Lithuanian ed-tech Bbright raised €200K

Lithuanian ed-tech Bbright raised €200K from Lithuanian fund Jaunaragiai, which invested €40K, Lithuanian non-profit Marius Jakulis Jason Foundation (MJJ Fund), business angels Martynas Kandzeras, Vladas Lašas, and Algirdas Stonys.

Bbright was founded in Vilnius in 2020 by Mantas Vičius and Mykolas Kalmatavičius. It develops a personalized learning platform for high schoolers Elicėjus, which identifies learning gaps and recommends fully gamified lessons. 

Jaunaragiai is an evergreen fund for investments in various types of startups, the main founders of which completed the educational program for young entrepreneurs Lithuanian Junior Achievement. It was launched in March 2023. Bbright is its first investment.

In Jaunaragiai fund the initial ticket for startups is €20K. The fund aims to co-invest with accelerators, business angels, and early-stage funds in startups at pre-seed stages. The fund doesn’t have LPs but has financial donors, who donate money to the fund. The fund’s minimum target is to raise €200K by the end of 2023 and to have a multimillion fund in a few years.

The board of Jaunaragiai consists of Martynas Kandzeras (CEO of the non-profit organization for entrepreneurs Kandzeras Foundation), Andželika Rusteikienė (CEO at Lithuanian Junior Achievement), Vladas Lašas (co-founder of a non-profit organization Carbon War Room), Milda Mitkutė (founder of Lithuanian unicorn Vinted), Tomas Moška (co-founder of the web3 coding school Turing College), Greta Monstavičė (co-founder and CEO of Lithuanian accelerator and private equity fund Katalista Ventures), Mariano Andrade Gonzalez (head of the Lithuanian branch of the global financial services company Moody's), and Marijus Andrijauskas (partner of Lithuanian accelerator and early-stage investor Firstpick). Jaunaragiai was backed by the Lithuanian e-commerce marketing automation platform Omnisend, Katalista Ventures, Moody's in Lithuania, and other companies. 

Lithuanian Junior Achievement is a local branch of JA (Junior Achievement) Europe, a non-profit organization, dedicated to preparing young people (aged 15-18) for employment and entrepreneurship. The students do not require complete all the programs of Lithuanian Junior Achievement to raise investments. But most students, who want to start a company, usually finish a nine-month Accelerator_x program. During it, they have an opportunity to establish a company, accumulate startup capital, plan, analyze the needs of consumers, create their service or product and sell it, and solve other tasks. The founder of BBright Mantas Vičius, started the educational program Accelerator_x while studying at school, and later became one of the mentors of Lithuanian Junior Achievement.