Keeping sanity is part of the battle

Trying to keep up, despite all? You are not alone. The same goes for the founders fundraising, uncertainty tends to slow down decisions.

work in progress

• Ukraine. Algirdas Stonys (Telesoftas) wins our hearts for failed graffiti stunt on  Roman Abramovich's $600 million yacht. benme leverages their platform to help businesses provide services for Ukrainians fleeing the country. "Pasikalbėk" team organizes volunteer mental health professionals for Ukraine, too. Interview with Omnisend (in LT) - they had 11 team members in UA, and helping as much as they can. ConnectPay doing lots, too.
• New and combined-new. OXYGEN Healthcare was merged with Perthera AI. InRento and Evostate is joining forces (they weren't too far apart after all). Zalgiris is launching Zalgiris Ventures, together with Tesonet accelerator, and led by Viktorija Jokantaite-Kukte, moving from Kilo.
• Climate. Speedinvest chasing climate startups in Nordics / Baltics. Hot market will be going bonkers with EU trying to drop oil&gas dependency.  Elinta Motors moving to larger facilities.
• Events. Techchill is April 27th (with world-famous Mantas Mikuckas and Rytis Vitkauskas), and Startup Fair will be May 26th.
• Socks. Ūkai have these ready for you.

rounds and capital

• Orion is investing in MoreMins (numbers not disclosed), which aims to become virtual telco.
• Openface has raised EUR 305K from Belgian VC fund Pitchdrive and Cyprus D2 Ventures. The company will use these funds to ML-development, marketing and the platform. Openface became cash positive since December 2021. Relocated to LT in 2019 - what is not to like?
• FittyAI selected for EIE Investor Readiness Programme, delivered by the Bayes Centre at the University of Edinburgh

blog posts

founder guide

• Why Should you Build a Vertical SaaS for Local Businesses?
• (founders feel free to reply and ask a question - happy to help)

roleplay

insights

• We wrote about defence and innovation last week, and here's a good thread on how Finland approach "total defence" - a good starting point.
• "I bought a one-way ticket”: Inside Russia’s sudden tech exodus
• UK government actually do understand engineering, better than many

ecosystem

• 70V and 500Leaders have partnered to launch B2B Sales Academy. It is free, scalable, and the method has proven success across multiple Lithuanian startups.