Educational toy subscription startup LILEDU raises €500K to expand into the UK market

Lithuanian educational toy subscription startup LILEDU (known and operated under the brand name Žaislų klubas in Lithuania) has raised €500K in an oversubscribed round from Lithuanian fund and accelerator Firstpick, Latvian BADideas.Fund, Berlin-based VC Heartfelt,  and some business angels, whose names are undisclosed.

Founded in Vilnius in 2020 by Laurynas Pamparas, Liledu is a subscription-based service that delivers toy sets for children aged six months to 7 years old. Liledu uses AI technology and a network of education specialists to offer toys based on children's interests and developmental stages. Each set consists of durable, wooden Montessori 3-6 toys. After a month of using the toys, the courier delivers a new set and takes out the previous one. After the used toys are cleaned, they are sent on to the next child.

To date, Liledu has delivered 60K toys in Lithuania and plans to double this number while expanding in the UK market.

Established by an ex-Lithuanian team from the Estonian accelerator StartupWiseGuys, a VC and an accelerator Firstpick aims to support 45 startups over the coming three years. Its fund size is €20M. The initial ticket per startup is €50-€200K. The Managing Partners are Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė, Marijus Andrijauskas, Dmitrij Sosunov, and Andra Bagdonaite.

Launched in April 2022 by Raimonds Kulbergs, the BADideas.fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups from the Baltics and CEE region. The typical ticket size is €100K. The fund has more than 40 business angels, founders, executives, and employees from Bolt, Vimeo, Printify, PandaDoc, Pipedrive, and others.