This week we want to introduce you Lithuanian startup Businero – a platform for startups and investors to meet, do business, and exit. It’s a startup marketplace, investors CRM, crowdfunding, and trading platforms. Together these four solutions create a synergy that leads startups from the inception of the idea to the exit and provides investors with all necessary tools to make an informed decision.

On July 2019 Businero team launched a startup listing platform. Currently, it allows startups that are looking for investment to present themselves. When other platforms will be launched startups will be able to contact investors and attract investments. 

What are your competitors and competitive advantages?

Startup marketplace will compete with Gust and F6S, trading digital assets and crowdfunding has the most competition. The closest competitor geographically is Funderbeam. Businero is implementing a broader vision by funneling startups and investors all the way from the earliest stage to the stage of the company going public.

What were the reasons behind coming up with this idea and launching this product?

In Q2 of 2018, we successfully executed an ICO but none of us were founders of that startup. We saw how good and powerful crowdfunding can be and we enjoyed building relationships with investors as part of the community. When we finished our major tasks, we separated from that company and started our own software development and marketing business. One of the first clients wanted for us to develop an STO platform. After a few weeks, they suspended the project as the market conditions were not favorable and left us with the skeleton of the platform.

During the ICO we saw a lot of the good and the bad things about the market. It gave investors almost immediate liquidity but almost none of the protection. As we already had a skeleton of an STO platform one meeting led to another… and we saw how we could have the best of both worlds: how we could have more liquidity while making sure that the interests of investors are protected.

When exactly did you launch, what were the main challenges before launching?

Businero was launched in July of 2019. Some parts of the platform are not launched, yet, but you can visit them in demo mode. If you’ll notice any bugs, please report them to us. That would mean a lot!

What are your target customers? Both in terms of user profile and geography?

We are targeting both exciting startups from Europe and investors who would like to test their decision before the investment and be able to track the performance of the startup in real-time. 

What are the main challenges while working on this product and how are you overcoming them?

It was a great challenge and privilege to co-create with Lithuanian Central Bank and IBM on LBchain project. We were making blockchain technologies work under Lithuanian regulatory landscape. It was a great opportunity to work with them and needless to say – we achieved our goals.

How are you funded? Do you seek extra funding?

So far Businero was funded from the founder’s reserves. Most of the earnings from our software development and marketing business and our personal savings are invested in Businero. At the moment we raising Seed round and looking for angel investors.

Please introduce your founders, your core team and your broader team?

Core team members are working together for up to 6 years and during that time we were tested with fire and ice. There are – me – Marius Petrauskas (CEO), Audrius Vrubliauskas (CBDO), Arminas Keraitis (CTO), Martynas Račkauskas (UX/UI Designer), and Tomas Vitkauskas (Developer).

We have quite different backgrounds, but I would say that it’s one of the many strengths of our team. Our skills complement each other as we have experience in product management, marketing, PR, frontend and backend development, and UX/UI design.

As a team, we developed, maintained, and grew two large scale projects. One of them is the social network in the Baltics. Under our supervision network reached more than 1 million users and was expanded to 3 new markets: Poland, Latvia, and Croatia. The second project was the successful execution of an ICO during a bearish crypto market conditions. We were responsible for the comprehensive development of the funding campaign, community, and the development of the core of the product.

Future plans, ambitions? Simply speaking – what’s next?

Until now the European startup market is lagging behind the US and Asia when taking into account the number of unicorns the region grows. Some people say that the US and Asia promotes their startups and provide broader possibilities but we don’t think it’s the case. Europe has amazing potential and it enrolls various startup support programs on both European and national levels. A lot of work still needs to be done and we envision Businero as an opportunity to unite the European startup market and its instruments in one place. Let’s make the old continent great again!

 Thank you for your answers!