Finding gems

Finding jewels within LT tech has been fun - thanks to MailerLite, we are again reminded there is always more. For mostly bootstrapped scaleups, there is a "usual suspect" list, but deals like this (or Dokobit, or Tutotoons) remind us - there is more, much more to come.  

work in progress

• Machines. Cycling and sailing machine from Latvia (BeTRITON). Disinfecting dog robot machine (Uvireso, Lithuania). Family of robots that fix wind turbines - Aerones (from Latvia, just raised $9m seed led by Future Positive Capital, with Change Ventures and Mantas Mikuckas + other angels joining). Deals on Wheels (along with WeChange) allocating 500k to expand to Riga and Tallinn.
• Health. After leaving Trafi, Tautvydas Gylys launches Allergomedica - digital-first allergy clinic. Oxipit has been noticed for achieving a breakthrough IIb regulatory approval for autonomous AI, "daring to go beyond where others have yet to tread".
• Data. Marijus turns love for the Baltic startup ecosystem and data-driven approach into Ventury.app. Now Baltic rounds under one roof.

rounds and capital

• MailerLite has been just acquired by Vercom in Poland, valued at EUR 84m! Massive success - huge congrats to the team for this almost overnight success (12 years+ building). All achieved without significant external financing, growing to 1.4m users, and accelerating recently as the market got an inflection point (indication of revenues, might be not exact). We have been also impressed by MailerLite focus on team, culture, remote work, and being explicit on what they stand for.
• GoRamp has attracted EUR 1.5m investment, which is there to help to boost sales & marketing machines (UK, Benelux, Poland, and Germany..) Investors in this round include international venture capital funds and the community of business angels/founders. We asked Jevgenij Polonis, CEO and founder, how they generate this relentless drive forward - see answers below.
• (another gem) Tutotoons have sold the video games business to Aonic Group, for an undisclosed amount. Tutotoons have been growing revenue in 2021, and have a team of 90 people by now. Aonic Group announced that it intends to invest over $100 million to its newly established gaming group and will add several development studios over the next two years
• Estonian insurtech DriveX (works with the largest insurance companies across the Baltics, Romania and Croatia) raised a $1M round. They pulled together large syndicate of angels, including 6 members of LitBAN.
• New in town (Baltics) - BADideas.fund, investing $50K tickets in post-MVP startups in CEE and CIS. Arunas (Frontu) also joining, more to come we believe.

Swedish micromobility and e-commerce star Vässla is starting to build a tech team in Lithuania. Rapidly expanding across Europe, great culture and strong team - perfect time to join. In search of a full-stack developer - click here.

roleplay

founder's guide

• B2B Marketplace Funding Napkin 2022
• Good and great growth rate by stage of business (Lenny's letter)
• Investors want to back startups that feel inevitable - good thread from Eric Paley

insights

• One of the most interesting investors to follow in the region is Taavet+Sten (no external LPs to answer to, and the investment committee has just two attendees)

3 questions

Jevgenij Polonis, CEO and founder, GoRamp

What do you wish someone has told you about startups before you launched GoRamp?

1. Concentrate on team diversity and competencies from the early beginning because it helps to have a core team and build a startup from all the points form day one
2. Don’t give up and try to make as many experiments. Don’t postpone it. The earlier you get the answer - the earlier you could adjust your action plans. Failure is also an answer :)

What do you look for when recruiting?

We are not looking for SOLO SUPERSTARS. As for our company values we are looking for young, hungry and ambitious people, who want to have freedom of creativity and be a part of the NEXT BIG THING.

What is your long term vision for GoRamp?

To help manufacturing companies make proactive logistics management decisions not depending on the people. There is a lot of data around. So our goal is to accumulate it and add value for the companies to be more sustainable and proactive while managing their entire logistics process.

Thanks all for tips and tricks - enjoy the sunshine (soon)!