Tuscany can wait

work in progress

• Sporty. Walk15 grows all the way to 1,000,000 app users. Marek is shutting down scorestars, and bringing insights and experience to something next. It is a pivotal moment for the coach-in-your-pocket type of products, with LLM processing: a simple example with basketball tutor. This makes me think about opportunties for the likes of Latvian HackMotion (grew 160% to EUR 7.3M in 2024, profitable), KaiSense, FittyAI, Motion Trials, and certainly FPRO.
• Nominate. We've got so many incredible female entrepreneurs and investors, got to have the Baltics topping this list: please nominate your favourite to Sifted 100 Women in Tech in Europe. Inspirational lists here and here, and don't forget female investors.
• E-commerce. Genus AI launches big new product – Sage, an AI Agent that's designed to help e-commerce brands grow via digital channels. The shift in advertising, PPC teams and what marllm is doing. Supliful (Latvia) went from 200k in 2021, to 9m 2024.
• Fintech. Being ahead as a jurisdiction requires continuous effort – impressed to see a broad regulatory package going through, it solidifies LT's advantages – well done by all involved. BeMyBond has entered into a strategic partnership with fund management company Aggressive Capital. FIRSTPICK picked Chaseit – a team that brings AI into debt recovery space. CoinGate reports on H1 market, with USDT wiped out, USDC usage surging 4x, while TRX volumes pumped 8x. Vialet partners with Yaspa.
• Lasers and space. BBC covers space tech startups. Integrated Optics is also breaking into space tech scene. BMI Awards Rokas Slekys, Akoneer CEO, as Entrepreneur of the Year – another high growth laser company is emerging (revenue almost 4x 2o24). Sensmetry (impressive team) took part at Cassini accelerator, and excited to learn they are are productizing with SysIDE tool.

• Health. Flying off the shelves: Pulsetto closed H1 with €11M in revenue - already surpassing their 2024 performance. To address data fragmentation, Spike Technologies created a unified sleep score – standardized metrics that work across all devices.
• Creators. Different than all influencers, Billo is betting on real humans for creatives (grew revenue to EUR 7.4m last year). Modash jumps to EUR 6.7m revenue, quarterly. Paulius built CreatorHunter, but keeps on shipping new stuff. Learn how to do AI cartoons from Framer (Paulius). iPhone Photography School did 14m revenue in 2023.
• Builders. After leading growth at Kilo and Moerie, Mangirdas launches lakilaki: personalized beauty learning app to replace these endless tiktoks for learning. Liina (ex-Deel) is thinking about how to help startups go from day 1 to performing sales engine. For those inpatient ones, _basedspace is the curated community to get into. (if not there, this is fun read how to go build in Japan)
• Estonian CRM/ERP for your Business. Is Pipedrive accelerating? EUR 121M in Q1 2025. Katana ERP displaying predictable growth. MRPeasy is almost bootstrapped (seedstrapped), growing and profitable.
• Defence. News on Ragnar Sass' new venture firm: fifteen-month-old Darkstar just completed a first close of €15 million backed by European entrepreneurs, family offices, and Estonian state-backed LP SmartCap. Does Deeper want to do boat drones, fishing only or perhaps dual-use? Talking about sea vessels, Superangel in Estonia backed Kraken Technology Group, joining an a coalition that includes NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) and UK's NSSIF. Airvolve and signed a LoI in Finland for 10 units of Airlift-U500. Monopulse was selected to receive support through the APUS program (Odense Robotics)

• People. Saulius Tvarijonas, ex VP at CUJO, joins GREÏ as co-founder and CTO. Auguste (ex-Spike Technologies) joined n8n GTM team. Egle (ex-PVcase) joined GrowTech as Head of Business Development. Liliana joins Trace.Space as the first marketing hire (and Janis from Trace.Space is relocating to San Fran). Ausrine, former minister of Economy, joins inRento. After nearly a decade Startup Wise Guys CEO, Cristobal Alonso, is passing the baton back to the founder, Herty Tammo. Did we miss your hire? Share pls.

rounds and capital

• ex-Sequoia partner Matt Miller closes in on $400mn European tech fund (as solo partner) – and we wonder when we will hear this name again?
• Skarbe team raised EUR 600k to help founders who hate CRMs finally sell on their own terms. Investment coming from FIRSTPICK, Somersault Ventures, Andreas Mihalovits and Jeroen Van Ermen.
• BrachyDOSE has secured EUR 554k round to test its radiation measurement technology in a clinical environment. Funding led by Coinvest Capital, with participation from BSV Ventures and LitBAN + EstBAN.
• Calmio secures EUR 200k EU-financing support to build AI-based grief assistant.
• Sygnity S.A., part of Total Specific Solutions group, has acquired DocLogix.

sponsors

Cloudvisor [AWS partner dedicated to startups]
Hostinger [making 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]
PayPal [Global integrated payments solution]
15MIN Group [all the news you need to know]
Superangel [Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A for tech companies]

three questions - most recent

• Tadas Norušaitis, CEO and Co-Founder, Pickitoo
• Chris Sidlauskas, Founder, sintra.ai
• Kasparas Jurgelionis, Founding Partner, Iron Wolf Capital
• Mikk-Plakk, Co-founder and CEO, Paul-Tech
• Gajus Kuizinas, Co-founder and CTO, Contra
• Miks Mikelsons, Co-founder and COO, Emmi AI

founder's guide

• Great for deeptech founders: behind the scenes of Atrandi Biosciences series A $25m round with David Yang from Lux Capital (video).
• Gearing for the US market: "In Europe, B2B customers ask: Do we have budget for this? In the US, it’s more often: Will this drive ROI?”. Index wrote another book and reminding you they perform incredibly well as a fund. Who's got Index backing? nexos.ai 🇱🇹 Printify 🇱🇻 and Montonio 🇪🇪
• Tactical GTM $0→$2M playbook
• Great set of tips / tools from Superangel portfolio founders, such as Go-to tools:
  • Sales & Ops: Hubspot, Amplemarket, Notion, LinkedIn
  • Finance: Payhawk, Envoice, Tripletex
  • Fundraising & Equity: OpenVC, Global Shares ( JP Morgan)
  • HR & Hiring: Personio, Who: The A Method (book)
  • Productivity: ChatGPT, Claude, Lovable
  • Info sources: X, LinkedIn, Hacker News, BookFace, The Economist

further insights

• Mario Gabriele wrote four-part series on Founders Fund (here).

"They don't just have noisy people; they have originality. They say unusual things. You don't attract attention just by trying—you have to be interesting."

• Mark Zuckerberg on rebranding Facebook, spinning off Instagram, Facebook’s strategy tax – disclosed internal email from 2008.

roleplay

• AI made it easy, so you've got to do hard things now, bar is higher

How do we recognize genuine expertise now? For generations, we’ve looked to credentials, like degrees attained and company names on resumes. Increasingly, the proof is in the outputs: visible friction, evidence of struggle, and personal investment made tangible.

New readers?

Welcome all new readers. Here's what to expect from Tech Philomaths and our newsletters (analyzed by a robot):

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦, 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮-𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵-𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 ("𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨") 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 ("𝘗𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘴") 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴, 𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭, 𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘥-𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵, 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦-𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥. 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘩𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘮.