Antanas Guoga invests in ice-cream business

The Soprano ice cream shop chain, which has operated in Lithuania for 18 years already, has finished its first seed funding round (A round) and plans expansion into Europe. The network, which is comprised of seven ice cream shops, saw investment by Antanas Guoga and entrepreneur Vytenis Mažiulis with both bringing equal investment. Mažiulis will also take up the Director position of UAB Ledai enterprise, which controls the Soprano brand.

“I have faith in the business model of Soprano and I want to help this business, which is very well known in Lithuania to go global. I think this can be achieved in a few years with the experienced team, which will now be supplemented with new talent. We have a real chance to attract international investors in the second seed round,” said Antanas Guoga.

According to Mr. Mažulis the first round funds will be used for the optimisation of chains operations, refurbishment of the shops and preparations for expansion to other European cities.

“We will put customer satisfaction in the forefront of our everyday work by strengthening our staff. Everything starts with us and the energy we spread in our workplace and towards our clients. We are seeking that Soprano shops would be visited daily not only during summer season, but throughout the year,” said Vytenis Mažiulis

Second round seed funding will start in the near future. Second round (B round) funds will be allocated towards the chains expansion to Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Germany and other countries. It is expected to raise around 5 million Euros during B round.

At the moment Soprano shops operate in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda, the network has 46 employees and 1-2 million Euros turnover.