FIRSTPICK, a venture capital fund launched in November 2022, celebrated its mid-year achievements at a Portfolio Day event for its investors and partners in the Baltics and Nordics. FIRSTPICK, already considered the region’s most active early-stage investment fund, has made 14 investments since the beginning of 2023 for a total value of €1.73 million. Twenty-two startups have already participated in FIRSTPICK’s acceleration and pre-acceleration programs.
Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė, Managing Partner of FIRSTPICK, says that the fund has managed to achieve its goals and has quickly become known by the startup community in the region.
“We started scouting startups and talking to them long before the fund’s launch because we saw the need for early-stage investment. We are currently continuing our active search for new startups to join our portfolio,” said Vaitulevičiūtė.
FIRSTPICK has already organized two 16-week acceleration programs and two 7-week pre-accelerators. Twenty-two startup teams with 63 founders participated in idea validation-focused pre-accelerators and acceleration programs aimed at developing their sales competencies, products, and growing teams.
“When selecting startups, our main criteria are the team and its experience. It is essential that the team presenting their idea to us has a good understanding of the market they are entering and has defined their immediate goals, as well as a realistic vision of how our contribution will help the team achieve them,” said Andra Bagdonaitė, one of the partners and founders of FIRSTPICK.
Gabrielius Erikas Bilkštys, CEO of AMLYZE, a fintech startup that received the largest investment from FIRSTPICK so far, €400,000, says that participation in the FIRSTPICK accelerator program has helped accelerate AMLYZE’s development.
“We have assembled a team of highly experienced financial and technology experts and have ambitious plans, so we chose our investors with great care. The FIRSTPICK team contributed with its network and expertise to our successful first investment round of EUR 1 million, which will help us continue to grow,” says Bilkštys.
FIRSTPICK invited investors to discuss regional investment trends at its Portfolio Day event on 28 June. The event also featured pitches of FIRSTPICK portfolio startups: AMLYZE, beesure, doohoo, Finfra, Furnisystems, MBito, Psylink, Samphire Neuroscience, Softloans, Swotzy, Tractorparts, and Three Cubes.
FIRSTPICK’s third series of acceleration and pre-acceleration programs for the Baltic startups will start in the autumn. The fund plans to make 20 more investments this year.