Everything is ripe for disruption

work in progress

• Hollywood. Recently funded Perfection42 targets large animation, CGI and sound studios - offering AI capabilities to automate 2D and 3D computer graphics. Production Tools is all-in-one casting software. Filmustage leverages AI to break down film scripts, create shooting schedules and more - and just closed a round. Originally from Belarus, with CEO Egor and part of the team in Vilnius.
• Fintech. Latitude says that the death of fintech is greatly exaggerated - in fact, it's a golden age ahead. Index has similar views. More dead seems to be London for fintech scale-ups and their IPOs, according to Revolut.
  
  Just released LT Fintech strategy (draft) is losing steam - and actionable targets. Meantime, heads down, building mode: Argyle 2.0 was launched, Hive5 reached EUR 6m in funded loans, Softloans just introduced fully embedded eCommerce financing solution for Digital Marketing Agencies. InRento exceeded EUR 10m amount funded (now that's banker look!). UK startup Wombat is landing in Vilnius.

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• Marketplace. Both Billo (100k videos to 17k customers) and Eneba (EUR 27m revenue, profitable) are doing well, thank you.
• AI. Big swings — Is it Don't Look Up Moment for AGI? Indeed perfect time to look into AGI safety career. Google’s AI operation shifts to London, a move with profound implications. You'd love to be infra provider in AI era - Azure ML business is roughly on a $900m run rate, with customers growing 10x - a phenomenal business.
  Back in LT — Genius AI shipping, now automagic ad tool. LitBAN closed generative AI round, to announce soon (Edtech?)

rounds and capital

• Looking at Estonia and Lithuania, funding rounds Q1 2023 (obvious slowdown). LT numbers exclude smaller tickets deployed by Firstpick accelerator (here)

🇪🇪 16 deals, EUR 62m investment raised
🇱🇹 7 deals, EUR 32,6 m investment raised

• VentureWave laps up Funderbeam as it leads a $40 million investment deal. This should enable a powerful platform to fast forward Funderbeam’s vision - serve venture investments across borders and create a unique secondary market for private assets.

roleplay

founder's guide

• Reminder on venture expectations - 10% MoM growth
• Ambitious people need each other
• What type of talent distribution are you pursuing? Not everyone is after 10x engineer!

Different corporate cultures benefit from different types of talent distribution (normal, Pareto, bimodal) according to the problem they’re trying to solve.

• Open access list to 2000 venture funds, however seems that Baltics need better coverage.

further insights

• Early-stage startups with a track record of environmental and social responsibility can command a 15% valuation premium
• Slow-motion videos make your product or brand feel more luxurious
• Some things Morgan Housel thinks

Three legal investment strategies: Be smarter than others, be luckier than others, be more patient than others. That’s the whole list.

• AI and Remote Work: A Match Made in Heaven. But also: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the remote work ‘experiment’ was a mistake—and ‘it’s over’. Go figure!

• Bryce Roberts believes VC is ripe for disruption - the product keeps moving upmarket and abandoning all other opportunities.

others

• Little Lithuania Stands Tall Against Russia and China
• The only newsletter a Lithuanian ambassador runs? Darius in Singapore, monthly.
• Industrial policy doesn't have to succeed right away

three questions, previously

• Domas Janickas, Co-founder at edON
• Milda Jasaite, Senior Director of Corporate Development, Vinted
• Darius Zakaitis, Founder & CEO, Tech Zity
• Roman Novacek, Partner, Presto Ventures
• Lina Zakarauskaite, Principal, Stride.VC
• Justinas Pasys, Managing Director, LitBAN
• Magnus Hambleton, Investor, byFounders
• Povilas Poderskis, Development Director, Darnu Group, ex-COO Nord Security
• Gytenis Galkis, Venture Partner, Superhero Capital
• Daniel Kratkovski and Dominykas Milašius, co-founders, Delta Biosciences
• Kasparas Aleknavicius - Co-Founder and CPO, Loctax
• Andrius Milinavičius, General Partner, Baltic Sandbox Ventures
• Laura Korsakova, Founder and CEO, Psylink
• Paulius Uziela, Investment Manager, Coinvest Capital