🚀 Vilnius Founders 🍸 From Seed to Scale: Donatas Keras (Practica Capital) & Justinas Lasevicius (TransferGo)
​What does it look like when an early-stage VC backs a startup early — and that company goes on to become one of Lithuania’s biggest global fintech success stories?
​This time at Vilnius Founders, we’re bringing together both sides of that story:
​Donatas Keras — Founding Partner at Practica Capital
Justinas Lasevicius — Co-founder of TransferGo
​What makes this event especially interesting is that Practica Capital was one of TransferGo’s earliest investors, backing the company at the seed stage in 2012. So this is not just a VC talk and a founder talk — it’s a chance to hear both the investor and founder/operator perspectives on what it takes to go from early conviction to real scale.
​Donatas Keras, Founding Partner at Practica Capital
​We’ll talk with Donatas about what top VCs actually look for at pre-seed, seed, and Series A, what founders still get wrong when raising, and what separates startups that raise once from those that keep compounding. Donatas has been involved in 65+ venture deals, backing companies such as Atrandi, Biomatter, Eneba, and Spike.
​About Practica Capital
​Practica Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm backing Baltic founders at seed, selected pre-seed, and Series A stages. The firm invests in technology-driven companies, focusing on SaaS, AI, fintech, marketplaces, and deep tech, and works closely with founders to support long-term growth. Practica Capital manages over €130M in assets across four funds and has made more than 70 investments to date, including PVcase, TransferGo, Ovoko, Atrandi Biosciences, Montonio, Handwave, Sintra, and others.
​Justinas Lasevicius, Co-founder of TransferGo
​Then we’ll sit down with Justinas Lasevicius, who co-founded TransferGo in 2012 and helped scale it into a global fintech serving 160 countries and 9M+ registered customers, with 400+ employees across hubs including London and Vilnius. Over the years, Justinas has held key leadership roles across finance, operations, and product, including CFO, COO, and interim CPO. He is also an Endeavor Entrepreneur.
​About TransferGo
​TransferGo has entered a new stage of growth: the company became profitable two years ago, its transaction volume has tripled since then, and it was featured in Forbes as an example of how Lithuania became one of Europe’s most surprising fintech hubs. In February, the Bank of Lithuania expanded TransferGo’s EMI license, enabling the company to offer TransferGo cards to EU residents soon. TransferGo Business is one of the company’s fastest-growing products for business cross-border payments and multi-currency money management. It already serves 5,000+ SMEs across Europe, supports payments in 35+ currencies to 60+ countries, and during the event, there will be a special announcement about TransferGo Business.
​What we’ll cover
​What VCs really look for at pre-seed, seed, and Series A
​What made TransferGo worth backing early
​How to build in fintech and regulated markets
​What changes when a startup scales from one product into a broader platform
​Lessons from TransferGo’s journey that early-stage founders can actually apply
​Agenda
​17:30 — Doors open & networking 🍸
18:00–18:45 — Q&A with Donatas Keras
19:00–19:45 — Q&A with Justinas Lasevicius
19:45+ — Drinks, conversations, and deal-flow
​About Vilnius Founders
​Vilnius Founders is a casual, founder-driven meetup series bringing together startup builders, operators, and investors over drinks. No slides. No suits. Just honest conversations about what it really takes to build global companies from Lithuania.