BalticVC

Lithuanian retail startup Pixevia   has raised €1,5M. The round was led by Lithuanian Coinvest Capital, with participation from new investors Lithuanian Iron Wolf Capital and Omni Commerce Ventures, and a business angel Rita Sakus (co-founder of Vilnius-based syndicate LitBAN). Existing investors Lithuanian venture fund management company Open Circle Capital, Vladas Lašas (co-founder of LitBAN), and Renaldas Zioma (a founding partner at Lithuanian Gamedev Fund) also joined the round.

Inga Langaite, CEO of the startup founder association Unicorns Lithuania , will leave her position on 1 June. She has been the head of the association for the past three years.

Lithuanian educational toy subscription startup LILEDU  (known and operated under the brand name Žaislų klubas in Lithuania) has raised €500K in an oversubscribed round from Lithuanian fund and accelerator Firstpick, Latvian BADideas.Fund, Berlin-based VC Heartfelt,  and some business angels, whose names are undisclosed.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Economy and Innovation has allocated €35M to support 35 innovative projects in the central and western Lithuanian regions. The Ministry has divided the projects into two schemes: InoPažanga for advanced innovators and Inobranda for mature innovators. €20M has been allocated to 23 projects of advanced innovators. They must have been in business for at least one year and have an operating income of at least €75K in the last three financial years, or from the date of the company's registration.

Vilnius-based fintech startup Softloans   has secured €1M in a pre-seed round of investment, led by a Lithuanian accelerator and fund Firstpick, with strategic contributions from some business angels. 

Lithuanian food marketplace Saltz.app has raised €3M in a seed funding round. The lead investor was Helsinki-based VC and private equity firm Lifeline Ventures, with participation from Estonian Change Ventures, and Helsinki-based Illusian Family Office (founded by Ilkka Paananen, a co-founder and CEO of the mobile game developer Supercell). Angel investors including Vinted co-founder Mantas Mikuckas, a partner at London-based Dig Ventures Rytis Vitkauskas, Miki Kuusi, a co-founder of Wolt, and former Shopify executives also participated in the round. 

Lithuanian startup CTO2B has raised €1M in a pre-seed round from Lithuanian Practica Capital and Firstpick, as well as some Baltic business angels. 

Fintech TranferGo , based in London and founded by Lithuanian entrepreneurs, has raised €9,2M from Taiwania Capital. According to the company, TranferGo's post-money valuation is €551,2M.

Vilnius-based space tech Blackswan Space , which develops software products for complex space and defense missions, has raised €760K.

Education platform Edurio , based in Latvia and the UK, has raised €636K from Lithuanian Practica Capital and some business angels from Latvia, the UK, and Australia. 

Lithuanian Contrarian Ventures has invested in  Ember , a Scottish company that builds an all-electric intercity bus network. Contrarian Ventures joined a $14M Series A, led by Prague-based Inven Capital, London-based VC 2150, and Berlin-based AENU, with participation from some existing investors.

In 2023, Lithuanian fintech startups raised only €5,5M of venture fundraising, which is 12 times less than the amount raised in 2022 (€67,9M). This data was noted in the 2023 fintech report of the government investment promotion agency Invest Lithuania. The report highlighted that regtech, green finance, and DeFi, where AI and quantum computing were used a lot, were the main areas that secured investments.

Lithuanian mine detection startup Broswarm   has raised $100K. The lead investor was the Lithuanian fund ScaleWolf.

Lithuanian AI-powered solution for sorting old LEGO bricks Sort a Brick has raised investment from Lithuanian SOFIGAMA Investments, Vilnius-based IT consulting solutions integrator Reiz.tech, and several Baltic business angels at the end of 2023. The amount of the round has not been disclosed, but it was provided in the form of convertible loans. The startup plans to raise more funds in a full-fledged priced pre-seed round in the third quarter of 2024.

New York-based automated income and employment verification platform Argyle , co-founded by Lithuanian entrepreneur Audrius Zujus, has raised €27,5M. The round was led by the US Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund, with participation of San Francisco-based Bain Capital Ventures, investment firm SignalFire, and Checkr, an AI platform that provides background checks for job applicants. The investment came in the form of a mix of equity and debt capital.

Lithuanian second-hand clothing company Vinted   has acquired Danish marketplace for second-hand fashion and lifestyle items Trendsales, founded in 2013 in Copenhagen by Mads Aaroe Mathiesen. With the acquisition, Vinted aims to leverage Trendsales' local knowledge and strong presence in Denmark to strengthen its business in the country.

  Lithuanian and UK-based developer of volumetric and spatial capture software, EF EVE Ltd , has been acquired by UK Djinn Technologies Ltd. Djinn, which specializes in volumetric and spatial camera sensor and scanning technologies, has acquired all the assets, patents, and intellectual property of EF EVE Ltd. As a result, the EF EVE's platform has been rebranded as SpatialScan3D.

Lithuanian Iron Wolf Capital, Estonian Specialist VC, founders of software developer Skype and Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt, and national economic development agency Scottish Enterprise have invested €1,6M in Glasgow-based robotics startup Kingdom Technologies .

Lithuanian SaaS AI-powered B2B sales platform Evergrowth has raised €2M from the lead investor US-based Impellent Ventures and Lithuanian Practica Capital.

Estonian employees in startups and growth companies received  an average gross salary of  €4253 in 2023, while Lithuanian employees who worked in the startup sector earned  an average gross salary of €3800.