Revolutionary Technologies (missed that ship)
  • The Need for New Industries (less on "bring manufacturing back")
  • The Power of Scale
• Good deck by Luis Garicano – on how Europe has been falling behind by institutional design (and how to fix core pillars)

• OK, need this: In partnership with the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), 5050 is coming to the UK. Their dedicated program help scientists and engineers start deep tech startups.
• Joseph Politono writes: The Farce of the Deal. The US-UK Trade "Deal" Achieves Basically Nothing—and That's a Bad Sign for "Deals" to Come.

roleplay