Lithuanian startup Sintra has secured $17 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered platform designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The round, led by Earlybird VC, with participation from Inovo, Practica Capital, and notable angel investors, highlights growing interest in tools that bridge the digital divide for the global SMB sector.
With the new funding, Sintra plans to double its team and expand into new markets, particularly in North America and Western Europe. The company’s long-term goal is to become the default platform for small business operations, offering a simple, smart way to launch, run, and grow a business with minimal manual effort.
Just a while back, we have also reported about how Revolut and Glovo backer Lakestar is looking for a $300M fund to power Europe’s defence tech.
Sintra, which has surpassed $12 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) just one year after launch, serves over 40,000 paying customers in more than 100 countries. The fresh capital will be used to grow the company’s engineering and product teams as it accelerates development of its core offering: intelligent AI teammates that help small businesses run more efficiently.
AI-powered “Teammates” for the underserved SMB market
Despite contributing 44% to global GDP, small businesses often operate without proper digital infrastructure. According to Sintra, over 45 million SMBs still depend on outdated software or consumer tools that lack business functionality. Sintra addresses this by offering what it describes as an “AI business in a box.”
Its platform, available via iOS and web, integrates with everyday tools like Facebook, Gmail, and Google Calendar, and allows users to onboard multiple AI helpers within minutes. These helpers can respond to emails, manage social media, generate content, and coordinate tasks—all for a starting price of $39/month.
Unlike many SaaS tools, each AI helper is powered by Brain AI, a proprietary shared intelligence layer that adapts to each business’s specific context. This allows helpers to act autonomously and become more effective over time, providing business owners a consistent, high-quality experience.
A grassroots origin story with global ambitions
Sintra’s founders—Chris Sidlauskas, Rokas Judickas, and Vasaris Kaveckas—began their entrepreneurial journey in a Vilnius garage in 2018. Teenagers at the time, Sidlauskas and Judickas offered digital marketing services to local businesses, gaining hands-on experience with the needs and constraints of SMBs.
Years later, Sidlauskas launched and exited two successful U.S.-focused agencies that together generated over $100 million in revenue. The idea for Sintra came during a road trip across Europe in 2023, when Sidlauskas noticed a surge in demand for AI tools like ChatGPT. A weekend prototype built in Notion quickly went viral, prompting the team to rebuild the product from scratch with a focus on SMBs.
Sintra 2.0 launched in May 2024. Within just 57 days, it hit $1 million in ARR, validating market demand. Judickas returned to lead product design, while Kaveckas, a self-taught developer with experience at Bentley Systems, took charge of engineering.
How Sintra differs from traditional software
Unlike legacy ERP and CRM systems, Sintra doesn’t just automate workflows—it mimics the behavior of real employees. Helpers are not static tools but evolving assistants that adapt to specific workflows, tone, and customer preferences.
“Our real competition is legacy software that doesn’t speak the language of small businesses,” founder of Sintra, Chris Sidlauskas shared in an email interview. “We’re combining the character of AI helpers with practical tooling—creating a unified experience that feels natural, not technical.”
Today, the platform offers 12 core helpers and over 90 “power-ups” that cover customer service, marketing, recruiting, scheduling, and more. The interface is designed to be intuitive for non-technical users, with support for natural language input, summarization, and prebuilt workflows.
A growing team and mission-driven culture
Sintra’s team remains compact and youthful, with a median age of 23 and a gender split of around 60% male and 40% female. The company operates with a flat structure and a mission-first ethos, shaped by its founders’ experiences growing up in Lithuania.
“For us, it’s personal,” the team shared. “It’s about proving that impactful tech can be built in small places—starting in a garage in Vilnius and scaling globally.”
Sintra’s long-term goal is to become the default platform for small business operations, offering a simple, smart way to launch, run, and grow a business with minimal manual effort. With AI adoption among SMBs on the rise, driven by the need for affordable automation, Sintra’s position as a context-aware, low-friction platform could give it a competitive edge in a fragmented market.
“Our focus is on becoming the easiest way to build and run your small business,” the founder stated.
What do we think about Sintra?
The rise of Sintra is emblematic of a larger shift in the tech landscape: as artificial intelligence becomes more accessible, small businesses no longer need deep technical teams or large budgets to compete. With tools like Sintra’s AI helpers, they can scale operations, improve customer engagement, and automate routine tasks—without sacrificing quality or control.
In a time when digital transformation is no longer optional, platforms like Sintra are helping to level the playing field, offering SMBs the tools they need to thrive in a fast-changing world.
