Way beyond software

work in progress

• Gotta love robots. Is it Waymo, that is catching up with UBER (passed Lyft) and will enter Europe one day unexpectedly? Or perhaps Latvian Aerones, which just raised $62m for growth (already team of 500), proving that going deep into a niche and building a superior product is the best way to win. (btw, round was co-led by S2G Ventures, where Audre Kapacinskas is a Principal, now added to the updated list of Lithuanian VCs globally). byFounders led $1.6M pre-seed round for Loki Robotics, Swiss startup with a Latvian co-founder and a cool idea – cleaning robots to run dirty work. Here Elinta Motors is powering an aircraft-washing robot.
• Marketplace. Better Market is B2B marketplace that found PMF and probably raised some capital. Who else is emerging? Eany.io, of course. Saltz is actively hunting talent for DE, PL, EE. Tingit. Traxlo. And here is a kind reminder from Thomas Plantega (Vinted) on how they prioritise markets (first, figure your drivers of potential success).

• Acceleration. Plug and Play calls for the last batch to apply, July 4th the latest. FIRSTPICK launches the Baltics’ first AI Accelerator.
• Bio. Pick your next Atrandi Biosciences (or perhaps, Fermentas): Vital3D has created the first bioprinted wound patch for pets — and plans to bring the tech to human organs, writes TNW. Longevity Lab (nutraceuticals) joins Plug & Play accelerator. We might hear from Allergomedica at some point, solid 20% monthly growth. If your headache is IP, consider talking to Agne from SeqVision or other speakers. And if just lacking inspiration – come to the next Startup Meetup Vilnius (June 17), with Juozas Nainys from Atrandi Biosciences.

• Underlooked. Go to W3Techs and search for "Hostinger", to be surprised with scale. Netzet venture builder has expanded rapidly in the past few years, hiring top talent. Pineca launches Poland (10th market), and you might not know that they are at 75M revenue already. Fleming might also be a new company for some, but with 1.2m customers they are already in very high revenues and keep searching for talent.
• Fintech. Amlyze signed a significant contract with Advanzia Bank. Highly focused, Greet has reached 750 locations in LT and €3.5M in monthly GPV. We are also keeping an eye on Chaseit AI, as well as Kashimi – strong founding teams.
• Two wheels. London has become a cycling city. Vassla moped from Sweden redesigned and engineered by famous teenage engineering (modern Honda Ruckus?). Jony Ive’s LoveFrom helped design Rivian’s first electric bike. Lukas started ItaroBlu – helmet safety technology startup. Couple of former Vinted employees are now building Gearro, a marketplace for second-hand bikes. MTB Hopper stands around 1.5m in revenue, but has eroded profits post-covid.
• Atoms is tech. In LT, 13 rounds announced so far in 2025: 54% of these have hardware/atoms in the very core of product offering (Atrandi Biosciences, Pulsetto, WeSky, Sort a Brick, Astrolight, FPRO, Samphire Neuroscience). Fieldy introduced their wearable AI note taker on Product Hunt.
• People. Kadi-Ingrid Lilles is stepping up to be a partner at Iron Wolf Capital. Raimundas Usackas joins Willgrow as COO. Mindaugas Petrutis (ex On Deck) joined Lovable growth team. Helery Pops joins Arbonics for part-time role. Lukasz joins Flanco as Country Manager in Poland.

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