Pursuit is power

work in progress

• Defence. TechCrunch features Coinvest Capital – a pioneer in the region to back defence startups, EUR 6.8m already deployed. European Defense Tech Hackathon in Amsterdam on March 28-30 and Darkstar Defence Hackathon in Finland, end of April. In Latvia, Origin Robotics, SAF Tehnika, and Frankenburg Tech awarded contracts to build counter-drone systems. Australian Army returning to Vegvisir for a follow-up order. Lukas is developing StratOS - tactical drone simulator. Few months back, Darkstar has invested EUR 600k in Farsight Vision, a battlefield intelligence startup (EE/UA). Altechna joins program to develop Europe’s first sovereign 100kW laser weapon.
• Fintech. Latest FT1000 rankings – Jeff App is a Top 30 fastest growing company in Europe. Siauliu bankas to turn Artea. TransferGo needs a Chief of Growth. Interview with Markus, founder of Finfra, tells their story (Indonesia is their core market). myTU closed EUR 10m series A (below).
• AI. Intro to Turing College X FIRSTPICK AI Accelerator, Wed night. Antanas launched Flowtest.ai on Product Hunt. Viktoras, looking at AI product teams:

many early-stage AI founders could benefit from thinking like an agency first rather than aiming to be a pure B2B SaaS from day one. Positioning as an agency makes customer acquisition simpler, provides a clear and familiar value proposition, and allows startups to generate meaningful revenue early on. It also ensures that the AI product is built for the in-house team first, creating a much faster feedback loop, which is critical in the early stages. Over time, that product can be opened up to external customers, and non-AI-powered agencies or service providers can become acquisition targets - often at very attractive multiples.

Who is taking AI to other verticals??

• Sort A Brick validated AI-powered sorting technology and market demand - they are closing pre-seed extension (EUR 400k) before jumping into larger seed. Startup is backed by FIRSTPICK, Mantas Mikuckas, Rytis Laurinavičius, Audrius Milukas, Andrius Bičeika and other prominent angels. You can join the round, all info is here (including behind-the-scenes videos).
• GREÏ is rethinking security: putting AI agents to work across industries, to protect, detect and optimize.
• Perthera (including their LT team) launched a PDACai - an AI-driven predicting tool, developed using the world’s largest pancreatic cancer dataset.
• WORKOFO AI-powered scheduling solution has now taken flight in aviation. 
• Hostinger Horizons is out – a no-code web app builder lets anyone create fully functional software in just a few clicks.

• Sports. Another update from Teso powerhouse – Sadiq Khan backs the plan to build a new basketball stadium for London Lions. Latvian Tournated – shopify for sports management – secured angel ticket from LatBAN.
• People. Lukas stepping into the CEO role at Sanobiotec. Jonas, COO at UDS, has left the company. After leaving Neurotechnology, Osvaldas joins Deeper as new CTO. Gediminas returns to Interactio, now as CBDO. Jonas Kvederavicius joins LitCapital as a partner. Evaldas, VP of Product at Omnisend, is leaving the company (his inbox might be full already).
• Learn + network
  • Negotiations 2025 – learn how Google negotiates (10% discount with code TPDERYBOS)
  • Vilnius AI Summit - newsletter friend Emmet King (J12 Ventures) is coming around t0 speak (10% discount with code TECHPHILOMATHS)
  • Padel Cup in Kaunas, March 22nd, by Tech Zity, go register.

sponsors

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
Hostinger [making online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
Presto Ventures [investing in startups – security, defense, aerospace]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
Superangel [Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A for tech companies]

rounds and capital

• myTU, an AI-powered and cloud-first digital bank, has secured a EUR 10 million Series A.
• untu (70v portco) was acquired by Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG), the listed unicorn. Press release here. Exit nr4 for 70V.
• POINTSHIP successfully completes a $1.9M funding round (digital asset management)
• Bonds – Inbalance grid had Orion Securities distributing EUR 2M bonds for 52 fast-charging points across Lithuania (ILTE provided additional guarantees). In Estonia, Hoovi secured EUR 8m as structured bond from Multitude bank.
• Web3, Blockchain and AI agency Super How? is having financial difficulties and needs an investor to keep afloat. They have earlier launched Axiology and micapass.

founder's guide

• How to generate more top-of-funnel leads in B2B SaaS
  • One of the suggestions talks about humour... see what LocTax did by building tax and finance memes – 900 comments on LinkedIn asking to download!
• Sometimes you will hear VCs saying that new founders should understand power better. You can start by learning about Schelling Point Companies:

• Thinking about this lately – how taste is eating software.

• Think about moats. No, first think about what are you building

• "Palantir for X" is inevitable, but not enough
• Post-exit (or secondary) read – How to (Not) Invest Life Changing Money

Further insights

• Lenny's newsletter, which started as something for product managers – reached 1m subscribers.
• I do encourage more of you to write, more

• 50 Thoughts on DOGE

ecosystem

• Unicorns Lithuania + Implement Consulting Group+Google looked at potential AI impact on GDP growth. Massive, of course.
• Finnish startups generate EUR 10B in revenue and EUR €8B in exports. What is it in Lithuania - somewhere between EUR 3-4B or more? Estonia seems to be above 3B (based on Superangel500 list), but they don't add full Wise revenues ($1.2B in 2023 alone).
• Looks like some needed regulatory improvements are on the way – mostly regarding Law on Joint Stock Companies.
• Google.org is supporting Vilnius Tech to create a cutting-edge programme equipping a new generation with AI-savvy cybersecurity skills

roleplay

Good advice for applying – "don't spend 15 minutes on 100 applications each. Spend 5 hours on 5 applications instead".

Everything you need to know about becoming a Chief of Staff

Tech Philomaths' community

• Lithuanian founders in US building something new. We found 15 names.
• Lean and Mean - small profitable Baltic tech firms
• Baltic Founders with YC experience
• Startup lists for the Baltics - Drone startups, Marketplaces, Sportstech
• Repeat Lithuanian founders - 40+ serial founders building now