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philomaths.tech
Welcome new subscribers to Tech Philomaths – a researched, curated newsletter that keeps LT/Baltic tech community up to speed. Highly appreciate Contribee supporters and sponsors who keep our small editorial team going.
work in progress
- Fintech (in very broad sense). The Bank of Taiwan got the green light from its regulator to establish a branch in Lithuania. Bud chooses Vilnius for a European Hub, receives AIS Provider Licence from the central bank. Revolut is under scrutiny from regulators, ex-regulators say that's because they push beyond the shortcomings of current banking in Europe (very true). Taavi Ilves and Marko Oolo (Superangel) built Portfellow, an investment portfolio tracker to replace these spreadsheets. Kasparas visiting On - their customer for Loctax. LT imposes over EUR 8m fine for sanction evader in the crypto space, saying there is more coming.
- Deeptech goes beyond venture capital portfolios, sometimes tricky to track. Would be great to know more about Danas Tvarijonavicius' portfolio (Gensinta (synthetic biology), Pentasweet (recombinant proteins), likely more) as he puts capital to work after exiting industrial biotech Amilina (now EUR 300rev, with 16% profitability). There is behind the scenes action in lasers, of course – such as Nter being involved in Optonas and QS lasers.
- Summer travels. Cybernews wanted to let you know which of your favorite travel apps are harvesting data without asking. With Rebookify you can save on hotels, and also that's what Ratepunk is about. Wisit brings AI solutions for tourism and culture. Since you're likely to be avoiding, here is an amateur travel journal on the China tech market.
- Products. Who is pushing the envelope lately? AISPECO's new AI-controlled gimbal FOCUS is now available. WhoDesk is a new product to manage hybrid work and office space. Salesforge adds 4th product, Warmforge, to help emails land in the primary. Important element for Burga – beautiful ad creative, so they are building 600 sqm studio just to produce amazing videos and photos.

- Early-stage, seed investors taking notes: Tiings, ANA, Cyberalert.ai, Whitebridge join FIRSTPICK accelerator.
- People moves. Gytenis Galkis is now a Partner at Superhero Capital. Contrarian Ventures promoted Robina Stein to Principal. Einaras appoints Jonathan Anastasia as the new President of CUBE3 AI. From 4 persons to 50 and 7.7m revenue - Ignas leaves CEO role at Elinta Charge, company hires Vaidas Bielinis to take the lead. Ieva introduces Kamile to FlowSpace team. Juste Damulyte-Brookes joins Iron Wolf Capital as Head of Finance.

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 tech companies at the forefront of security, defense, and aerospace]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
Wargaming [award-winning game developer, careers]
Tech Philomaths'community
- Startup lists for the Baltics - Drone startups, Marketplaces, Sportstech
- Repeat Lithuanian founders - now added ex-founders of Applaudience, Lemon Labs, Nanoavioncs, Robolabs – all building new ventures (40 serial entrepreneurs)
rounds and capital
- Tesonet successfully exited CloudFest, selling 100% of the shares to Opus Origin. Cloudfest is the largest cloud computing festival, and this investment both generated a nice return and helped Teso get involved with Hostinger (still generating a nice return).
- Finbee Verslui has secured €35m from Pollen Street fund SMEs in Lithuania (debt not equity)
- After navigating troubling waters, Benme is back on the scene securing EU funding to further develop their product and company (employee benefits space).
- Estonian Mifundo seems to be the only Baltic startup to receive EIC funding.
- ZAKA from Prague launches €15M Fund to support Early-Stage Startups - they show interest in the Baltics, too.
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founder's guide
- 2M+ users from a $20 sticky note and sharpie growth hack - you might have seen how Dupe went viral. Also, a rather genius idea.
- Learn Great Copywriting in 76 Minutes (Harry Dry)
- A rare interview with Jesper Kouthoofd, CEO of teenage engineering, very Swedish.
- One way to get your customers engaged - allow them to vote on roadmap and features, as Formaloo did.
- Vertical SaaS. Slow Ventures introduces Growth Buyouts as a new GTM, would love to see some examples in the Baltics, although not seeing a lot of vSaaS?

further insights
- Just 14 companies control a combined total of 88 bike brands, no sure why you need to know that, but there we go. Also, Vinted is inspiring similar C2C marketplaces all around, including used bikes.

ecosystem
- The voice of EU/ACC is being heard more, as European tech can't scale fast enough compared to US. Starting her second term, Ursula von der Leyen promises 28th regime: "I will propose a new EU-wide legal status to help innovative companies grow: a so-called 28th regime to allow companies to benefit from a simpler, harmonised set of rules in certain areas." It is likely to centre around finance, banking, and insurance.
- It's been a while since I spent a couple of years in Singapore, and continue to find that spot impressive. Mostly because they keep standards for public services super high, and remain extremely competitive globally. Other countries/cities tend to slow down once they have more wealth, and fall into internal battles/politics. In some ways, it's always Day 1 in Singapore.

- Is this the reason why the weather is getting hotter?

roleplay
"The biggest thing for me has always been finding interesting work that stretches me, while also writing a lot." - Will Larson, CTO at Carta
Join the leadership team before Series A
Salesforge - Growth Manager
Walk15 - Communications Specialist
Hostinger - Partnerships Team Lead for Marketing
NFQ - Head of UX & Design
No Brakes Games - QA Lead
AQ22 - Business Analysis Intern
Smartproxy - Engineering Team Lead
Cachet - Sales Execution Lead
Member discussion