Normalize unicorns

work in progress

• Want to work together growing Tech Philomaths?
  I would like to know you. Here are my thoughts and very open to hear yours.
• Welcome new products / teams / startups
  • Justas Kriukas, Omnisend co-founder – introduces Bigdelta, to help software companies see revenue before it happens.
  • Dovydas – Klero, The AI-Powered Platform for Feedback, Roadmaps, and Changelogs (post on building it)
  • Martynas is a founding engineer at Drafted – and they raised $1.65 million pre-seed from Convective Capital, Stripe’s Patrick Collison, Jack Altman, others.
  • GrainODM – AI-powered grain quality inspection, wins a newcomer award at AI association event.
  • Lukas is building SoureWizard, and Jonava reminds why he choose to be a founder.
  • Tadas is 15 and he is pushing hard – both product, and distribution
• Unicorns. More and more, of them and there will be more to come. Let's normalize this, considering Israel has somewhere between 30-46 today (depending on criteria) – we need many more.
  
  In Lithuania #5 is Cast AI, another amazing company. Zero to billion worth, in five years. Many aspects are impressive about Cast AI, starting with the founder Yuri Frayman – he's got four exits under his belt, before this startup (on track for the largest outcome?). Big congrats to the global team, including early Lithuanian edition (current staff locally at 77 and Gabija is hiring more).

• We definitely have, at least one more, billion-worth tech company in LT. It is growing impressively well, generates hundreds of millions in revenue (recurring), active on LinkedIn and throws good parties... But well profitable which means no fundraising round is needed to happen, so we might need to wait for "the market" confirmation a bit more.
• Inspiration. Brings back hope – MVP – so fun to see young talent pursuing big ideas, building products in teenage years, and showing impressive commitment. Kudos all mentors and supporters (SEB, Unicorns Lithuania and TV3) for making this show happen – and bringing defining builder generation to the main stage.
• Drinks. Someone should start "drink startups" newsletter just to cover all these drink ventures? OMG Bubble Tea went 0 to 14M revenue in 3 years. Cannumo started as creator-led brand before this was a thing. Brite needs freelance Performance Creative.
• Crowdfunding. Vytautas returns to InRento as CMO. Röntgen pooled together EUR 94,7M capital – 45 % increase compared to 2024.
• Houses. Talent Garden is taking over "Pramogu Bankas" – new exciting workspace in the making. Tech Zity official opening is 2026.
• People. Norrsken Evolve hires strong team in Tallinn – Siim Teller and Merit Vislapu will take the lead. Andrius Bajoras is leaving smeGo. Vitalijus joins Pulsetto as Head of Digital Products & Innovation. Kriste joined Fleming as Head of Growth. Roman leaves Fuelfinance. Migle will run influencer marketing at Brite. Mindaugas Macenas is leaving Revolut. Monika joins Ace Waves to lead people function. Deimante joins as Cannumo CMO. Eleanor Warnock (interviewed late last year), joins Every as Managing Editor – as tells us about The Heyday of the Writing-first Practitioner.

sponsors

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
Hostinger [online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
Google For Startups [cloud credits up to $350K, expert support & faster growth]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
Ace Waves [Enterprise ready AI agents for CS, hiring]
Surfshark [Top 50 among fastest growing in EU, hiring]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]

rounds and capital

• Cast AI latest round brings unicorn status. Strategic investment comes from Pacific Alliance Ventures (PAV), the U.S.-based corporate venture arm of Shinsegae Group, an over $50 billion Korean conglomerate.
• Rollo Robotics, the Estonian autonomous monowheel security robot startup, has raised €3.7 million in pre-seed funding (FoodLabs, Frontier Tech VC Prototype and supported by Enterprise Estonia)
• Zilch buys Lithuanian lender Fjord Bank to secure European banking licence – for $38M.
• Inbalance Grid landed €1.8M investment round – by Coinvest Capital, EIT Urban Mobility and several business angels.
• Estonian Flashka lands 1M pre-seed, led by Outlast Fund, with UCP and Vento Ventures participating; 1M users in one year.
• Tesonet announces they will be getting into the private education in Lithuania – aiming to make it both better and much more accessible. Keen to see the details.
• Balnord co-led large seed round for the US/Finland startup Avenue Biosciences, and Gabriele makes a video to explain.
• Ignas would like to deploy some angel tickets, send him a message "if building something ambitious"

roleplay

founder's guide

Had several talks with first-time founders recently and realized the following: knowledge on "how to raise" never gets old, because founders are always new. Most founders need some simple help to build good VC list, nail story and deck, setup reachout process and sequence, and decide on positioning / ask. In case you struggle with any of these above, feel free to reach out - happy to share resources that will help.

• Started bootstrapping, and now 25? This list is for you.
• Why strategy in 2026 needs two languages

• Ben Lang's best blogs for tech people.
• Great content, overall – is about human psychology (so we keep it short).
• How to make viral youtube videos
• You can just do things, including random things: started in Zagreb, Museum of Illusions is the largest privately held chain of museums in the world (27 countries)

further insights

• As politicians keep talking about declining population and fertility rates, dive deeper: Sterile Polygamy – The mating system we accidentally built
• DOAC Steven's brother actually lives in.. Lithuania
• Reading Thomas Piketty book Capital in the Twenty-first Century – and looking at AI effects on future economies.

But in a world of advanced robotics and AI, this correction mechanism is likely to break. That is, though Piketty was wrong about the past, he will probably be right about the future.

Indeed, in some ways, he may well be more right than he knew. A lot of AI wealth is being generated in private markets, which only large and sophisticated investors have access to. You can’t get direct exposure to xAI from your 401k, but the sultan of Oman can. This trend toward the “privatization of returns”, already ongoing and especially pronounced in the AI startup world, could well continue indefinitely.

Furthermore, with full automation, the main source of catch-up growth for developing countries goes away; namely, that by importing capital and know-how, they rapidly make their underutilized labor more productive.

ecosystem

• This London connection – is a big setback, anyone seriously building rely on customers, partners and investors in the UK. Got to think bigger.
• At the time, when job markets are getting distorted by AI, LT can't make priorities for continued education and supported skills training.