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Lithuania Tech Weekly #127
Short version - Work in Progress - landing on LinkedIn,
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Lithuania Tech Weekly #127
Short version - Work in Progress - landing on LinkedIn,
The full newsletter is email as always - subscribe philomaths.tech
Become a partner here
work in progress
- AI in motion. Greylock's Chen argues that in the AI world, the moats have not changed - what he calls "systems of intelligence". More than 5 m images were generated with Genus AI Product Catalog tool. JobRely launched integration with ChatGPT so that recruiters would never work, again. There might be opportunities for one-person companies, but we are not there yet.
- Vinted. Grows revenue to EUR 371m and reduces losses to EUR 43m, now having 1,800 people onboard. They have caught us by surprise with the launch of Vinted Go - one could have expected them to jump into another category ( furniture?) instead. It won't be easy - it's atoms, not just bytes, and a significant B2B arm alongside the C2C marketplace (these lockers won't be full of clothes alone - they will need other freight companies to use them). But it's a challenge worth taking - it completely aligns with the overall mission of making fashion sustainable. Apparently, delivery to a pick-up point instead of the buyer’s home reduced emissions by 62%, which is massive, not to mention reduced cost, which in turn encourages more sales on the platform. If they can make this piece of vertical integration work, it will be a cornerstone of its "factory is the product" version.
- Energy & deeptech. Among the 12 energy startups to watch - PVcase and Aerones. Viezo releases Powerail v2. Notes from Energy Tech Summit (by Contrarian Ventures), where batteries seem to receive a lot of interest. Anyone building in the deeptech space - here are some leading funds, and spot-on tips on how to structure your pitch (unless you can flex Mistral.ai type of memo that brought them EUR 105m four weeks into a startup)
- Edtech. End of the school year, this is what Teachers Lead Tech has achieved. "By endurance we conquer" - that's the favourite quote of Lukas Kaminskis (Turing College) and signal how startup got where they are today. Alfa Klase is another one to watch, the question is if revenue grows because of increasing tutoring spending, or a great product?
- Scale-ups. Hostinger hits EUR 60m in revenue last year, navigating trough the AI world - interview with Arnas (paywall, in LT). Interview with Rytis (in LT) on Omnisend journey - how he values freedom above other things, and how it allowed him to take more risks while bootstrapping. The 'ship' Estonians were all waiting for - Starship Technologies and Bolt have finally gotten it together.
ecosystem
- Big headlines at Techcrunch, Sifted, CNBC - all reporting upcoming Tech Zity Vilnius, a 55,000 sqm campus for tech firms, initiated by Mantas Mikuckas and Darius Zakaitis. They have pulled EUR 30m already and aiming at EUR 100m as the total investment (another pre-seed fund at a third of this size would come very timely, too!)
- Sequoia introduced Atlas - an interactive map of engineering talent in Europe. Not the biggest or the deepest (that's the London advantage), Vilnius and Tallinn shines with Frontend framework competence, as well as gaming for LT.
rounds and capital
- Nothing to report?
roleplay
InRento - Head of International Sales (B2C)
Bolt - Country Manager
Blockchain Center - Head of Marketing
Bored Panda - Head of Business Unit for AI-driven projects
kevin. - Head of Customer Success
NFQ - Head of Cloud Engineering & Operations
Bolt - Country Manager
Blockchain Center - Head of Marketing
Bored Panda - Head of Business Unit for AI-driven projects
kevin. - Head of Customer Success
NFQ - Head of Cloud Engineering & Operations
founder's guide
- Alex MacCaw (now Reflect app, Clearbit before) pod episode on B2B vs B2C playbooks and how to think about different types of capital.
- Seedcamp Fund VI Fundraising Deck
- Does it pay for British executives to move to the US?
further insights
- Family firms achieve higher productivity gains when located in more competitive regions, surpassing their non-family counterparts (research in Spain)
- A plan to gene-drive burmese pythons off the american continent — for good (the moral case for changing planet earth)
- The Need for Speed - for governments
A new global economic and geopolitical regime requires structural change to already stressed growth models around the world. There is a need for speed in adapting policy approaches to respond to new ‘wartime’ models of globalisation, competitive industrial policy, the net zero transition, disruptive new technologies, and much more. Many existing policy approaches and areas of competitive strength will be compromised in this new world.
three questions, previously
- Domas Janickas, Co-founder at edON
- Milda Jasaite, Senior Director of Corporate Development, Vinted
- Darius Zakaitis, Founder & CEO, Tech Zity
- Roman Novacek, Partner, Presto Ventures
- Lina Zakarauskaite, Principal, Stride.VC
- Justinas Pasys, Managing Director, LitBAN
- Magnus Hambleton, Investor, byFounders
- Povilas Poderskis, Development Director, Darnu Group, ex-COO Nord Security
- Gytenis Galkis, Venture Partner, Superhero Capital
- Daniel Kratkovski and Dominykas Milašius, co-founders, Delta Biosciences
- Kasparas Aleknavicius - Co-Founder and CPO, Loctax
- Andrius Milinavičius, General Partner, Baltic Sandbox Ventures
- Laura Korsakova, Founder and CEO, Psylink
- Paulius Uziela, Investment Manager, Coinvest Capital
Member discussion