What a year [ahead of us]

work in progress

• Awards. GLL recognizes Rita Sakus - co-founder, board member, and true ambassador of LitBAN. Winner for "Lithuanian Ideas Go Global" - Interactio founding team. First Lithuania's AI Awards 2021 happened, too - great to see this community growing.
• Space. Four locations live, 3 developing and planning 10 - Tech Zity founder Darius Zakaitis explains needs they are addressing. In the meantime .kevin secures 4000 sqm office space in Vilnius - planning 300 team, staff grew x3 this year.
• 2021. Closing it at all-time high with total EUR 428 m raised & 66 financing rounds. What happened? Startups finally started to convert into scale-ups (9 rounds above EUR 5 m). Why now? Global tech rise (covid, etc) + local learning (know-how, mindset). VC interest in the region (late-stage funds active). Vinted financing numbers impactful, but the big untold story is Nord Security, Kilo Health, Omnisend, Hostinger, Bored Panda..). Fasten your seatbelts for 2022.

rounds and capital

• VOW Health - preventive health startup - raised EUR 315,000 to accelerate its expansion, starting with Germany. Investors were Pijus Makarevičius (WeChange.group), Deividas Trainavičius (PV Case), and entrepreneur Jogundas Armaitis.
• Nordic Secondary Fund has acquired a stake in the Lithuanian SaaS company TransferGo (investing close to EUR 5m). With larger fund in action, likely more to come.
• Zygimantas joins Antler and co-founds Lectrium, with pre-seed investment. Solving EV readiness problem for the US consumers.  
• Mambu scores €235 million EQT Growth-led Series E - no wonder their Vilnius team is almost 100 people already. Company’s valuation to €4.9 billion

insights

• 11 predictions for CEE tech 2022 (by Sifted and including SWG Cristobal Alonso highlighting shift on mindset among entrepreneurs, and region getting its first regional ‘mega funds’)
• China and the Ending of an Era. Many implications, and not for LT only. Such as fragmentation in the tech space between China and Western economies.
• Baltic tech year review by Pursuit of Scrappiness (including Jone from SWG). Also Cobalt talks with a few insights into recent tech deals (Light Conversion, Deeper exit) and trends.
• European growth financing gap is in billions - interesting Lakestar report

founder guides

• Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz
• The Web3/Crypto/Metaverse Ecosystem Guide
• Getting Rich VS Staying Rich ("a touch of paranoia—a suspicion that the world is changing against you—is what Grove prescribes")

roleplay

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All the best in 2022! Time has come.