Eight Roads Ventures Europe invests in Interactio, the leading remote interpretation platform, which raises $30M - the largest ever Series A in the Baltics
Interactio, a live translation platform used by the United Nations and the European Parliament, has raised a $30m Series A round — the largest ever Series A for a company headquartered in the Baltics.
The company, based in Lithuania, secured the funding from Eight Roads Ventures, Storm Ventures, Practica Capital and Notion Capital; as well as angel investor Jaan Tallinn, the cofounder of Skype, and Young Sohn — the ex-chief strategy officer of Samsung.
The large round is another sign of the maturing tech ecosystem in the Baltics, a region where capital and experienced operators were hard to find until recently.
Now the region is churning out more tech successes, such as Vinted, the Lithuanian unicorn which raised €250m earlier in May.
“We were behind in the global startup ecosystems overall,” says founder Henrikas Urbonas. “When we started Interactio, there was very limited capital available, and close to no angel ecosystem to help the initial startups.”
That’s changed, he says: there are more funds and they’re becoming more international, bringing in expertise from abroad, and there’s also a more thriving angel investment ecosystem in each of the Baltic states.
“We should expect more rounds like this to come from the Baltics, we have a much stronger ecosystem than ever before.”
Interactio’s fundraise is, according to data from Dealroom, the largest Series A from a country headquartered in the Baltics, and far ahead of the second largest round — a $10m Series A raised by Estonian billing platform Fortumo.
“Interactio is a disruptor in a multi-billion dollar market, dominated by services-based incumbents that have remained undisrupted for the last decades. With its innovative product, this team is revolutionising how language interpretation is being used by global businesses and institutions. We have known Henrikas and his team for many years and have been impressed by what they have achieved so far. We are excited to support the team in building this new category of Remote Interpretation Platforms.” explained Lucile Cornet, Partner at Eight Roads.