Playground news

work in progress

• Drones. Air Street Capital Submission to the UK government’s Strategic Defence Review – trying hard to help tech grow. Evolving geopolitics: China announced sanctions on US firm Skydio for selling drones to Taiwan (only customer was National Fire Agency). For many drone players supply chain is vulnerable and involves China, therefore Monopulse (Scalewolf portco) chose to only source from trusted suppliers. RSI Europe has delivered the first batch of FPV drones, called Shpak, to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Unmanned Defense Systems participated in a live-fire exercise, simulating an aerial threat to test vessel defences. MoD decided to allow purchasing drones locally without tendering, aiming to help local drone producers grow faster. Story from Estonia: former Russian-speaking drug offender behind defence industry fair in Tallinn.
• Sustainable. Margarita with BAETA Carbon Solutions took the win in the University Startup World Cup finals. With BAETA, they are transforming plastic waste into CO2 sorbents for sustainable carbon capture. Estia writes about The Consumerisation of Climate – for many consumer-facing startups to think. The Knotty Ones is one of these brands, keeping the standards high even for the Black Friday.

• What types of marketers Baltics need MORE? We have a hypothesis, let's see if it is true.
• AI. Two common approaches from governments regarding AI: just ignore, or throw a bunch of money to make it some giga project. The alternative is just build and learn, so Perfection42 is getting some funding to bring AI to help with firms in public tenders. Askel.ai is a self-serve automation platform designed to help non-technical users automate tasks across various tools using everyday language.
• Search. As Estonian Miros raises EUR 6m (adding Former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves as an Angel), who else is pursuing search? LupaSearch decided to win Poland first.
• Learning – talks worth checking
  • Founding, Investing, Exiting. Alex Gibb, portfolio entrepreneur
  • What Makes a Startup Successful? Vytautas Černiauskas, Workofo
  • Balancing Act of Entrepreneurship. Jone Vaituleviciute. FIRSTPICK
• Space. Martynas (ex-Vinted, founder Compass Wearable) and Ignas (worked at HelloFresh) launched basedspace – a community for early-stage founders, offering not only a workspace but also environment designed for learning, collaboration, and growth.

rounds and capital

• Miros uses image analysis software to profile individuals' taste in products, and has raised a EUR 6m pre-Series A investment led by EBRD Venture Capital and Tera Ventures.
• DefenceTech investment rounds, Baltics 2024. It makes a difference having dedicated vehicles, and more funds are joining. Ukraine was attacked Feb 2022 – this wake up call took longer than it should have.
• Congrats Latvia with this major deal: Printify and Printful announced becoming one! In a merger of equals, Printify (raised $54m) —a platform for selling customized products—has joined forces with Printful (raised $130m), a production-on-demand printing and fulfillment company. Techcrunch adds:

So it’s full steam ahead for Printfulify — or whatever the combined entity will be called

• Guestimates of what Apple might be spending to acquire Pixelmator.
• Hard Yaka, who led series B for TransferGo, might have invested again.
• RollEurope writes about VC-backed "Stranded" SaaS companies that sell cheap.. and perhaps are "consulting firms with a GitHub account"?
• Siena Secondary Fund brought fresh visual identity

founder's guide

• Fundraising 2024? This, my friend, is a thread for you

• 5 Things I Wish Somebody Told Me Before I Founded My SaaS

So, what would I have done differently for the past 7 years? In one word: Marketing. Marketing marketing marketing. Marketing. Marketing marketing. Marketing. Marketing.

Marketing.

*whispers - Marketing.

• All tech / startup events in Lithuania – Unicorns LT calendar.

sponsors

Meet our friends pushing the startup scene forward

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
Notion [Connected Workspace - try 6 months for free]
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]

15min is inviting to the World Press Photo exhibition at Tesonet campus.

further insights

• Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Denmark and Germany will be the longest and second deepest immersed tunnel in the world, the longest combined road and rail tunnel, and the longest underwater road tunnel.
• Newsletter recommendations, fellow writers. Ambassador in Singapore covers Southeast Asia (in LT). Kay with mondayfriday captures Nordic Tech scene, beyond headlines. Swedish Tech Weekly is comprehensive for all things Sweden.

ecosystem

• Importance of talent for tech, especially in Northern Europe: 4 out of the 5 top-funded quantum companies in Finland have or had non-Finnish CEOs.
• Eimantas writes about how to make the public sector way more effective – learnings from the past four years.
• EU-level conversation in EU Inc, other tech initiatives, is happening
• Pixelmator founders from Prienai, what about Veisiejai?? Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. is an American manufacturer of electronic components, founded in 1962 by Felix Zandman, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor. The company specializes in discrete semiconductors and passive electronic components. Revenues of approx $3.4 billion and 23,500 people globally.
  • Felix Zandman was born on May 7, 1928, in Grodno, which is now part of Belarus. He survived the Holocaust and later moved to France, where he pursued studies in physics and engineering. In 1962, he founded Vishay Intertechnology with financial support from his cousin. The company was named after Zandman's ancestral village, Veisiejai, located in present-day Lithuania, as a tribute to his heritage and the memory of those who perished during the Holocaust.

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