Arvydas Strumskis

Arvydas Strumskis is a Lithuanian fund manager, investor, and strategic advisor with more than three decades of experience across finance, private equity, venture capital, and management consulting in the CEE region. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics at Vilnius University and studied at the CapGemini International Business School in Paris. Early in his career (1997–1998) he held management-consulting roles in Eastern Europe with Siar-Bossard / Gemini Consulting, including work on Baltic Beverages Holding (Carlsberg Group) operations and market expansion in Ukraine.

From 1998 to 2005 he was a member of the management team of the Baltic Post-Privatisation Fund, backed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Through that period and beyond he held board seats at a number of Lithuanian companies, including Lietuvos Energija, Narbutas, Utenos Trikotažas, Vilkma, Kauno Pieno Centras, Itella (Finland), Lietuvos Draudimas, and Lord LB Asset Management, giving him deep operational and governance exposure across manufacturing, energy, and financial services.

In 2010 he became a founding partner of Verslo Angelų Fondas (Business Angels Fund) I — the first fund of its kind in Lithuania, established with support from the European Investment Fund — and later of Business Angels Fund II (2019). These funds are managed through Verslo Angelų Fondo Valdymas / UAB MES Invest, where Strumskis serves as partner for strategic management and director, alongside colleagues Daiva Rakauskaitė and Jacek Blonski. He is also a co-founder and board member of LitBAN, the Lithuanian Business Angel Network, and has served on the Startup Lithuania advisory board.

More recently, while no longer in an active day-to-day management role at the Business Angels Funds, he continues to advise portfolio companies and sit on their investment committees. He also runs ARS Ventures, an advisory and venture-building practice focused on CEE market entry, deal structuring, and capital attraction, and has held board roles at Nordwealth Family Office. Across his career he reports over 60 private (angel) and fund investments in Lithuania and the region.

• Invests at seed / early stage in innovative, export-oriented companies, primarily in Lithuania and the surrounding region.
• Writes checks of roughly EUR 50,000–400,000 through the fund; via the co-investment structure, deals can reach up to EUR 600,000 total.
• Co-invests only alongside business angels, on equal terms — the fund matches private angel money rather than leading alone, aligning fund capital with experienced individual investors.
• Sector focus spans technology, manufacturing, services, and business solutions — broadly generalist within the innovation/export theme rather than a single vertical.
• Emphasizes entrepreneurial mindset and founder quality; in public talks (e.g., the "Karjeros akiniai" discussion) he argues that "we are all born entrepreneurs" and stresses drive, resilience, and appetite for challenge as core founder traits.
• Brings hands-on governance value — board seats, investment-committee participation, and CEE market-entry/deal-structuring know-how — not just capital.