The Global Network

work in progress

Serious games. Still thinking about small indie studios in gaming?

It’s an industry - we looked at headcount in LT specifically. Eldorado doubled the team since Jan 2025, now 170+, need talents. Wargaming is huge with 670 team members, Unity at 140, Nordcurrent at 240 and EUR 61M revenue in 2025. Eneba pushed revenue 42%, beyond 63M now, more than 160 people.

Shopify. Density of Shopify developers from the Baltics is high - and performance is punching way above the size! As Justas (Essential-Apps) has recently shared, per capita, Lithuania has more Shopify app reviews than any other country in the world. Pleased to see tech founders are committed to saving sports - Erikas (Kaching Appz) is putting 1M investment into Zalgiris football club!

Rytis launched Shopify App Store analytics tool Asomify - to follow competition, AI mentions, marketplace algorithm changes. Pro is free for a month with code AWESOME.

Lasers. Litilit is going ahead with new assembly plant. Altechna closed 25 at 21M revenue and already growing 20% in Q1. Light Conversion slowing down growth rate, but 25% net profit on EUR 146M revenue is fine.

New (and AI). Prometheus, Jeff Bezos' AI startup that acquired Jurgis Pasukonis’ startup, is now worth $41B. Voxstack - Voice AI infrastructure. Juicy Lucy AI, new from Mindaugas and Donatas. Dito, AI search for legal documents.

Recognitions. PAYSTRAX and InRento have been shortlisted at this year's Europe FinTech Awards, receiving six finalist nominations across both companies.

Defence + drones. Beautiful work lately by Ukrainian dronesm but cautionery call is fair (The current Ukrainian superiority in mid-range drone warfare is a brilliant advantage that comes with an expiration date). Audrius Zujus / Mainline introduced drone radar initiative - just use old android to capture sounds.

Founders + Unicorns Lithuania + StiprusKartu launches TotalDefence, association to cover resilience / security beyond military terms. Much needed - these % from GDP to the military is not the solution itself.

And yet another startup emerges: Lithuania’s PDKinematics raises €2M to scale precision guidance systems across NATO.

Talent moves. Giedrius steps into CEO role at Hostinger to further accelerate AI-native shipping mode; right after huge growth push by Daugirdas, that established the brand top globally. Audrius leads Data at IPRoyal. Emma joined Omnisend. Kotryna joined Kaching Appz. Bunmi Adekore joins Contrarian Ventures as Venture Partner. Justinas M leaving Coveron.

Asta (ex Bob W.) is exploring new gig in marketing / growth. Vytautas Butkus looking for a role in Product / AI. Zane, ex EA at Jeff App, is open for smth new.

sponsors

Cloudvisor [now offering stress-free migration from any cloud to AWS]
Hostinger [online presence accessible to everyone worldwide, hiring]
Google For Startups [cloud credits up to $350K, faster growth]
Oxylabs [Step into the world of web data gathering]
VIALET [Business accounts for growth, hiring]
Surfshark [Top 50 among fastest growing in EU, hiring]
Eldorado.gg [world’s largest in-game trading marketplace, hiring]
Saily [eSIM data for international travel, hiring]
InRento [Investments in real estate projects with income, growth, and impact]

rounds and capital

PDKINEMATICS secured a €2M investment round, co-led by Coinvest Capital and Iron Wolf Capital together with defence sector business angels and NGL Ventures, Orion Ventures (CVC).

Nanordica Medical raises €1.6 million to launch its antibacterial wound dressing - led by Estonian fund 2C Ventures with participation from existing investors, Specialist VC, Superangel, Amalfi, Health Founders syndicate led by Erki Mölder and EstBAN syndicate led by Heidi Kakko and Martin Goroško.

Granarium Technologies raises €1 million pre-seed round - led by BSV Ventures, with Beamline, and of course includes the BANs.

Wave Ventures closed 10M fund to invest pre-seed.
Vinted Ventures office hours.

Other type of exit - Globeducate is acquiring the network of schools and kindergartens of Austėja Landsbergienė in Vilnius; given the performance, the deal might easily be beyond 50M.

roleplay

three questions

Oxylabs is going through massive expansion - we surely needed to talk to Vytautas, newly appointed CEO, about their secrets.

How much of your growth is due to the AI wave?

Companies across all industries need more and more data, and they need it faster to stay competitive. It goes for AI, of course, but also for e-commerce, travel, cybersecurity, and many others.

Few providers can meet the scale and complexity of their demands, and we're built to deliver at that level. That's why, across Fortune 500 companies, half or more of the top 10 players in some categories are our clients.

That said, focusing on AI has really paid off. We had a 100% year-over-year revenue growth month just recently, and our annual revenue growth is also approaching triple digits.

But what allowed us to take advantage of this wave is that it's not our first. We have more than a decade's worth of infrastructure building and knowledge gathering. A year ago, the amount of data flowing through our infrastructure was already what few could handle. Since then, it has increased 4 times. And we added 50 patents, now totaling over 160.

AI companies can't rely on you as a provider if you can't scale fast. They will have projects that start with volume and speed requirements no one has ever heard of before and then ask you to double or triple it.

And solving current problems isn't enough to be their long-term partner. AI developers need to trust that you have the know-how to tackle the problems of tomorrow.

That's why when the AI race started, there was hardly any race to serve them in our industry. Most players didn't qualify.

Full interview here.

founder's guide

AI-native firms are different: 25% smaller, 13% more engineers and 15% less junior staff as well as managers - compared to other tech firms.

Revised rules of engineering leadership.

Is it’s all about distribution and attention now? (also, full story how a16z supports startups with media).

brand + design

A New Era of Midjourney. Launches Midjourney Medical, a full-body Ultrasonic CT imaging project. Because curing cancer is a better goal than AGI or, in other words, perks of being bootstrapped.

Up for a run? Design community social runs are back in Vilnius

Billo rebrands. Shifting the platform from a transactional marketplace to a genuine growth channel for both brands and creators. Check it out.

Small reminder from one of the most influential music producers of the last 40 years branding matters

further insights

Ahead of behind? Summary of Paul Krugman debate with Luis Garicano regarding European stagnation.

Only in Brussels. To reduce European dependence on American technology firms, the European Parliament has replaced Google with a French search engine, Qwant (Qwant generates its search results by querying the Microsoft Bing API)

Taking the long view. Real power lies in the domains of deep, slow change

ecosystem

Lithuanian founders. Building in the US. 20 names. Includes world-famous Einaras von Gravrock and Marty Kausas as well as recently noticed founding engineers Martynas Pocius or Zygimantas Koncius.

List is here.