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work in progress
- Secondaries, ecosystem firstondaries. Vinted news broke – TPG leading EUR 340m round, confirming EUR 5B valuation. It is called secondaries as existing shares are being sold (allowing investors and employees liquidity), not new securities being issued. So secondaries, in financial terms, but these deals are ecosystem firstondaries in terms of impact: success will be invested again by employees starting new ventures (captured below), capital (angel tickets, LPs), mentoring – and inspiration for new founders.
- Thomas Plantenga can't hide a smile when asked on CNBC about saturation or possible peak of Vinted – even most mature markets are growing double digits. Plus, they are adding new categories, such as electronics.
- Circularity / sustainable consumption tailwind will remain strong. We should keep an eye on Estonian Fairown, Tingit, Sort A Brick (co-founder Aurimas spent 8 yrs with Vinted), to name a few – and, most certainly, Ovoko (Proto industrija interview).
- New ventures are expected – we need Kipras (Practica Capital) Jokubas (FIRSTPICK) to update the graph below soon. For the Vinted track, Edas got involved with Motifind (try new sports, and we are adding them to the Baltic sportech list here), Tomas went to Poland with Nextvelo, renamed to Gearro. Tautvydas is now two years with Allergomedica. Both Agrosync founders have been with Vinted before. Anyone else?

- SV. Startups landing in SF for TechCrunch Disrupt. ForgetBill is taking part at Draper University’s Hero Training Program, also moved to the Valley.
- AI. Still surprised how much time Claude sometimes saves – but also can be frustrating with mistakes. Ploughing through texts works like magic, and that is why Repsense has seen strong B2B progress. RivalSense doing smart marketing with thematic newsletters (also B2B). On the consumer side, ANA is working on drawing signals out of the noise.
- Finance. HeavyFinance announced a significant partnership with the European Investment Fund (EIF) – secured a portfolio guarantee of up to EUR 10.5m to support agricultural businesses in Poland and Lithuania.
- Proptech. Flanco is shifting gears and hiring, watch them. Mantas is launching Acertip soon – a platform for architects, engineers and constructors. There are few new players building, such as Deals on Home, Playground City, and LightMirror. Recently also noticed progress by Strato Create, Soliport (working with Elinta Charge), and Konga Float: off-grid floating cabin.

- For those thinking AI is a buzzword, Vaidotas suggests reading Situational Awareness. If not, building "just a SaaS" sounds shortsighted today. Who else putting AI into work? Genus AI generates 1.5 million ad images for its customers – every day! Cor refined their approach, helping Customer Success become more proactive. Zilvinas and Povilas building Sleuth.app.
- Climate. Just was we were getting concerned there is too few climate startups, new teams surface: Glafos brings AI to simplify access to tree-related grants. GridRaven is launching a pilot with Elering to boost Estonia’s power grid efficiency. Esgrid is another one – all of them being Estonian!
- People. Ska Sijia Du joined joined Karma Ventures as Principal. Siena Secondary Fund welcomes Kristóf Székely as a Venture Partner. Svajunas joins Bolt as Country Manager. Tomas Peluritis left Wix, planning a new role.
- Calendar. The Founder’s Story event in Vilnius (Nov 7th) will have some great speakers – Milda Mitkute (Vinted), Arnas (Hostinger), Rytis (Omnisend) and others.

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rounds and capital
- Latvian Origin Robotics raised EUR 2.4m led by Change Ventures, along with Silicon Roundabout Ventures participating. The has additionally secured EUR 1.6m in EU grants and support from the Latvian Ministry of Defence, taking its total funding to EUR 4m. Their first product - BEAK - is man-portable drone-launched precision-guided weapon system.
- Finfra announces EUR 2.5m funding round and partnership with Tyme. The round was led by Cento Ventures with strong participation from Accion Venture Lab, Z Venture Capital, Matiss Ansviesulis and existing shareholders - Hustle Fund, FIRSTPICK.
- 15min secured EUR 16m in bond raise, successfully moving ahead with M1 acquisition and other projects. More than 700 investors took part, exciting media venture to watch (with Teso Mediatech taking part)
- Arunas (Frontu) sharing a few other insights on the exit, and will talk in couple events in November.
sponsors

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Vinted [largest C2C European marketplace, always hiring]
Tech Zity [tech hubs and campuses across Lithuania]
Presto Ventures [investing in startups – security, defense, aerospace]
Wargaming [award-winning game developer, careers]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
founder's guide
- While going along Trump is ridiculous, credit is due for other things: How on Earth is Elon Musk so effective? By the way, Elon inspired the way Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark in the Iron Films.
- There are so many opinions on work from home, with flashy headlines such as "Bolt wants to stop the insanity of people working from Bali" fueling LinkedIn discussions. Save some time
- Nick Bloom gathers all actual research for this topic, including some A/B studies – no need to guestimate so much. Short answer - hybrid with some (like two) days from home seems to be good both for productivity and satisfaction.
- Yuri Frayman has an impressive track record, with CAST AI being the latest venture. He shares advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
1. Have a Personal Connection to the Problem
2. Trust Your Vision, Even If Others Don’t
3. Experience Teaches, but Entrepreneurship Remains Challenging
- Very true about fundraising


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