Life too

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.

– Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

work in progress

• Startup life vibes. Some personal, some sentimental takes on that incredible journey of being a founder. First, lesson No. 1 - go on vacation. ROI is huge (Tadas, Evergrowth). Second lesson (is it?) - founders pitch third trimester pregnant, too (Lisset, Arbonics). The third lesson – five years is nothing if there is passion behind what you do (Jevgenij, GoRamp). And fourth - you will be "eating your own dog food", which in Ovoko's case is hard work in scrapeyard.

• Drones. The drone day has passed, and ScaleWolf's portfolio could show themselves properly. Exciting to see UDS emerging with EUR 3.2m funding, see more below. European Defence Fund (EDF) is awarding 54 defence R&D projects with a total of EUR 1B+. Among them – a couple of projects that KrattWorks (Lemonade Stand) will lead, and two with Wayner (Baltic Sandbox) being among partners. NATO Innovation Challenge has 11 Finalists, 5 of them are from LT – AAI Labs, AGAI DRM, Broswarm, Eagle AI4D, and Unmanned Dynamics.
• AI. Where I would expect the smartest founders and recruiters to take front row - for talent. Framer (what's his real name?) puts fun learning videos on AI-enabled animation workflows.
• Scale. Hostinger International closed 2023 with EUR 110m revenue, growing 57% from almost EUR 70m last year. Profitable, too. Very impressive!
• Salestech. Asktosell takes second place at Latitude59, also bringing home EUR 300k investment offer. Another team to watch (also repeat founders) is Evergrowth, which just merged with Apolo marketing and AI agency, to combine LLM capabilities.
• Mobility. E-Bike Unit Share by Country. A profitable battery business - Enepaq - is looking for a partner and investment to grow further. Intro to Woop Drive – a car-sharing startup, launched by Erikas (Proto Industrija). Repi is a virtual car repair shop. Inbalance keeps growing charging network, including assets from other operators. So all this should help us with transport sustainability transition. And how to value a green hydrogen business in a post-subsidy environment? Funny because it's true.

• The big way many early-stage founders miss an opportunity to get noticed. Instead of sending us updates on what they have accomplished (growth, customers, new hires) they leave it to Tech Philomath robots to scrape internet and find these gems. Currently on our reading list, I see at least 77 persons from VC funds (LT+Baltics+others), while newsletter has 71% open rate. This does not include angels, family offices, CVCs - which will be another 100+ readers for sure. (Now you know what to do).

rounds and capital

• Unmanned Defense Systems emerge with EUR 3.2m funding. UDS has already won several tenders, they do battlefield-tested UAVs and want to advance AI-based swarm integrations. Vytenis Buzas and Ernestas Kalabuckas are backing with EUR 1.1m, Linas Sargautis joining the round, too - all from Nanoavionics fame (founders and CTO). Round led by Coinvest Capital, with a group of business angels and NGL angel syndicate of 41 private investors. Exciting to see Vytenis returning to the arena as executive chair.
• Pixevia raised EUR 1.5m in funding. Coinvest Capital led the round, with Iron Wolf Capital, Omni Commerce Ventures and Rita Sakus joining. Existing investors Open Circle Capital, Vladas Lašas, and Renaldas Zioma also made significant contributions.
• Estonian Esgrid raised EUR 500,000 in pre-seed funding from Lemonade Stand, Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN), Startup Wise Guys, Little Green Fund and some angels. Esgrid helps manage sustainability across the supply chain.
• Tallinn-based maternity startup CARÁ Health announced EUR 620k funding, led by Tera Ventures.
• SmartCap Venture Capital Fund has made its first investment under its updated strategy, committing €10 million to Plural Fund II.

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
• Ex-founders and operators, exploring something new

founder's guide

• Data points on what seems to help when raising (not exits or actual success of the company)
  • Repeat founders were twice as likely to secure future Series-A or Series-B funding.
  • Holding a technical degree doubles your likelihood of obtaining future funding.
  • Having work experience across different countries significantly boosts your chances of securing a Series-A round.
• Europeans hiring in the US: What happens when a culture of understated accomplishment meets a culture of overstated achievement? Tips and tricks.
• 25 Rules For Running a Great Newsletter
• Seed is kind of everything these days, so perhaps needs a better definition.
• 15,000-word guide to raising your first fund

further insights

• Status symbols 2024 (subject to your social bubble)
• Fascinating read on the State Department intelligence unit - which somehow, gets their predictions right. Some takeaways on how to design that type of org.

ecosystem

• "LT learns from Ireland how to be top on tech" – not quite there, we got to learn from the best, and I suggest we take a magnifying glass for... Cambridge. (Cambridge tech ecosystem worth £150bn, more than Italy and Spain’s combined).
  • A bit embarrassing story is when EU Commissioner called Stripe a "European success story" (founders Colissons are Irish but they have talked about why they are a US company).

roleplay

three questions

Check our recent interviews with some of the smartest minds around

• Klaudija Budreikaitė, Principal, Open Circle Capital
• Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Investment Director, Inventure
• Gabrielė Poteliūnaitė, Principal, HEARTFELT_
• Siim Teller, Managing Partner, Lemonade Stand
• Tomas Ramanauskas, Co-founder, a Phone, a Friend
• Marius Jurgilas, Co-Founder and CEO, Axiology
• Tim Vaino and Akim Arhipov, Founders, Fund Fellow Founders
• Viktorija Trimbel, Managing Director, Coinvest Capital
• Emmet King, Founding Partner, J12 Ventures
• Sten Tamkivi, Partner, Plural and Partner, Taavet+Sten