• Adaptive Media was founded in Latvia in 2014 and operates in export markets throughout the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Mexico. It creates digital content marketing projects and assists consumers world-wide in purchasing products online.
• Tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon are Adaptive Media‘s partners. Adaptive Media had a turnover of over €4 million, with €1 million profit in 2023.

• In September 2023, Merito Partners launched a new €30 million real estate Merito Self Storage Fund to develop pan-Baltic network of self storage facilities. Additionally, in May 2023, Merito Partners acquired a majority stake in AIOO, retailer of mobile device accessories and used smartphones. The amount of the deal was €3 million.

Adaptive Media is local success story– in ten years, expanding from local projects and an office in the attic of the founder’s home, into a global business. Latvian investors’ capital and confidence in the company’s management team, will allow the Adaptive Media to expand more rapidly. This investment is an important addition to Merito Partners portfolio, alongside Box Storage, the largest self storage network in the Baltics, which is actively continuing to fundraise, as well as portfolio of solar parks Latvia and a number of other companies,

says Mikus Janvars, co-founder and Managing Partner of Merito Partners.

Merito Partners, in collaboration with the founders of Adaptive Media, will invest in the further development of the company, including technology and the team strengthening. The sell-side financial advisers were Superia and legal adviser – VILGERTS.

About Mapon

• Co-founded by Ingus Rukis and Andris Dzudzilo, Mapon provides a fleet management and asset-tracking solution across Latvia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, and Denmark. Its platform includes GPS tracking, fuel control, route planning, temperature monitoring, security, tachograph data management, digital vehicle inspections, asset tracking, IoT, video telematics, and other features.
• Mapon’s turnover reached €17.3 million in 2023. According to the company, Mapon is used by over 30,000 customers on six continents. Currently, the company employs 180 people. 
• In 2021, Mapon acquired the client portfolio of its Lithuanian partner TrackingMap, in June 2023, the company acquired 100% of the shares and extensive client portfolio of the Estonian company CarCops. Additionally, in March of this year, Mapon announced its fresh €3 million round in funding to accelerate its European expansion.

Acquisiton details

• Mapon expects this deal to bring their combined turnover in the Lithuanian market close to €1 million and provide services for over 40,000 vehicles. As a result of this deal, Trackon Fleet Management will become Mapon Lithuania.

We have known Trackon since 2011, as it was our very first export partner. This is not just a client portfolio acquisition deal; it is a strategic step to onboard a strong team that fully understands the neighbouring market, which will help strengthen our position in the Baltics,

Andris Dzudzilo, Mapon CEO, said.

In addition, earlier, Mapon acquired companies and opened branches in Denmark and Finland, and has a branch in Barcelona. The fresh acquisition will allow Mapon to consolidate the Lithuanian market and strengthen its position in the Baltics. Unfortunately, the amount of the acquisition was not disclosed.

• Established in 2005, Digital Mind delivers tailored business application solutions to both large and middle-sized organizations across finance, insurance, logistics, retail, telecommunications, manufacturing, construction, and public sectors. The company provides services to implementation and management of Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Content Management, and Intelligent Process Automation.
• Digital Mind has offices located in Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Tallinn. The company serves over 350 organizations. In 2023, the team forecasts revenue of €14 million. In addition, in Lithuanian and Polish markets, company operates under the Alna Business brand.

About the deal

The acquisition will be financed with equity investment provided by Livonia Partners, a pan-Baltic private equity investment firm.

• EIP Dynamics is a Polish provider of Microsoft Dynamics technology solutions, with a portfolio of projects utilizing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and a multitude of installations of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The company serves clients across Europe, the US, and Canada. EIP Dynamics foresees 2023 revenue of €10 million. Its workforce exceeds 130 people.

This acquisition not only reflects our dedication to meeting the evolving needs of our clients but also signifies a significant step forward in our quest to become a leading Microsoft cloud solutions player in the CEE region. We are confident that this strategic alignment will bring about transformative results, reinforcing our commitment to excellence and positioning Digital Mind at the forefront of cutting-edge solutions in the business application landscape.

Rinalds Sluckis, CEO of Digital Mind commented.

• The acquisition will allow Digital Mind to accelerate the development of Microsoft Business Applications in the Baltic and Central European countries. It will also enhance the company’s delivery capabilities and enable cross-border teams to serve large local and international clients.
• After the merged, the consolidated revenue for 2023 is forecast to reach €24 million with the team exceeding 300 people.

What is the DevTernity tech conference

DevTernity is a Riga-based online conference for developers. It is invite-only for speakers. In the past, it reportedly drew hundreds of attendees. Eduard Sizovs is the founder of the event, having started it in 2015. The prices to attend the conference started from $860.

However, the conference is not an all out success story. On November 25, engineer Gergely Orosz tweeted that he’d discovered fake speakers listed on the DevTernity site.

Two women — Anna Boyko, listed as a staff engineer at Coinbase, and Natalie Stadler, a “software craftswoman” at Coinbase — were showcased as the speakers. However, neither existed in real life nor had online presence other than on the conference website. Stadler, for example, was listed as a speaker for years, according to archives from 2021.

Sizovs responded to these claims, admitting that he’d made at least one fake speaker, Stadler, in the process of building the DevTernity site and then left her up, because it wasn’t a “quick fix” and “it’s better to have that demo persona while I am searching for the replacement speakers.” Why exactly is it “better” Sizovs did not elaborate.

One of the reasons why the organizers did not delete these fake speakers, may be the need to bolster diversity, as out of the only three real female speakers, one couldn’t manage to arrive and two others decided not to go after the accusations came out.

What happened next

Eduards Sizovs did not take the accusations lightly. In a series of tweets the organizer tried to shift the blame on, firstly, technical errors, secondly, on the absent female speakers, and, lastly, on the criticism from the public as a whole. This did not go well with the attendees and the speakers, who started to drop out of the conference one by one.

One of those who left is Scott Hanselman, VP of development community at Microsoft. He said that he also pulled out of the conference, because “This whole conference debacle is so disappointing. Speakers like myself, when invited to a conf will immediately say ‘who all gonna be there?’ I’ve my rules for participation posted on my site—including an inclusive lineup — for years. I was duped by the fake speakers also.”

He followed on the steps of David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails, who was one of the first speakers pulling out. Software engineer Kelsey Hightower also dropped out of DevTernity, saying he asked Sizovs to remove himself from the website, but didn’t even get a response.

The accusations escalated to the point, other fake speakers were found in other Sizovs’ conferences. In particular, Alina Prokhoda, listed as a Senior Engineer at WhatsApp, who was listed as a speaker at the JDKon conference.

Eventually, the conference got cancelled altogether. Sizovs did not respond to any requests to comment on the situation or the retrieval of the tickets.

In the new research of the Baltic states, Vestbee makes an overview of the Latvian Startup and VC ecosystem from 2013 to 2023. AIN.Capital publishes key figures of the report.

Latvian startup ecosystem overview

• There are over 500 startups headquartered in Latvia.
• The Latvian startup ecosystem value is around €761.6 million.
• The country has only one unicorn — Printful, and three companies that are headed in that direction — Lokalise, Printify, and Aerones.
• Top sectors are fintech, mobile apps, health and medtech, deeptech, and AI.
• Early rounds with small capital amounts dominate in the country — 50% in the years 2013-2022 were below €100,000.
• There were three exits in 2022: Vendon, GetaPro, and Nordigen.

• Biggest round in 2023 is Naco, securing a €10 million ticket, and Mycabin, raising a €1.6 million funding round.

Latvian VC ecosystem overview

The most active foreign investors in Latvia are:

The most active local investors, angels, and accelerators are:

Other important organizations in Latvia are: LatBAN — angel network, and accelerators such as Buildit Accelerator, Commercialization Reactor, Prototech, Magnetic Latvia Pre-Incubation Program, and Startup Wise Guys.

• Founded in 2020 by Edvarts Gaigals and Jekabs Endzins, Roibox is a SaaS platform providing geospatial analytics for digital advertising purposes. The company combines its data expertise by using its core Grid Technology (thousands of data points) to provide several map-based solutions for different consumer types and needs.
• The utilization of the geospatial data offers a completely new approach to media planning. It empowers brands across the globe by transforming valuable insights into actionable strategies on a large scale. According to Roibox, the solution can improve the advertising campaign performance by up to 30% and save the marketing team time.

“At Roibox, our mission is to help businesses around the world adopt and utilise geospatial analytics in their marketing, enabling greater marketing transparency and better return on investment. We share Jakala’s excitement about the growth of geospatial analytics, and we’re delighted to join forces with a group of people who not only share our passion for driving game-changing innovation in marketing services but will also help bring this technology to a far wider audience,”

Jēkabs Endziņš, CEO Of Roibox, comments.

• The purchase of Roibox marks a major milestone for the Italian company Jakala, as it aligns with its goal of becoming the leading all-in-one marketing company globally. This acquisition brings new technologies and capabilities to their service portfolio.
• The companies did not disclose the amount of the current deal. However, in June 2022, Roibox managed to secure a €2 million investment round led by BlackSheep Ventures.

• Merito Partners is a private investment company operating in Latvia and the New Nordics. The fund focuses on implementing growth capital, sustainable energy, and specialized real estate investment strategies. Earlier, it launched its Sustainable Energy FUND I with a total target size of €20 million to develop solar power plants in Latvia.
• Currently, Merito Partners has successfully raised almost €5 million in capital from over 10 Latvian investors and actively continues to fundraise. In addition, the fund plans to increase its total value to at least €10 million.
• Merito aims to acquire its first property and convert it into a self storage facility in the upcoming weeks. The average size of each self storage unit will range from 4 to 6 square meters. The network will consist of at least 10,000 units.
• Currently, the fund is negotiating acquisitions of more than five separate properties throughout the Baltics. The network of self storage facilities will be developed in Riga, Vilnius, Kaunas, and Tallinn.

In the Startup of the Day column, Andris Merkulovs, the CEO & co-founder of Monetizr, shares more details about the startup’s idea, its product, and future plans.

The Startup of the Day column on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originated from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

Monetizr is an ad experience platform for the video game industry. We create more meaningful brand experiences for gamers, helping brands connect with authentic stories and helping game publishers monetize their games.

The end goal is to create branded experiences that gamers don’t hate. Despite the fact that almost 3 billion people are playing video games, and most of them on mobile devices, this remains a relatively misunderstood channel in the ad industry. We think that Monetizr can deliver experiences for gamers that create positive impressions and lasting trust with brands.

We understand who gamers are and what they like to do, and we enable game publishers to create better experiences for them. The way we do it is by bringing brands into the games, allowing them to sponsor and create amazing experiences, branded missions, and in-game rewards. All this is driven by gamer behavioral data that connects the right ads for the right gamers.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

We were separately working in mobile and advertising categories on the media buying side as well as in development. As an advertiser, I hated creating intrusive ad experiences or buying impressions that didn’t convert. On the mobile app and game development side, we were looking to find the right balance between monetization and creating amazing experiences so that users would come back. So we merged these ideas into the best way to create monetization solutions for mobile apps, and games.

My co-founder, Martins Bratuskins, and I both have backgrounds in gaming and game development. We each experienced firsthand the monetization struggles that game developers and publishers have to navigate. Because of our gaming backgrounds, we’ve always been very focused on the players, on the users of the games and apps.

When exactly did you launch your product? Or when the launch is planned?

The company set out to put the players first and enable advertisers to help players instead of annoying them. And so we landed on the idea of Monetizr in 2020, pivoting away from games to monetization.

What are your target markets and consumers?

Projections suggest that the market for in-game advertising is set to reach $32 billion in 2023 and is expected to soar to $46 billion by 2027.

We work with two main categories of clients. On the one side, there are the brands. In general, we’re looking for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies who are based in the United States and are typically spending $1 billion in advertising. Think companies or brands like Tide, Gillette, secret Coca-Cola or Adidas, Nike, Pringles, M&Ms, and many others.

And on the other side, we have the mobile game publishers. We mainly work in the hyper casual and casual space, meaning publishers who produce free-to-play mobile games and are monetizing purely with ads. Voodoo Games, for example, is a close client of ours.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated.

When managing in-game campaigns for brands, we have achieved a remarkable 45% reduction in CPM rates compared to any other media channel, and our CPA for email campaigns typically hovers around the $1.25 mark. Furthermore, we’ve witnessed a remarkable 183% increase in impressions and a substantial 119% rise in unique impressions. These results immediately highlight the lucrative business prospects to brands.

What about your team? How many people are working in the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We are a team of about 25 people right now, remote-first and digital. We have team members working in Riga, Helsinki, London, Atlanta, and New York City, but we are serving a truly global industry.

As a young startup, we are always on the lookout for motivated talent. If you have experience in media buying and ad sales and a real passion for gaming, I would definitely encourage you to reach out on LinkedIn or through our homepage postings.

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

We recently announced our $4 million round. Change Ventures led the round, Techstars and Ludus Ventures also joined. The purpose behind this last round is to scale globally. We already have a transatlantic presence to tap into the games market, and we have a solid product. The idea is to grow these teams and win more projects with publishers and brands while continuously improving our product.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

We plans to build out our sales teams in North America, with new hires in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The second focus area will be technical and product development, where Monetizr will be making key hires in the development hubs in London, Riga, and Helsinki.

Our journey thus far has been truly remarkable, and we’re excited to announce our plans for extensive travel in 2024 and beyond. Stay connected as even greater adventures lie ahead.

The application are open until September 12, here.

About Future Hub Climate

• Future Hub Climate invites early-stage climatetech startups from the Baltics with a goal to drive climatetech development in the region.
• The program aims to select eight teams to support them with up to €5000 for product development across 10 weeks of cooperation.
• Future Hub Climate is built on the backbone of an existing co-creation program, Future Hub. The program is launched with the support from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia and Riga City Council.

“While Baltic climate tech startups have a lot of potential to make a name for themselves, there are certain gaps in the ecosystem which hinder the speed at which a new startup can get to their first clients and funding rounds. We believe that Future Hub Climate can narrow the gaps by providing a small equity-free capital infusion for product development, but even more importantly by giving the startups a shortcut to testing their products in the market with established enterprises,”

Āris Brencis, Future Hub Climate programme director, comments.

• The program will reach its finish with the startups presenting their product validation results in front of climate tech investors during the Baltic Sustainability Awards 2023.

• Renti Plus is a mobility service created by AS Renti, which is part of the Eleving Group, an international and rapidly growing group of FinTech companies. The platform provides a full service car rental subscription, with the price ranging from €300 to almost €700 per month.
• The company is not the only one offering such services in Latvia. Sixt was among its competition. In less than a year since the service became available in Latvia, the demand for Sixt+ car subscriptions has grown rapidly.

“We are always looking at new opportunities to expand the availability of the Sixt+ service and improve the customer experience. By taking over the car subscription service started by Renti Plus and building on our company’s vast experience in the market, both existing and future customers will gain access to even more mobility options,”

Arnis Jaudzems, General Manager of Sixt in the Baltic states, says.

• Although the amount of the deal is not revealed, Sixt will take over the Renti Plus fleet of more than 100 cars. Additionally, the company will keep existing contract terms in place for customers.

• The new aid program is set to implement three activities: support for innovation motivation activity, business incubation support, and export support.
• The overall funding of the aid program is €73.38 million. It aims to ensure that financing is available to innovative small and medium-sized businesses.
• The program is expected to support a total of 1,500 companies, of which at least 300 will be the authors of new ideas.
• The turnover of the supported companies is expected to grow by 12% with exports increase by 20% (€600M) between 2024 and 2029.
• It is also planned to support 700 exporting companies by creating 1,000 new jobs.

• This deals will result in Merito acquiring a 56% stake in AIOO, while AIOO’s management team will retain the remaining 44% shareholding.
• Founded in 2021, AIOO is a mobile accessory retailer with 24 stores located in shopping centers across Latvia. Currently, AIOO has a team of 64 employees.  
• The company offers over 11,000 mobile device accessories, including covers for smartphones, tablets and laptops, protective glasses, chargers.
• AIOO is the third portfolio company for Merito Partners. Recently, it led the investment for modular home manufacturer MYCABIN and the Riga-based TapBox, a one-stop self-service solution provider for a wide range of industries and application areas. 
• The funding will help the company to accelerate the development of its network and to expand operations in Poland and other EU markets. By the end of this year, the AIOO also plans to have at least 40 AIOO stores in Latvia. 

• Adventum Tech is a Latvian smart engineering platform that optimizes complex construction and engineering processes through advanced data management that leads to efficient usage of financial, human, equipment, and material resources.
• The startup is taking home the winner’s title, as well as €11,000 of prize money, up to €50,000 from Buildit Accelerator, legal consultations from Sorainen worth up to €5000, and €5000 worth of creative and strategic consultancy from McCANN Riga and White Label.

The list of other finalists included:

• Codigy, a Vilnius-based DevTool that helps optimize the codebase architecture and team collaboration pattern.
• Sisko, a Helsinki-based health and wellbeing company that offers female-related service and care.
• Green Growth, a Riga-based software and hardware developer that allows farmers to monitor field yield.
• ZENOO, a Vilnius-based healthy dog food subscription service.

About TechChill

TechChill is an annual tech startup event that celebrates the best of the Baltic, Nordic, and Eastern European startup community. This year, the conference has gathered over 2,500 attendees, as well as 300 startups and 225 investors from 95 VC funds, with over 130 speakers presenting during panels at the venue in Riga, Latvia.

Last year, Estonian startup Vocal Image App won the competition over 200 participating startups and received €160,000 in prize money.

Latvian startup scene overview

• According to Latvian startup database, there are 366 startups in the country. In 2022, they totally raised €92 million in investments.
• Dominating startup technologies and verticals in Latvia are SaaS, fintech, deeptech, AI, Iot, Big Data, medtech, healthtech, e-commerce, HRtech, proptech, foodtech.
• Among Latvian cities with the highest number of registered startups are Riga, Jurmala, Valmiera, Marupe, Liepaja.

• Latvian startups employ 2 949 people. Most of the companies’ shareholders are Latvians, approximately 58%, mixed nationality shareholders are 23%, and only 19% are foreign shareholders. 62% of them are men, 10% — women, and 28% legal entity shareholders.

3 biggest deals closed by Latvian startups in 2022

• Aerones, a developer of robotized solutions for wind turbine inspection and maintenance. Since its foundation in 2015, the company has provided services in 19 countries. In December 2022, Aerones has secured $38.9 million in a Series A round from undisclosed investors to accelerate the global scaling of its product.
• Juro, a contract automation platform that allows executing and monitoring contracts from one unified workspace. Juro’s clients include several internationally known brands, such as Skyscanner. Recently, Juro has closed a $23 million Series B investment round for the US and European market expansion.
• Giraffe360, the essential 3-in-1 virtual tour camera for real estate agents that creates HDR photography, virtual tours, and floor plans with 98% accuracy. The startup has raised $15 million in new funds, led by the pan-European early-stage VC Founders Fund. 

10 Latvian startups to watch in 2023

Startin.LV also prepares a list of 10 promising startups that achieved some significant milestones in 2022 – from winning global awards to participation in international pilot projects, and attracting investments. 

• Copy Monkey, a platform that generates content for e-commerce based on AI or machine learning technology platform.
• Lande, a crowdfunding platform that helps farms obtain capital using machinery, land, or future harvest as collateral.
• Longenesis, an intuitive toolkit for data discovery and patient-centric engagement, with a focus on privacy and ethics.
• Fermentful, fermented plant-based drinks to support your mental and physical well-being.
• abillio, an online tool to support individual businesses, offering company-as-a-service.
• BirgerMind, a non-invasive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) enabling fully paralyzed patients to communicate independently.
• BeeSage, a data-driven beekeeping for productivity and sustainability.
• PrintOnPack, an online marketplace to find the most suitable flexible packaging provider.
• Huntli, an all-in-one solution that helps fight financial fraud and stay up to date with day-to-day compliance.
• Aimy, a personal AI assistant who ensures optimal staffing using artificial intelligence.

In the Startup of the Day column, CEO of Nexpay Uldis Teraudkalns shares details about the startup’s idea, its product, and future plans.

“The Startup of the Day column on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originated from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.”

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

We are a fintech startup that provides banking services and infrastructure for digital businesses. Simply put, we offer payment accounts for businesses. Our API enables businesses to offer their customers seamless integration between Nexpay and their systems, leveraging a range of payment, account, and other products developed by us. With our team of banking and digital assets’ industry experts, we aim to help our customers build new solutions with reliable, convenient, and powerful alternatives to legacy financial institutions. Nexpay is a licensed Electronic Money Institution authorized and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Nexpay was founded in 2017 when blockchain and cryptocurrency popularity was in full swing and the Baltic startup ecosystem was growing rapidly. Large corporate banks, in most cases, are not welcoming to companies working with new business models such as digital assets, gaming and others. With a wealth of experience from banking, digital assets, and investment management, we clearly saw a niche for providing the digital assets industry with banking services and payment infrastructure.

How long did it take to reach the prototype or MVP? What did you encounter?

Nexpay grew out of the crypto exchange Globitex – during the crypto winter of 2018, we were looking for ways to best serve the industry, and we realized that all companies in the space share a big challenge, namely fiat payments. Nexpay had already acquired a license from the Bank of Lithuania in 2017 to process payments, so it was just a matter of launching this new service for the customers, which was done in early 2019. Even though the beginning was quite challenging, the customer response was and has been outstanding. This new service quickly became the main business, keeping the exchange as a value-added service for Nexpay customers.

When exactly did you launch your product? Or when the launch is planned?

For the first few years, we experimented for quite some time, looking for the most successful market-product fit. In 2019, the EUR wallet ‘powered by Nexpay’ was launched. We switched away from retail and focused our services on the business segment. Now, Nexpay is helping over 600 businesses build the future of money with a range of payments and accounts products.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We are a transactional business and the majority of our clients are also transactional businesses, driven by the transaction volume being processed. While we maintain several pricing plans to fit the needs of businesses of different size and maturity, at the end of the day the main driver for our business is the transaction volume that the client drives. The bigger the clients, the more fixed payments at lower rates are set. Therefore, we have a certain amount of stable income, and the rest depends on the clients’ business activity. Consequently, we are also interested in helping our clients’ businesses grow and supporting them as much as possible.

What are your target markets and consumers?

There is a wide variety of use cases we have seen for our services – digital assets business, crypto exchanges, payments providers, law offices, forex brokers and many more. We understand the digital asset industry players since our roots are also from there. Thanks to this heritage, we are better suited to serve digital businesses whose businesses are mostly conducted online, working in innovative industries that traditional banks are not typically interested to serve.

What about your team? How many people are working in the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

Our team is constantly growing and expanding. Whereas last year we had about 20 employees, by the end of this year our team will have more than 50. We try to have the typical fintech startup culture, with a significant focus on efficiency. Currently, we are looking for a range of positions in Lithuania and Latvia, primarily developer, AML, legal and account management. A list of vacancies can be found on our website, paynexpay.com. It’s a fast-paced environment, but we have a team of professionals that are very passionate about helping the digital assets’ industry grow in a healthy way.

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

The basis for the business was formed on a seed round with a group of private investors. Because Nexpay had grown directly out of another business, we were in a good position to tap into an existing customer base. Interest for our services has been strong and growing, and we are proud to say that we are now profitable. Given the current climate around fundraising for startups, we are not in a hurry right now to start the fundraising process again. But it’s always good advice to start raising before you actually need the money. It’s something we are keeping an eye on and balancing the environment and our needs as a growing business.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

With an established brand in markets where we operate, we have plans to increase market share further. We’re definitely going to offer our customers new products, excellent service and long-term relationships. Over the past few months, we have made a number of improvements to the usability of Nexpay, and we also look forward to offering even more payment products shortly. In addition to EUR IBANs and SEPA payments, improvements will include new currencies and payment methods.

• Founded in 2022, Suhona AI develops railway diagnostics robot. It is remotely controlled via a web-based platform. The innovation aims to improve the quality of diagnostics as well as to make railway operations safer.

“There will be a technological railway, state-of-the-art signalling systems, digitalisation platforms to control train movements and switches, as well as other railway elements. A robot would be an addition. There will be a full range of digitisation, so that we could not only manage it electronically, but also check it. This would make everything safer and more efficient,”

Ņikita Stepanovs, co-founder of Suhona AI, explains.

• The startup got recognised as the most innovative business idea in the Idea Cup 2022. The annual competition is organised by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). This year over 275 applications were filled, of which 126 ideas made it to the second round. The 20 best ideas made it to the final round, competing for prizes ranging from €1,500 to €10,000 to start a business.
• Second place and €7,000 in prize money went to Textok, a solution automating adherence to tone of voice guidelines in corporate communication. The legal document generator Ligalio received the third place and €5,000.
• The startups Stapes, ForQueenBee, Fat Cat Leaves received €3,000 each. While the rest of the prize money in the form of €1,000 went to Akountly, Medon, Radīts kustībai, Saikne, Thought Tower, and FireSand.

• Founded in 2007, Blue Bridge Technologies is an IT company focused on software for public, and private sectors of healthcare, and health insurance development. The core component of BBT products is a distributed, easy-to-integrate platform for automation of business processes.
• Blue Bridge Technologies headquarters in Riga, has a subsidiary in the USA, as well as a representative office in Spain. 
• The Cologne-based Everfield is a long-term investor and accelerator for pan-European software companies. Everfield, and its sister organizations, are operating and managing over 80 vertical software companies.

“We are delighted to have the Blue Bridge team join Everfield. Blue Bridge offers a unique set of products and skills that sets them apart in the healthcare and health insurance verticals, and we are excited about the future growth of the business,” 

Henning Schreiber, head of acquisitions at Everfield claims. 

• BaltCap, the previous owner of Blue Bridge Technologies, is a private equity firm in the Baltics focusing on buy-out, growth capital, venture capital and infrastructure investments. BaltCap has a presence in all three Baltic countries, as well as in Finland, Sweden, and Poland with local offices there. 
• The amount of the transaction is not disclosed, but it’s known that Everfield acquires 100% of Blue Bridge Technologies, the shares of Imprimatur Capital, and other minority shareholders.

The story behind Stopify

“Over the past several months, we have gotten used to news about the brutal invasion of Russia in Ukraine. The enthusiasm for donations and aid has diminished since the spring, unfortunately. Especially since the support is more crucial than ever. What can we do about this?

While thinking about the ways to raise the interest in donations, we came up with a simple idea. It’s commonplace to subscribe to various streaming services to watch TV shows for the price of a cup or two of delicious lattes. What if we could subscribe to a much more essential convenience — the opportunity to live on a free and democratic continent? The world’s peace and future are at stake now,” 

Maris Upenieks, the author of the idea and creative director of the project, told in a comment to AIN.Capital.

After several months of voluntary work with a small team of creative professionals, Stopify was launched.

Important to mention, that the initiative is based on voluntary work of all participants, and the team has literally no budget. The Cube Agency helped with the development, and Ziedot.lv is managing the donated funds. 

“The activity of subscribers is a pleasant surprise. During the first 24 hours after the launch, the service raised over €10 000. During the first days – almost €30 000. The metaphor of streaming services is helping to communicate affordability and creating a buzz in the social media,”

Maris Upenieks comments.

How does the Stopify works

• The platform operates on a monthly subscription basis: users select one of three “plans”, which can be changed or canceled at any time: Stopify Light for €6,99, Stopify Regular for €14,99, and Stopify Bold, which allows to set the amount of monthly donations at one’s own discretion.
• Donations go to the special Stopify fund run by the project partner, Ziedot.lv, Latvia’s largest charity organization.
• The funds will be used to buy equipment and other vital necessities for soldiers. While the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia will provide information about the urgent needs of the Armed Forces.
• Feedback about the use of donated funds will be available on Stopify’s social media accounts. 

What’s next

According to the creators of the initiative, Spotify will operate until the day of Ukraine’s victory or the signing of a peace agreement on Ukraine’s terms. Meanwhile Stopify is becoming a good way for internet users to support Ukrainians in their struggle for freedom.

If you want to donate for Ukraine, check out all the official and verified initiatives here.

Currently, CENOS has more than 100 customers, including big names from industrial powerhouses across Europe such as Volkswagen, ThyssenKrupp, and Taylor Winfield, and a total of €1.9 million capital raised. On February 2022, it closed its latest €1 million seed funding round from Startup Wise Guys and Capitalia. 

In the Startup of the Day column, co-founder and CEO of CENOS Mihails Scepanskis shares details about the startup’s idea, its product, and future plans.

“The Startup of the Day column on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originated from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.”

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

CENOS is an engineering simulation software company. We make engineering simulation something that can be more easily accessible and ready for mass adoption. The way we do it is we help engineers to replace physical prototyping and lab testing with computer simulation, thus saving time and money for development of new industrial products and processes. It makes the iteration process faster and much more affordable.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Before us, simulation software was available for 1% of all engineers, mostly simulation engineers at R&D centers. We make it technologically and economically available and affordable for all engineers in the world. I observed rising demand for simulation technologies from small and medium-sized businesses. Nobody addressed this demand, so my co-founders and I decided to help such companies to introduce simulation practices into their design habits. That is how I turned from scientist to entrepreneur.

At that time, we already had the idea of using open-source libraries to democratize simulation. We have had experience working with those open-source tools as academic users, so we knew their pros and cons.

I’m a fan of open-source philosophy since it enables collaborative engineering. So, we decided to build a bridge between the open-source academic communities and industrial users to facilitate the more widespread adoption of simulation software technology. Actually, our company name (CENOS) stands for “Connecting Engineering Open Source”.

How long did it take to reach the prototype or MVP? What did you encounter?

It took one year to build the platform MVP, and one more year to launch the “v1” of the platform. On top of the platform, the first product (induction-heating) took almost a year as well, the second product (radio-frequency) took 9 months.

Now, with the current platform at its third iteration, the new product (wireless-charging) will be launched next month. We’ve been working on it for 3 months.

When exactly did you launch your product? Or when the launch is planned?

We started working on CENOS in March 2017. It was 3 PhDs that started working on the platform. We released an induction heating app beta in October. Our version 1.0 of the app was released in January 2019. In 2021, we launched an antenna design app, now called RF 2.0.

Tell us about the stratup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We often say that we sit at the intersection of deeptech and SaaS. Our pricing is a simple annual subscription per seat.

What are your target markets and consumers?

We are targeting the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software market, which is predicted to reach $20 billion in 2028. At the moment, we are heavily talking about the manufacturing industry. However, it also depends on the particular CENOS application, as each is geared towards a particular niche. We are also motivated by working with other engineering startups, and to this end we’ve developed an API layer for CENOS’ platform. We are providing a simulation software platform built on open source academic models, and we offer this as a plug-and-play service for startups and other businesses.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated.

We have more than 100 customers, including big names from industrial powerhouses across Europe such as Volkswagen, ThyssenKrupp or Taylor Winfield.

I can mention the case of a major German engineering company, for example, that has leveraged CENOS’ simulation software to create a 90% reduction in tooling costs per part and 30% less energy usage, with an overall saving of more than one million euros per year.

We also count one of the most important satellite companies among our antenna design clients. At the moment we are at an ARR of more than €500 thousand.

What about your team? How many people are working in the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We are a team of 25.

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

So far we have raised a total of €1.9 million. Startup Wise Guys were one of our first believers in 2017, and we received follow-on investments from them. We also received funding from 500 Startups, where we participated, and various angels. Our latest round was a seed round in February of this year. To give more detail here, the investors were Startup Wise Guys and Capitalia, with participation from Baltic angels including Uldis Sipols, formerly VP of Product Supply Purchases at Procter & Gamble.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

On the product innovation side, we’re looking to release new apps to help with the most pressing simulation needs. One example is wireless charging design, but we are also looking at busbar simulation, electromagnetic sitting and more. Our open source approach also means we want to make it so that developers can build different apps on top of us, we want to create a community that multiplies the utility of our technology.

It may sound cliche, but we do want to democratize simulation software to drive mass adoption of the technology — it is a force multiplier that can create so much more efficiency. Education will also be a large part of that. Us engineers have been comfortable in the old ways for quite long.

Finally, we’re looking to grow our business geographically. We already opened an office in Mexico, a promising and growing market for us, from where we can also serve the entire American continent.

• Founded in 2017 by Emils Latkovskis and Toms Jurjevs, Sun Finance is an online and mobile lending platform focused on customer journey, risk technologies, and data science. The company operates in seven countries and has over 9 million registered users.
• Sun Finance’s bonds allow a minimum investment of €100,000. The company offers an exchange opportunity to the existing bondholders who own the bonds with expiration on 30 September 2022. This helps to extend their cooperation with Sun Finance.

“This is the fourth time we have issued bonds to finance Sun Finance’s rapid growth. We have always managed to substantially increase the issue size. Our investors have placed trust in the business development strategy we have chosen. We will use the raised funds to expand our product portfolio and penetrate new markets,”

Toms Jurjevs, founder and CEO of Sun Finance, comments.

• Similarly to the previous two bond issues, the company is planning to list the new bonds on the Nasdaq First North market.
• The fresh funds will enable to finance the company’s further growth, as well as to refinance the second bond issue.

In the Startup of the Day feature, co-founder and CEO at Overly Ainārs Kļaviņš shares details about the startup’s idea, its product, team, and early results.

The Startup of the Day feature on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originated from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

Overly is an augmented reality (AR) startup. Our core product is a web-based AR creator. The mission behind our platform is to empower anyone with an augmented reality idea to bring it to life, with no coding skills required.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Overly’s cofounder Gatis and I first launched an augmented reality solution and development agency in 2014. Over the years, we saw how small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) increasingly express interest in AR. However, with most tools in the market designed for corporate budgets, AR remained out of reach for smaller companies.

Even when do-it-yourself (DIY) AR platforms started to pop up, they seemed to overlook amateurs’ challenges. AR creators were complex to use and required significant learning and technical involvement. Clients would ask us to use these platforms on their behalf to create AR campaigns.

The gap in the market inspired us, and we decided — in a world where every augmented reality platform tries to be PhotoShop, we should launch Canva. We decided to shift our business model and develop the most accessible Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) AR platform out there.

How long did it take you to reach MVP? What difficulties did you encounter?

It took us around a year to create an MVP. The key challenge for us was to narrow our scope and establish the priority features that should be integrated first.

Financing our idea was also quite an interesting journey because you need a team to create an MVP before it generates any return on investment. Luckily, once we released the MVP, we had paying customers straight away. This gave us confidence that we were moving in the right direction.

When exactly did you launch your product? 

Overly AR Creator was launched in 2021. Although it’s transformed so much this year, and we add new features weekly, the platform is still at the MVP stage. For us to consider the platform no longer an MVP, we need to implement a bunch of integrations that will make AR creation even more seamless.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We’re a Software-as-a-Service platform. Our platform offers a subscription-based service, and people can opt for either monthly or annual prepayment. We offer two types of plans. The business subscription caters to our key audience—SMEs, while Personal plans let individuals create their hobby projects at the most affordable rate in the market.

What are your target markets and consumers? 

As mentioned before, we focus on the SME sector. Our clientele is quite heavily focused on the marketing and advertising segment, but this can be both agency and in-house creative teams. Our primary target markets include English-speaking users, and our outbound marketing primarily focuses on the UK and US.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated?

We launched Overly AR Creator in early 2021. Once we saw an apparent demand, in December 2021, we formed a strong team that actively worked on both product development and marketing. Results are great as our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) grows by 18% on average. We have more than 12,000 registered users and more than 10,000 monthly website visits.

What about your team? How many people are working for the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We currently have a team of seven: two founders, three software developers, a marketing manager, and a product owner.

Have you already raised any investments? Please, provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, and the purpose of the investment.

We have received pre-seed investment from Startup Wise Guys, and we’re part of their accelerator program. The primary purpose of these funds is to support our journey throughout the accelerator and invest in organizing our processes. This will prepare us for the next investment rounds.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

We’re on a mission to make Overly the leading platform for augmented reality creation. For this to happen, we have to ensure we offer the easiest and most accessible solution in the market.

If we step back to what’s next in the near future — we want to complete the SWG accelerator and prepare for the next investment round.