FIRSTPICK launches €25 million fund for early-stage Baltic startups

Lithuanian fund plans to back 'really strong talents' in Estonia

FIRSTPICK has launched a new €25 million fund. The Vilnius-based VC firm focuses on early-stage tech startups in the Baltics.

Last week, Fomo.Observer wrote that, in collaboration with First Astronaut, FIRSTPICK would be seeking out Gen Z founders in Estonia. This latest fund announcement opens up the pool to more Estonian startups. Once again, we had a chat with FIRSTPICK partner Andra Bagdonaitė to find out the all-important details.

“The fund will invest in inception and pre-seed companies here in the Baltics,” she says. “The fund itself is a generalist fund, but with a strong focus on AI-first software - we see that this is the biggest potential for the upcoming few years. On average, we will invest between €100k and €500k as our initial ticket, and then we’ll have follow-on capacity of up to € 1 m in a single company. We’re planning to deploy the fund over the next four years.”

Comparing it to FIRSTPICK’s first fund, Bagdonaitė says that not much has changed in strategy, but the ticket sizes have. “Our initial ticket range with the previous fund was closer to 250K as the largest initial check, and now it’s half a million, because we see that the median pre-seed round in the Baltics is about 600K today. To stay competitive, you need larger tickets.”

“The other thing that we’re changing is that we want to invest even earlier into this inception stage, in some cases, to back some really strong talents. This is where the All Stars programme comes into play - it’s part of the fund strategy,” she adds.

Keen to know when the fund will start impacting Estonian startups, I’m told that there is already an Estonian company “that we’re really excited about,” so I’m expecting news in my inbox soon!

The ‘generalist’ fund is for early-stage startups, but are there any areas that the fund will shy away from? Seems not.

“We don’t shy away from deep tech or defence if there’s a strong lead investor. What we want to make sure is that we back some of the best people coming out of the region, whatever it is that they decide to build in - they can get us excited about that market or field,” she says.

Raising the fund

I’d heard from some investors that LPs might view the Baltics as a geopolitical risk, which could curb their enthusiasm, but this was not a concern for FIRSTPICK, given that around 90% of the capital comes from Baltic investors. Still doesn’t mean raising it was a walk in the park.

“In general, fundraising hasn’t been easy, and I know that a lot of funds may want to pretend that this isn’t happening, and they don’t want to speak about it publicly, but that’s the reality. If you look at the numbers in 2025, VCs have raised less capital than in the past ten years, so it’s at a decade low in general,” explains Bagdonaitė.

“And I think this really has impacted a lot of managers that either decided to close the business or might close in the next year or two, because they will not be able to raise.”

“When we raised our previous fund in 2022, things were much easier than they are today, but it’s part of the journey, and I think it teaches you how to stay resilient and how to really have faith in what you do. I think as long as you do good things, people see it, and then you want to invest,” she says.

The fund is backed by local entrepreneurs, angels, and founders of companies such as Tesonet, Oberlo, and Kilo Health, as well as by Lithuania’s Ministry of Economy and Innovation and the Lithuanian state-funded ILTE fund.

“We are continuing our collaboration with FIRSTPICK, having witnessed their strong ability to professionally select and nurture early-stage companies,” says Tadas Gudaitis, Member of the Board at ILTE and Head of Business Development unit.