Change Ventures

Keeping wind turbines running at peak performance is no small task, but our portfolio company Aerones is changing the game. Their robotics technology streamlines turbine blade inspections and repairs, making the process safer, faster, and more efficient. With their system, what used to take days can now be done in a fraction of the time - all while minimizing downtime and maximizing energy output. So far Aerones has: 🔹 established presence in 27 countries 🔹 serviced 10,000 turbines and 30,000 blades 🔹 sped up the maintenance process 6x compared to traditional repairs. The European Investment Fund (EIF) recently spotlighted Aerones in a video case study, featuring insights from the Co-founder & CEO Dainis Kruze on what drives the company’s mission. See the video here: https://lnkd.in/eXdsdE_Z

We have to admit that out of all the events last week, the Founders & Funders Fiesta that we hosted together with Atomico, Inventure, and FIRSTPICK was our favorite. 💙 We had it all - an incredible crowd, great energy, and real conversations. It turns out, that when you put the right people in the right room, the rest takes care of itself. A big thank you to everyone who joined us and made it such a great event. Until next time!

Last week was all about TechChill in Riga 🇱🇻! Here is the recap: We started things off with the cozy Balnord & Friends dinner, hosted by Gabrielė Poteliūnaitė and Jarek Pilarczyk. From there, we joined Investor Day and co-hosted the (now seemingly traditional) Founders & Funders Fiesta with our friends at FIRSTPICK, Atomico, and Inventure. 🪩 Andris K. Berzins gave the opening words for the first official day of TechChill together with 💠 Annija Mezgaile, before joining a panel discussion on “Scaling Big - Headway’s Unicorn Journey” with Anton Pavlovsky, founder and CEO of Headway EdTech. Zane Kampa was part of the jury for the 50 Founders Battle, and the whole team (this time represented by Rait, Zane, and Andris K.) made their way through several side events, including: 🔹 VC & Startup brunch by TRMNL4, Flyer One Ventures, and Snap Inc. 🔹 Inovo.vc x Market One Capital Breakfast, 🔹 "The Warm-up" by BADideas.fund, Vendep Capital, and Superhero Capital, 🔹 and "The Place to Be", hosted by Outlast Fund, Practica Capital, and Cherry Ventures. Not pictured: the countless conversations and new connections made with founders and fellow investors!

🔊 New funding round announcement: our portfolio company Trace.Space has raised a $4M seed round led by Cherry Ventures, which we are delighted to join! Trace.Space is building an AI-enhanced product requirements management platform for engineers developing industrial products. Congratulations to the founders, Mik Krams, Janis Vavere, Karlis Broders, and the entire team behind this! To learn more about their journey, read this article by TechCrunch: https://lnkd.in/gTWFYT_Q

🚨 The updated Baltic Startup Funding Report (H2 2024) is now out! 🚨  🔗 https://lnkd.in/ewfWkjvC This report is a co-creation of Change Ventures and FIRSTPICK, and it provides valuable information on the Baltic startup fundraising scene with insights on pre-seed and seed valuations, revenue metrics, and more! We are grateful and honored to be trusted by the founders with this sensitive data - without them, this wouldn't be possible! Take a sneak peek at some of the insights below, and check out the full report to uncover additional findings. 👀

TechChill 2025 is just a week away, and this Change Ventures trio is ready for action! Catch Andris K. Berzins, Rait Ojasaar, and Zane Kampa at the event from February 5-7. If you’re a Baltic founder gearing up for your pre-seed round or an investor looking to share ideas and explore collaboration opportunities, we’d love to chat. Or just come and say hi—Riga in February might be cold, but the conversations don’t have to be. ☕ See you soon at TechChill! 👋

Check out the profile of our amazing Operating Partner Aveli Nurk by The Drawdown, where she shares how she stays on top of her evolving and growing responsibilities as the firm’s sole operations professional. https://lnkd.in/d9xt9K2G

A few days ago, Andris K. Berzins and Zane Kampa traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania, for an exciting series of events. They first attended the investor gathering organized by Startup Lithuania, followed by the FIRSTPICK Day. 🌟 At the FIRSTPICK Day, we had the chance to hear directly from the incredible team at FIRSTPICK and gain valuable insights from their portfolio companies on topics like news, sustainability, and cybersecurity ( 👋 Tomas Ramanauskas, ANA: Your Information Assistant; Indrė Viltrakytė, Tingit | You Live, We Fix.; Aurimas Bakas, CyberUpgrade). The day also featured discussions on how funds of funds approach investments in VC (Speedinvest, Cusp Capital), Yannick Oswald’s perspective on building global success stories, and an inspiring session from Matas Tvarijonas, Google about the latest advancements in AI. We even explored how we could bring more people into the world of startups and technology with Lukas Kaminskis, Turing College. We're already looking forward to our next visit to Vilnius! 💙

Last week, Zane, Andris K., and Rait took on the full 🇫🇮 Slush experience—meeting old friends, making new ones, and juggling more events and meetings than we care to admit. Collectively we managed to attend 14 fruitful side events: 🔹 “Fresh in VC” brunch organized by Slush 🔹 “NinjaNight” by NordicNinja VC 🔹 Innovestor's 10th Anniversary party 🔹 LocalGlobe x Creandum Day Zero Drinks 🔹 GTM Dinner with Notion 🔹 Resilience Tech Slush Social by IQT (In-Q-Tel) and Project A 🔹 Pitch & Bites: Investor lunch with Latvian startups organized by Invest in Latvia and Business Riga 🔹 RAISE Global GP-LP networking event 🔹 Startup & VC gathering by Inovo.vc, Flyer One Ventures, SID Venture Partners, One Way Ventures, TRMNL4 & Snap Inc. 🔹 Partyround with IXI & Maki.vc 🔹 Northzone x Project1 Party 🔹 The Backed Party’24 by BACKED VC 🔹 “Supply Chain at SLUSH!” breakfast with Dynamo Ventures, Ingka Investments, and Maersk Growth 🔹 "Media Best Practices" learning lunch, featuring Sifted's Mimi Billing and Tech.eu's Cate Lawrence by Inventure, Practica Capital, and 3VC. And we are ready for more next year! 🙌 (And we promise to try to get Rait in one of the pictures as well next time.)

🔊 More great news from our defense tech portfolio company Origin Robotics - the company has received the European Commission's approval for €4.5 million from the European Defense Fund to develop an unmanned technology-based targeting capability, significantly expanding the use of precision-guided munitions. Read more on the story here: https://lnkd.in/ddBf9kiX