Natural grandeur
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work in progress
- Media. Tesonet has built a mighty media arm with Mediatech (almost EUR 50m revenue, team of 230). Our friends 15min just launched a EUR 15m bond offering (see below), and we are learning that Mediatech Investment Fund already supported their M-1 radio acquisition, and will invest into the holding media group (4 Bees). Mediatech is mastering customer acquisition with Cybernews, expanded into Health and Finance, and makes model run with affiliate model. If you are in media, you may benefit from The Best Piece From 20 Newsletter Creators. Or listening to The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of New Media with Ben Smith (Semafor).
- Mobility. We can start by looking at what the Zuckerbergs did to that poor Porsche, now a minivan...
- Cars. Woop Drive, peer-to-peer car sharing, was launched in Vilnius. They should be tracking the footsteps of GoMore (Denmark), which launched in Tallinn this year, too. Nevaziuoja is a new car repair marketplace. Similarly, Rocket Assitant is there to help if something happens on the road.
- Bike lanes are safety lanes, meaning for all: high-cycling cities have much less car crashes. German data proves that fuel prices have a positive impact for bike use. In Finland, Vapaus (Superhero Capital) closed EUR 10M series A.
- Robots and tractors. Starship robots have officially made 7,000,000 deliveries. AUGA group is being challenged for their biomethane tractor project.
- Defence. After the exit with Airdog, Agris is coming out of stealth with Origin, an autonomous UAV startup. Similarly, Sweden’s Nordic Air Defence shows up, will launch a software-centric drone interceptor. Hackathon in Kaunas – The Flaming Shield 2024 – got a few winners: Intelsight, AiDrone.Tech, Halas, SUBmerge Baltic, Harlequin Defense. Unmanned Defence Systems launched a new web, see their loitering munitions and UAV Swarm Command & Control system. More Baltic action: Vojta reports from Military Tech Meetup organized by the Estonian Founders Society (Estonia future Defence Fund gets EUR 100m earmarked). In 10 yrs we will be looking back and recognizing tech leaps defence tech has allowed to make, in UAV as the prime example. But it goes much broader – for instance, lots to do in logistics. Or see ex-Palantir people launching Go-To-Market startup for defence tech.
- Edtech. Impact: STEAM Academy alumnus becomes a World Robotics Champion. Great initiative to help and inspire heads of schools. HEI Schools (Practica Capital portco) to launch a new school in Thailand. Schoolchildren tutor service / marketplace has been a great business for some (see Proto Industrija interview with Alfa Klase, or revenues of Corepetitus), and competition is to arrive: Memby is launching digi1.
- Hardly visible. Amazing to find tech companies solving less noticed, technical challenges. Founded by Latvians, Sehaci provides SDKs for using mDLs. ConvertAPI, another example, is great in generating cashflow, so we also added them to our Lean and Mean list.
- AI. We are reading (listening) to The State of AI Report 2024 by Nathan Benaich. Another comprehensive piece is What's Next in Data and AI, by J12+BCG. In the meantime, Mentum AI is pitching LitBAN. The incredible rise of CAST.AI, from VP of Engineering perspective.
- Calendars
- Unicorns Lithuania released Events Calendar – a great way to keep track (add your event by emailing the team).
- Don't miss if in California: Baltic Tech & AI meetup in San Francisco, Oct 16, 6.00 PM, at the iconic House Of Shields. The founders of Pylon, Exante, AQ22 and more.
sponsors
Meet our friends pushing the startup scene forward
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 startups – security, defense, aerospace]
Wargaming [award-winning game developer, careers]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
rounds and capital
- AMLYZE secures EUR 2.35m for growth, by FIRSTPICK, Practica Capital, Coinvest Capital, Advanzia Bank S.A. and generous business angels. Interesting how they go broad and embrace the community – a good example is the launch of Compliance Officer association.
- RedTrack – AI-driven analytics and automation platform for media buyers – closed a $3.2 million Series A funding round, led by Lead Ventures with participation from InstaVC, Iron Wolf Capital, and angel investor Balazs Gandera.
- British Fintech Pockit is acquiring Estonian Monese.
- Alsendo (Poland) has acquired Visas transportas UAB, owner of Siusk24 and Cargobooking, the logistics platforms in LT (approx EUR 6m rev).
- Livonia Partners Fund I has exited the investment in Freor LT, selling its stake back to the founder of the company.
- Masiva Group is considering acquiring Contribee.
- NGL launched their network in Riga
- Key Jone's slides capturing 2024 H1 Baltic Funding Report
three questions
Tomas Balzekas, Founder, 15min group (short video on 15min).
Radio’s Decline while Podcasts Boom. Many have declared radio dead for years, but what’s the real misconception about its business model?
The ones who declared might be dead sooner themselves :) We people tend to think that things should die when something new appears. But why? If we still love to use good old things, we have habits, those things make us happy and serve the purpose. Like books, they didn't die, though prognosis was bad. I think well selected music channels won't die. Radio is very convenient way to get music you like and information you need in a hassle-free way. It's just one click of a button, not like time consuming search on Spotify or YouTube, where at the end you get stuck on the same playlist most of the time. On the other hand, I think radio should become more available in all the digital platforms, that's the main opportunity we see.
Future Formats & Platforms & Trends. What’s your long-term strategy? What can we expect in terms of formats and platforms?
Our long-term strategy is to use our strong brands, that create or filter content, in all the distribution platforms where audiences are. Radio should be in all digital platforms alongside FM frequencies, cars, home pods, apps and so on. Strong radio brands have a much better chance to strive than no name channels. We will make M-1 group radio stations much more accessible for digital audiences, while keeping things why people love them. Well, everyone nowadays is talking about AI, no different in media. But it's coming in slow into real news media, there are so many questions about legal part of content use. Another one how AI made content will be treated by google search and so on. So, this one we follow closely and use it for efficiency improvement purposes while looking for other better opportunities.
What’s next. What is your vision for 15min group?
On a local scale, we are trying to build the largest Lithuanian media group based on local capital and ownership, that would kick ass for everyone else in the market. We already are doing well in radio, online news, magazines, news agency and plan to continue expanding further. We have just released info about possibility to buy our bonds (dig into www.15mingrupe.lt/investuotojams), as well as our new partnership plans with Tesonet guys and their venture Mediatech. It’s great to get together with think alike guys who share similar values, have tons of very different know how and experience. We believe this will make 15min group unstoppable in the long run. We aim not only to create sustainable, profitable, meaningful business, but by doing it to make a lot of great good to the society we live in.