Help save, help make

work in progress

• Logistics and we start with the elephant in the room - Vinted Go: these bikes are great marketing, and real estate follows the strategy, too. SpotGo is the AI-driven Light FMS, with founders on the move and in style. Automatic Cargo Inspection is raising pre-seed. Estonians are experimenting with community-based parcel lockers, getting even closer to home.
• Investors. NGL launches Startup Board Member Program and Community. We are happy to bring this intro video here where you can learn what it's all about, and consider joining. Even more – you get a special deal to join during the first week. NGL has already deployed EUR 2m, with 300k median ticket, bringing together 32 angels on average.

• Health and life sciences – who is to follow Atrandi Biosciences and Biomatter tracks? It's good to have Flo in Vilnius as a reference –it is now #2 by revenue in the whole Health&Fitness category worldwide! (LT team is 240 and growing) Caszyme opens new facilities in Vilnius. Vilimed brought their device to pharmacies in Lithuania (helping patients suffering from hand tremors). In Genes (DNA testing) joins Plug & Play Accelerator. Genomika recently secured EUR 5m grant from EIC. Baltic Sandbox Ventures added VitalSigns to their portfolio.
  • As you're reading this, Tadas, Ilona (Kilo Health) and others are running Kick Experience in a Chateau in France (next session sold out, sorry)
• Events. Too many to make it work, so had to skip them all!
  • Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao – by Contrarian Ventures – was a major climate VC Summit, meeting with top European scale-ups.
  • The sales event of the year – Sales Tech Day – is over, but JB is not giving us any slack
  • Domas and the team launched Enterprise AI & Tech 2024, bridging that gap between fun ChatGPT plays and actual business applications.
• Help people save money or make money – that's often the underlying idea behind successful consumer ventures. Latvian iPhone Photography School made EUR 14m in revenue last year, empowering all these Instagram creators? Pretty impressive with 34 people team, >400k per employee, could be hugely profitable depending on CAC (300k per employee is where Public SaaS and Cloud companies are now on average). AttaPoll generates earnings for completed surveys, Ignas is building it in public. RatePunk is helping save on hotels when travelling, which consumers do appreciate.
• 30 under 30, Europe, two Lithuania-related mentions. Samphire Neuroscience cofounders: Alex Cook, Emile Radyte and Lina Zakarauskaite, Partner at Stride,VC – big congrats!

rounds and capital

• TransferGo raised $10M round from Taiwania Capital, aimed at expanding in the Asia-Pacific. They seem to have truly turned this scale-up around by becoming profitable, and now hitting $600m valuation.
• CoInvest Capital sold its stake at Chazz, which managed to get onto the growth track and expand revenues. Fund has generated 6% annually from the investment (it is capped, and more return gets redistributed to other investors, typically angels).
• SmartCap Green Fund Direct Investment Program will allow bigger tickets (up to EUR 5m) and later stages.
• PE: Successor fund of INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund on the way, aims to raise EUR 250 million.

three questions

Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Investment Director, Inventure

Is early-stage investing scalable across different cities? What works for Inventure, and what is challenging about that?

• Ever since Covid most of our meetings with companies are online, we write checks in companies these days even when we haven’t met the founders in person. We source a lot of companies through our deal flow automation engine. So I would say it definitely scales.
• With that said I do believe that spending the time in these cities and build strong relationships with the local angels and funds matter a lot as well. The day zero capital players that have built strong trust in the local ecosystem. 

How can Baltic founders position themselves to get better noticed by Nordic VCs?

• Show you have a very big and bold vision, with huge potential, show your execution abilities and bias to action, show your passion and knowledge for the space, speak through your early users and customers love. 
• Get a warm intro from one of the portfolio founders or from angels/investors we know and trust.
• Or just reach out, but do the work when you reach out, make sure you target the relevant partner and write a crisp email with the information we need. 

What are your most "hard-to-learn" lessons over a decade-long investment career?

• The power of knowing what you don’t know. The dunning kruger effect is real.
• Feedback loops are long in VC you can believe you are a rockstar one year and not the next year. Stay humble.
• Founders are your number one stakeholder, be a great value adding partner in ups and downs. Play the long game. 
• Build real relationships that will last and avoid the transactional approach. Give first. 
• Stay a dreamer with a curious mind. It’s easy to turn a cynic. 

sponsors

Privileged to receive support from a group of core sponsors, who decided to get onboard. They have some newsletter invites, too!

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
Vinted [largest C2C European marketplace, always hiring]
Tech Zity [tech hubs and campuses across Lithuania]
Presto Ventures [investing in early-stage B2B startups and marketplaces],
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
Wargaming [award-winning game developer, careers]

resources

• Startup lists for the Baltics - Drone startups, Marketplaces, Sportstech
• Repeat Lithuanian founders