2 funding rounds, 7 hot deals and 19 active deals, 8 notable traction reports. Stay on top of Latvian startup scene in one scroll:
Funding rounds
iTech Capital invests in BitFury
The Russian-Cyprus VC that recently relocated to Riga iTech Capital participated in BitFury $20 million round along with The Georgian Co-Investment Fund and DRW Venture Capital, as Coindesk reports.
BitFury is co-founded by Valery Vavilov from Riga. The round brought the company’s total attracted investment to $60 million, which makes it double that of rival KnCMiner ($29m) and over half of the total investment in mining infrastructure to date ($116.5m).
Read more on CoinDesk.
Adaplab attracts its first investment
Adaplab, the the 3x faster and 2x more efficient software for industrial controllers in oil, gas and wind farm industries, has attracted its first pre-seed investment of €50K and started the registration of legal entity in Latvia. Adaplab has already signed first partnership agreement with oil drilling company from the US to develop first software product for their equipment. There are talks with several other companies in Oil&Gas Industry.
They were listed in our last dealflow overview and are still in negotiations about €100K seed.
Startup traction
Sorry as a Service admitted to TechStars London
Estonian service for corporate apologies co-founded by Sabine
Read more here.
Edtech hardware PentaClass enters the US
The solution to ‘do you hear me at the back?’ problem and the savior of teachers’ vocal cords PentaClass debuted in the US at ISTE conference in Philadelphia. ArcticStartup covered PentaClass last year when they were just starting the production and earlier this year as they partnered with EET Group, one of Europe’s biggest IT products’ distributors.
Read more about their debut in the US here.
Healthcare startup Assistentis signs up a new customer
Ehealth solution Assistentis signed up a Latvian hospital as their customer. Read more on their webpage.
Mintos signs a deal with Capitalia to provide small business loans on Mintos.com platform
Latvian P2P lending platform for secured loans Mintos that was previously providing secured loans for car and real estate purchase will now provide secured loans for small businesses. The startup has signed a deal with the leading small business lender in the Baltics Capitalia this week.
Mintos offers its investors secured loans with 13.11% average net annual return. Loans are currently sources in the Baltics, while investors are coming from all EU countries, and some other jurisdictions with reliable anti-money-laundering laws such as Singapore. Mintos has recently reached the milestone of €2 million invested via its platform and released promising growth stats.
FROONT opens its editor to Firefox browsers
#LVstartup FROONT, the easy web-design tool that has served countless startups worldwide, announced this week that they are now open for Firefox browsers. Firefoxremains world’s second most popular browser, so this opens FROONT to many potential users.
InSelly launches its premium version
After a successful admission to Startup Sauna earlier this year, followed by the selection to join 5 other top startups on Startup Sauna Silicon Valley tour, world’s first marketplace for Instagram InSelly has launched the premium version of its product.
Find out more on their blog.
Rention gets a new advisory board member, releases its beta
The collaborative platform for landlords, tenants and real estate service providersRention has a new advisory board member: Igor Tasic. Igor is the Projects Leader and one of the mentors at Startup Europe and has experience in platform-type business with physical world element, as he is a co-founder of Spanish subscription e-commerce food startup Gourly.
The startup has also released their beta to testers, available here.
Free live chat for business Tawk.to goes on a hiring spree
While building a new, bigger a cozier office in Riga.
Find out more here.
Dealflow
6 deals in negotiation at Latvian business angel network
All 6 projects received 1-8 investors’ interest at LatBAN July pitch session. The hottest deal is seed funding for interactive facial gesture therapy game for children CheeksUp by Ilze Zaharane.The team is currently in negotiations with 8 investors.
Find out more and reach out to syndicate here.
Adaplab raising €100K seed funding
Adaplab, the the 3x faster and 2x more efficient software for industrial controllers in oil, gas and wind farm industries, has attracted its first pre-seed investment of €50K to implement its first contract with a US client. Raising €100K seed funding to close more deals.
Read more and reach out here.
Deals from our last dealflow overview
Most deals from the last dealflow overview are still in negotiation. Check and contact 19 #LVstartups raising funds here .
Other
VC fund managers wanted
Latvian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LVCA) in cooperation with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(EBRD) invites aspiring fund managers to participate in informal pitch event on Aug 25-26.
Applications reviewed on rolling basis. More information here.
Latvian startup scene walkthrough
Even gamers need walkthroughs, so what about startup investors? Fresh facts on why Latvia is worth checking out right now and how to spend your time wisely here .
Latvian business angels: all you need to know
All most common questions answered: How much do they invest? What companies are in their portfolios? How to reach out? and many more. We also added two checklists: “How to tell if you are an angel investor?” and “How to tell if you need an angel investor?”
Check the piece here
