Outlast

work in progress

• Fast growth (fast PR too). Sifted released a list of 30 fastest-growing startups in CEE + Baltics – we picked 22 of these teams are Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian! (In comments people figured this was only self-reported numbers, so pretty far from full view on who is growing fastest). The flipside is... Baltic founders also good in publicity and PR.
• Pitch. If you're a Shark, we've got a Tank full of cash... the famous show is coming to LT, and, obviously, – Tadas Burgaila is behind it!
• Life Sciences. Integra Therapeutics will incorporate the genome editor Cas12l into its gene-writing platform; Caszyme will receive milestone payments up to €40 million in addition to royalties on sales. Of course, Caszyme is one of six Life Sciences companies to watch in LT (and growing well even before this). Atrandi Biosciences introduced smaller SPCs.
• Three sins of AI: Churn, Hallucinations, and naughty EU regulators. Who cares? Mavenoid is adding AI-driven voice automation support. Whitebridge.AI reached 50k user milestone. Parnidia is deploying AI assistants for support tasks. Such Much AI Agent that generates high-quality sales proposals in just minutes.
• November 1st. Ricardas Cepas is launching Neverlost – a digital way to store memories, Memos have a similar idea with a QR code.
• Pixelmator broke the news on Friday – they are getting acquired by Apple! It is still subject to regulatory approval and we know very few other details. One can only guess that it should be a double-digit million-dollar deal (and the team is worth every penny they secured). What else makes this acquisition special?

• We always wanted them to succeed. Pixelmator is an early darling of LT tech ecosystem, making many proud when launching their products at Apple events.. 10 years ago!
• Pixelmator stands for craft, focus, and persistence. It is 17 years (!) before overnight success. How many times did they want to stop, things broke, and competition was crushing? (...so please - perhaps simply don't add that "possible exits" slide to your pre-seed deck).
• There is power in making just one thing world-class, sticking to that one thing, and becoming "so good they can't ignore you".
• Being profitable and without venture backing, they could build on their own terms, and play the long game. (You might argue they could have grown much bigger with venture dollars – that is possible, but not sure if plausible).
• Ben Thompson has written a lot on Apple’s unique edge – combining hardware and software to create tightly integrated experiences, which fosters greater user loyalty. Apple averages 20 acquisitions per year, and generally targets smaller, specialized teams that enhance its core offerings, particularly in areas that enhance user experience across its devices. This explains Pixelmator fit pretty well.
• Apple has not had an acquisition across CEE + Baltics so far.
• People. Co-founders of LastMile (Jonas and Tadas) are moving on and started Pickitoo — a dedicated software development company specializing in advanced e-commerce solutions for retailers. Tomas Peluritis joins mediatech as Head of Data. Change Ventures promotes Aveli Nurk to Operating Partner. Luke Hodkinson joins Mantas as CTO and Co-Founder of Cor.
• Learn. Orbio Academy in Kaunas, starting Nov 18th.

Acquisitions / exits Baltics 2024 YTD (link)

Klaus (Zendesk) 🇪🇪
Cybers (Security Software OÜ) (Neverhack SAS) 🇪🇪
TaxScouts (Taxfix) 🇪🇪
Robolabs (Hawk Infinity) 🇱🇹
Paywerk (Swedbank) 🇪🇪
Wisnio (Assessio Group) 🇪🇪
OX Drive (Carguru) 🇱🇻
MedDream by Softneta (Bregal Unternehmerkapital) 🇱🇹
Monese.com (Pockit) 🇪🇪
Frontu (Everfield) 🇱🇹
Pixelmator (Apple) 🇱🇹

rounds and capital

• Modash (Change Ventures portco) closed $12m series A deal led by henQ, with existing investors Change Ventures and Icebreaker.vc participating. Modash helps brands find, analyze, & track creators. They will now open an office in downtown Toronto and is scaling its customer base in America.
• Turing College secures EUR 2.5 m grant for EIC to further develop AI tools.
• Broswarm, a defence tech startup specialising in mine detection, has secured EUR 800,000 in funding from ScaleWolf. This funding will accelerate the development of Broswarm’s proprietary X-Ray Eagle sensor, which enhances mine detection by providing clear, 3D visualisations from up to 10 metres above ground. 

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