On repeat

work in progress

• Fintech. BeMyBond received EU crowdfunding licence for their bonds platform. smeGo grew loan portfolio by an impressive 44% in Q1, with €100 million in financing distributed across markets. Mindaugas and the team launched RefiGO – a local platform for mortgage refinancing. StockInvest.us is partnering with ISM University to offer all ISM students free access to their platform. Vytautas co-founded Science Card to enable customers to contribute towards scientific research through everyday spending.
• Salestech. As Evergrowth and Salesforge are on full-gas execution, what other teams are building in this space? Noticed Wantly (creating offers), and linkr (CRM - LinkedIn integration).
• HR tech. That might be a harder sell when compared to sales tools, but HR tech is one of those bottomless categories, too – multiple billion-dollar outcomes are possible. (In the US, ADP has run payroll for 1M companies since 1949.. how many incumbents in Europe?). MELP has been consistent raising capital, now gearing up for new markets. It's been a year since Humaans series A (15m), and Karolis with the team continue to ship features – and podcasts. Benme is hiring CTO. No-CV has shifted more towards Blue-collar worker search. Anyone keen to try Traba's approach?

• No space for failure when you look at Yuri Frayman's profile - already four exits (last Zenedge, acquired by Oracle), he is currently co-founder of CAST AI (EUR 50m raised), as well as CUJO AI (about 100 people in LT). Every country/city should be competing for serial entrepreneurs like him, I think much more important than generic "capital". (Good pod on ecosystems and competition with Jyri Engestrom (Yes VC), reflecting Finland's tech).
• People moves. Agne Selemonaite left ConnectPay and explores the next play. Martynas Gudonavicius, Trafi co-founder, joined Civinity Board. Ronaldas, a former HumansApp co-founder, joined Spike Technologies' product team. Gvidas joins Baltic Sandbox accelerator. Ina Bielske assumes CEO position at CyberCare. Kasparas is now Chairman of the Board at Lithuanian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
  • For anyone on the move or breaking into tech: check our job board with early-stage teams, find curated openings in every newsletter, or visit unicorns.lt database. Beyond Baltics, recommending Ben Lang's (ex-Notion) content where he picks fast-growing startups and opportunities under the radar.

rounds and capital

• LILEDU (Žaislų Klubas) team secured EUR 500K investment round from FIRSTPICK, HEARTFELT_ and BADideas.fund. They have developed a toy subscription service and rapidly expanding in the UK.

• Latvian Cellbox Labs raised EUR 935K from Buildit VC, with participation of angels from LatBAN managed by Girts Licis and Ansis Spridzans, and ASP Asset Management AIFP. This investment will enable Cellbox Labs to complete the development of our automated organ on chip culturing platform and start sales.
• Estonian VOOL - EV charging startup - raised EUR 300k from Alexela.

fundraising

• The Knotty Ones are putting their mission at the forefront and have already raised EUR 183k on Crowdcube (150k goal), from 100+ investors. They generated EUR 3.4m in revenue in the last three years.
• Alfa Klase helps 12-th grade students prepare for math exams, early signs for PMF, raising pre-seed.

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

founder's guide

• Simple way to look at and consider your valuation.. also the type of attitude your VCs will love to see.
• Some learnings about PMF

• 4 Traits of Successful Founders – do you agree?
  • Ability to Sell
  • Persistence
  • Clear Ethics
  • Customer Obsession
• Eight Green Flags for finding the right co-founder, from Jonas Urbonas.
• This resonates – I am always happy to chat with someone about content ideas (would love to see more operators/VCs sharing ideas), but consistency is by far the biggest challenge.

further insights

• John Ternus emerging as most likely successor to Tim Cook as Apple CEO
• The friendship theory of everything

You accept that in choosing who you spend time with you choose who you are.

Almost everyone who’s unhappy is unhappy because they feel isolated. The best cure for isolation is a strong friend group. So much of happiness is having someone you can get a last-minute dinner with on a Monday night, or ask to water your plants while you’re gone for a week. The opposite of loneliness, as it were.

You show up: you go to your friends’ birthday parties. You ask them to read your writing. You make an effort to make nice with whoever they date.

• Surfshark brought a guy to London...

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