Jun 18, 2024 5 min read

We meet

Vilnius University photo

work in progress

IPOs in Europe declined - GP.Bullhound signals Baltics might need to help out. They also list 50 most promissing European scale-ups, but only Flo from names we want to see.

ERP. Very large "inception" rounds still happen in the continent – typically when you have repeat founder+massive market+strong VC conviction. ERP world is a world of pain, thus Light - finance platform for multinationals - got fueled with EUR 13m seed from Atomico. In Estonia, Katana is more focused inventory management, has 1500+ customers and playing with LinkedIn to get more leads.
Go US. Surfshark making noise in the NYC, providing with food and coffee in exchange for... privacy data. (Your marketing budget is probably smaller than Surfshark - here is another approach, for B2B sales, to try)

Ag + climate. Interesting pod (or Proto Industrija video) with Laimonas Noreikia from HeavyFinance – how they work in agriculture, connect to climate, views towards venture, and more. Will another technology player emerge? Auga Group is raising EUR 75m to bring their farming technologies to the market. Otherwise – there are too few startups in the space!
Defence. Tailwinds for the industry in the Baltics - big congrats BROSWARM for winning NATO Innovation Challenge. Unmanned Dynamics came second. Besides multiple startups in the field, keep an eye on Brolis Defence – they shifted products, revenue dropped to EUR 6m revenue 2023, profitable, and surging income this season. Second ScaleWolf Accelerator celebrates graduation with 13 teams.
New. Antanas (SearchNode exit) is building Flowtest.AI (AI agent for QA testing), and also started a newsletter to document the journey. Jonas and Lukas launched scammerblock to protect people from scammer calls (respect for the hustle – they really push hard with distribution, as one should with consumer products). Zygi Krupskis is building and selling Persy Booths.
Y Combinator. Made a list of Baltic entrepreneurs who have YC experience.
People moves. Andrew joins Evergrowth as CRO. Liucija Sabulyte will lead GovTech Lab. Arvydas Pleta is now CEO of 3o - Out Of Office. Povilas Sabaliauskas assumes CEO position at Pulsetto. People move to join Repsense - they have grown quickly!

Excited to host a founder breakfast in Vilnius - we have Magnus Hambleton from byFounders, early stage New Nordics investor (ex-operator, loves DeepTech, HealthTech, AI/ML, and Dev Tooling). Register here - we have limited spots, and it will be fun.

RoboLabs was acquired by Hawk Infinity. They have grown accounting service / automation startup from 200k investment (70V portfolio) to EUR 4m revenue last year.
Ivan Ivanka launches i1x Venture Studio in Vilnius. Promises to revolutionize B2B startup ecosystem.
New PE fund: Raft Capital secures EUR 50m, in search for growing Baltic companies for majority stakes.
Estonian Sunly Future Ventures (Erki Ani, co-founder of Beamline, and Rasmus Udde, Sunly) will back pre-seed cleantech startups. SFV’s target size is EUR 50m, they have SmartCap Green Fund committed EUR 20m, and Sunly EUR 5m, too.
Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First and Climate Change cohorts are now receiving applications from Europe + Israel based startups.
Invega calls for two new fund managers (early stage venture capital), dedicating EUR 40m in total.