Started as a project

work in progress

• Projects, some of them will become startups. Check where’s the best price before going shopping next time - Listful. Noura is AI sidekick for Chrome – making browsing smarter. Antanas launches weather app for LT – and calls it Oriux. Linas introduces Closo.ai - a tool for revenue teams powered by AI agents to qualify companies 20x faster. With the Comuna App, we keep track of what builders are building, it's simple and fun to use. Rolands, former VP at GoCardless, is building Birdy Chat, and the ambition here is likely very high.
• What automotive startups are there, if any? Not many Europeans believe they can start building cars, like Tesla or Rivian already do. Daniel and the team launched Longbow – an electric sports car brand (UK). Rhino Racing guys in Kaunas busy building mode. Also hoping for Rimac and Verne to succeed. Two van efforts – Arrival and Volta Trucks – went into insolvency (Volta is back under new ownership), Einride is more of a service provider. Elinta Motors builds these powerful electric drives for heavy-duty vehicles instead.
• In sales and marketing, some are building value+accuracy, some are offering scale (in many cases, both worlds are needed). Justas and Juras started Keika.ai, product to scale marketing for B2B. JB (Evergrowth) is not a big believer in AI SDRs. Salesforge keeps growing their stack, now with Leadforge. We seem to transitioning from growth hacking to growth Renaissance.
• Shopify. InterioApp ships a wallpaper calculator for Shopify. Who else from 🇱🇹🇪🇪🇱🇻 building for Shopify ecosystem? Omnisend, Kaching Appz, Matrixify, Sensible tools, Essential Apps, ProfitKoala, Neonjelly. Anyone missing?
• Relocators. All these brave founders, pursuing "whatever it takes" for a breakthrough. Martins, co-founder and CEO of Supliful is moving the family to NYC area. Carmen, founder of Elnora AI, also made a recent move to US. So did Georg from GridRaven, landing in Austin, Texas.
• Fintech. Paystrax is both in Vilnius and Klaipeda. Contiant integrates with VIALET for seamless transactions. Ambr has received the regulatory greenlight to launch a fully compliant, MiCA-regulated Euro stablecoin.
• Launch, graduate. Seed to Series A event, April 4th – some very top entrepreneurs speaking, and Atomico is around to find new deals. Health and wellbeing – Cassini hackathon by BSV Ventures, May 16-18.
• Climate. All Western world: solar and wind require too much land! Today, apparently more land is being used for golf courses. Erki Ani joins Jälle Technologies to tackle the $50B battery recycling market. H2Pro (Contrarian Ventures portco) signed MOU with Latvenergo AS to advance green hydrogen commercialization in Latvia. Soldera is making leaps and entering new markets. PVcase partners with HeatSpring to unlock more talent getting into utility-scale solar. Deeper dive into 1komma5° type PV and heat pump installation rollups.

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

• Blackwall (formerly BotGuard) has raised an impressive €45 million in Series B funding, led by Dawn Capital, with support from existing investors at MMC Ventures, Expeditions Fund, Red Dawn Ventures, and Tera Ventures.
• Walk15 opens its Series A investment round as it reaches a €30m valuation. Initial investments have come in from its existing shareholders – Coinvest Capital, Angel syndicate NGL, PVVG Holding family fund. Walk15 established an office in Berlin, where its Founder and CEO, Valda, now spends “nearly half of her time“. Building a movement, indeed

• Inovo VC has been active in Lithuania, who can guess these 3 deals?

founder's guide

• Example of building an AI-native company. The advantage may not be massive today, but you'll soon find yourself way behind if ignoring + not building capability.
• VC land. AI and liquidity are two major headaches. Marko Oolo (Superangel and now co-founder of portfellow, investment portfolio tracker) shares his investor experience. Marija introduces Outlast Fund in the Pursuit of Scrappiness episode. VC investment decision framework (by Gil Dibner) – great for founders to understand.
• What founders should understand about salaries at the early stage?

further insights

• Redpoint market update covers macro, micro, AI and liquidity – quality read.
• Nasty case for Deel – not smart to be spying on Rippling from the inside.
• This article (co-authored by Nicolas Colin) argues top VC firms will become policy powerhouses, because

• In media, there are few people that I find truly impressive – for what they have built.
  • JimVandeHei built Politico (smart biz model) and Axios, selling first to Axel Springer for $1B, and Axios for $500m+ (great pod on How I Built This).
  • Nicholas Thompson leads The Atlantic (join from Wired) and turned it profitable. In this pod he talks about.. being a good dad, and impact of technology.
  • Ben Smith is starting strong with Semafor, their pod is often worth a listen.
  • Jessica Lessin built small-yet-mighty The Information, and interesting to see what other media startups she is backing.
  • Locally, pleased to partner with 15min – an entrepreneurial and ambitious media group. Already reported how Mediatech has built digital publishing housing with EUR 50m revenue in 2023 alone. Bored Panda is another phenomenal story – solid numbers and keeps reinventing itself.
  • You can send me your media favourites, thank you.

ecosystem

• Estonian e-Residency program is approaching EUR 300m in direct economic impact, but still think branding impact is even larger – stories are much more impactful than marketing. (Lesson: first, build a great product).
• Justinas Kairys, founder of Opendatabay, visited the UK House of Lords to discuss future of AI governance, data protection, and digital responsibility.
• 21st Europe is releasing blueprints to inspire the continent to build better. Love the first one – Starline – a true high-speed train network we need.

roleplay