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Open Circle Capital Newsletter #5: 

2022 Year in Review

Welcome to the 5th Open Circle Capital newsletter. As usual, we are sending this newsletter to inform you about our activities, new investments, portfolio development, and ecosystem news.

Word of the partners

Despite the long list of challenges we all faced in 2022, venture capital in Europe stays resilient!

  • The European tech ecosystem is on track to raise $85B in 2022, 18% less compared to record-breaking numbers in 2021 but 2x more compared to 2020.
  • The total ecosystem value has fallen to $2.7T from its $3.1T peak in late 2021. Despite that, over $2T dollars in value has been added since 2015, increasing at a remarkable 26% compound annual growth rate.
  • VC fundraising is on track to match or potentially exceed 2021's record-breaking year with over $10B in venture funds raised in the first half of 2022. This basically means that there will be plenty of capital to support the best European tech companies in the upcoming years.

Source: State of European Tech 2022 report by Atomico


We strongly believe that mentioned resilience mostly should be associated with the mentality of startup founders and teams. In 2022 we were amazed once again at how much grit founders have and how quickly they can adapt as market conditions change. Given that we would like to dedicate the majority of this newsletter to celebrate the big and small wins which were achieved by our portfolio startups last year:

  • During 2022 our portfolio startups have attracted ~5m EUR from Open Circle Capital (OCC), local investors, and international funds. In total OCC portfolio has raised more than 36m EUR to date.
  • Total portfolio monthly revenue has increased by >30% in 9 months.
  • In total portfolio companies paid ~3.5m EUR in taxes during three quarters of 2022. Source: Unicorns.lt database
  • More than 200 talents right now are working in our portfolio startups. 
  • Deep-tech companies Pixevia & Perfection42 signed breakthrough contracts.
  • Software leaders Whatagraph & Billo continue to grow as category leaders in the international markets.
  • A number of companies successfully reacted to the changing market conditions and optimized their expenses. Some of them are already operating at break-even.
  • OCC signed / executed 5 more exit agreements. Currently, we are managing a portfolio of 10 startups.

And this is just a short summary of great things our portfolio founders and teams did in 2022. Learn more about their achievements by reading the section below.


Meanwhile, we continue to see the untapped opportunity of making early-stage investments in the Baltics market. During 2022 OCC has received more than 100 applications from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia with a funding request for a total amount of >100m EUR. As a result, the Open Circle Capital team has prepared for a new chapter and is raising a 60m EUR fund to support technology-driven startups in Baltics & Nordics. We will keep you updated with more details in the near future!

 

Our portfolio's highlights


  • Whatagraph and Billo have been selected among rising stars in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by Dealroom.co.🦄  Read more
  • Pixevia opened an AI-powered autonomous store together with the 2nd largest retailer in Lithuania PALINK / IKI and is Lithuania's "Company of the year" AI award winner.🏆  Read more
  • Frontu converted a failed fundraising round into 50% revenue growth and reached break-even. #grit 👏 Read more
  • Simona Vasytė-Kudakauskė from Perfection42 has been selected among the Top 25 Women From VC and Startup Ecosystem in Lithuania by Vestbee. Also, the company might have some great news associated with fundraising to share in the upcoming months. 👀 Read more 
  • Eddy Travels has been acquired by New York-based global travel marketplace TripAdd. ✔ Read more
  • Teamgate Sales CRM has been acquired by private equity fund Xenon Partners. ✔ Read more
  • Monimoto is ready to expand and introduce anti-theft products for bikes and e-bikes. 🚲 Read more
  • Attention Insight was recognized among the 100 hottest startups in Europe by WIRED. 🎉 Read more
  • Solarbank has 6.87 MW of solar power plants sold or reserved. ☀
 

Other news and activities


  • Fund partner Audrius Milukas shared his thoughts about the Lithuanian startup ecosystem and disclosed future plans of our funds in the conversation with Amber Startup. Read more
  • Fund partner Rokas Tamošiūnas together with other market experts shared their thoughts about the main characteristics of a startup company in the article published by Verslo žinios. Read more 
  • Open Circle Capital announced a new partnership with the Artificial Intelligence Association of Lithuania. Read more
  • Open Circle Capital agreed to have a close cooperation with Lithuanian Robotics Association. Read more
  • Fund partner Audrius Milukas shared his thoughts about unicorns and venture capital trends at the Lithuanian Davos Conference 2022. Read more
  • OCC team participated in a number of other events including Slush, Web Summit, Startup Fair, TechChill, Lithuania's startup awards, Kaunas startup awards, Vilnius Greentech forum, and multiple pitch events.

That’s all for now! Stay healthy and we wish you a productive year!

 

Open Circle Capital


A. Tumėno g. 4, Vilnius

Lithuania

 

hello@opencirclecapital.lt

http://www.opencirclecapital.lt/

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