Ragnar Sass &
Kadri Barclay
Estonian Startup Awards 2023 is done! On the evening of February 2, 2024 we gathered at Nobel Hall in Noblessner to officially wrap up the year, celebrate our community’s biggest wins and look into the future, together. Will it be bright? Well, yes. Eventually.
““There are many things that are excellent in Estonia. We have the smartest students, the best tax system, lots of economic freedom, entrepreneurial spirit and experience from building 10 unicorns and lots of technology startups. We have the best startups and founders. You, dear startup community, have created and exited companies, empowered global unicorns and have accumulated the capital of leadership. This is crucial for future growth,” ”
In 2023, Estonian Startup Awards had 8 categories, including 3 special categories - GreenTech, HealthTech and DeepTech (chosen based on the trending, booming and most influential topics of the year). In autumn 2023, 224 people from within the community presented a total of 320 unique nominees for the awards. In the research round, the list of nominees was narrowed down to 70+ names.
Altogether, 216 founders - all members of the Estonian Founders Society - joined the jury for final voting. Not an easy task, and many of the jury members reported back that they had to Google some of the nominees they had never ever heard of. A good sign - the next generation is active and doing well! “Given the results are based purely on a survey of founder peers in the community, these awards are always really meaningful recognition,” said Sten Tamkivi, former President of Estonian Founders Society.
To celebrate the 5th year of Estonian Startup Awards, the award trophies got a playful new design. "Bees and honeycombs were chosen as a symbol of hard work and frugality," explained Rannar Park, the Project Lead of Estonian Startup Awards 2023. This design captures the buzzing essence of our tight-knit ecosystem where so much of the success is based on teamwork and supporting each other.
The new design of the award trophies was born in collaboration with an Estonian artist and the CEO of Filaret, Ines-Issa Villido. Filaret is an Estonian startup dedicated to giving cigarette butts a second life through innovation and art.
Goodbye, 2023 - We Won’t Miss You.
2023 was arguably the hardest year for the Estonian startup community, ever. Back in 2008, we had a whole different set of challenges, the community was still taking shape. Now we are a mature, tight-knit ecosystem with global recognition. Solid founders among us got very painful blows - downrounding and downsizing, debts and firings, loss of customers and political maneuvers like the looming shortcomings of the local talent pool. To name a few. 2023 brought us back to reality, the party is over, some of us have a hangover and the new norm is, once again, that building. startups. is. hard!
But the reality is that it was a hard year for everyone “Against all odds, our sector has been growing constantly for the last 7 years and we are the only growing sector in Estonian economy in this economic decline, “ said Kaidi Ruusalepp, as she passed on the reigns of leading the Estonian Founders Society to Allan Martinson, “the world challenges us with geopolitical conflict next door, global warming and unusual backlash in civil rights. For tech founders, this is the best time because we see opportunities where others see challenges and risks.”
The grittiest among us are already demonstrating how to stay on course and that years of work pays off - Klaus pulled off the exit of the year, Modash landed in the TOP3 of the Revenue Hack category after 6 years of grind (and continuously escaping that Foreign Founder title), The Newcomer VOOL is demonstrating that business can still blossom IF your idea is solid. Not to mention the continuous rise of MilTech, but that’s a whole different topic.
What can we conclude
Flatround is good news, downround is common news.
2023 was the year of the biggest downrounds in our ecosystem yet. In 2020 and 2021, startups raised rounds in record valuations. We’ve now come down 50% in a lot of cases. Anyone landing at a flatround, simply to survive, is lucky. Uprounds are too rare a sight.Profit is the key indicator.
With most startups, there’s no patience for simply “having potential” (the few exceptions are in DeepTech or other disruptive and high-impact sectors). To get a seat at any table, there has to a profit. We predict the parade of fast exits and shutdowns will continue in 2024. Last year was challenging, but it’s purging from the market the ideas, funds and talent that could be put to a better use someplace else, faster.The rise of a new unicorn generation.
What a welcome surprise that we can find completely new names in all the categories. It’s a complete restart for the ecosystem. And those who will survive the crisis, are the next generation of unicorn founders. As building a successful startup will now (once again) take 6 or 7 or even 10 years (like with Skype, Modash or Klaus, for example), we’re not likely to see any unicorns in the upcoming years. But the foundation has been laid. The countdown is on. Who will be the next worthy giant whose deeds will inherit Bolt’s position?Hardware took a hard hit.
In 2023, hardware startups saw debts in unpredicted magnitude, dominating Estonian-wide debtor lists and even shaking the trust of investors. Companies like Ampler Bike. Comodule, Starhip Technologies, and Eurora Solutions had a challenging year. Consumers changed their behaviour during Covid and now we’re slowly shifting back to the pre-covid patterns of 2019 and earlier. This presents questions like how many scooters does a city actually need? One of the few hardware branches that stayed busy and utterly in demand was …MilTech - keeps on growing and saving the world.
In 2022, Estonian Startup Awards brought the MilTech & DefenceTech category to the stage. In 2023, the sector started to actually produce profit and revenue. Milrem’s exit was a strong exclamation mark within an otherwise slow year of deals. MilTech startups are among the winners of the year that kept on growing, and (sadly) will keep on doing so in 2024. When will that growth curve slow down? Time will tell.
“Founders who can survive the crisis, are the new unicorn generation.”
The Winners & the Nominees of Estonian Startup Awards 2023
CATEGORY 1
The Newcomer of the Year 2023
A truly inspiring newcomer who launched their product in 2023. A hidden gem. They've got the passion, the drive and all the potential to be the fastest-rising star in the next year or two.. and maybe even the future Founder of the Year?
WINNER: VOOL
II PLACE: CARÁ Health
III PLACE: Bilance
SHORTLIST FOR THE NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2023:
A) Alpha3D
Alpha3D is a generative AI-powered platform that empowers users to convert text prompts or 2D images into 3D digital assets within seconds. In 2023, they secured additional funding, bringing the total funding close to 2 million. In 2023, ARR grew by 95% YoY; the launched platform hit 200,000 users by the end of 2023 (46% CMGR) with hit partners like Nvidia, The Sandbox, WANNA, Farfetch, LVMH, and many more.
B) Bilance
Bilance is on a mission to help every person achieve financial literacy and security. Bilance is the most popular personal finance app in the Baltics, which has helped over 15,000 people get a better understanding of their spending habits. In 2023, MRR from €1400 to €10500 (+745%) thanks to creative collaborations and highly profitable marketing. They expanded to Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland, launched two AI-powered features, and raised €300k from Specialist VC, Thorgate Ventures, and Alvar Lumberg (Grünfin, Wise) – all that while maintaining an App Store rating of 4.9.
C) CARA Health
CARÁ is the most comprehensive pregnancy app in the world that was launched in March 2023. They've got 10K users and 35K health diary entries. After their German launch in June, they ranked in the TOP 16 medical apps in all of Germany. A team of 15 medical specialists, hired 3 key employees (EE & DE), their podcast got over 100K listens. Every second pregnant woman in Estonia uses the CARÁ app.
D) Complok
Complok is an AI-driven risk assessment platform that saves 80% of compliance teams’ time, replaces Excel, and spares fintechs hundreds of thousands on consultants, fines & new hires. In 2023, they pivoted from edtech to regtech and launched their product after being selected as one of the top 10 out of 450 companies to join the Techstars Fintech Accelerator in Amsterdam. With strong inbound demand, and 5 initial paying customers from the UK & Baltics, they’ve managed to validate their product-market-fit and marketing, and are now ready to start onboarding in 2024.
E) Futugrid
Futugrid develops smart devices and a platform to make your energy use support a stable power grid. Furugrid brings private households to energy market as active participants. They enable lower cost of electricity to households and security of supply to power grid. 2023 in numbers: 150 private households in large-scale testing, 0,5 MW flexible asset portfolio. Confirmation of suitability for aFRR solution by Elering AS. Beamline Accelerator onboarded Futugrid and they raised €200K. A team of 12 dedicated & experienced professionals.
F) KIUD
KIUD’s patent-pending, rigid and reusable packaging made of textile waste serves as a competitive alternative to cardboard, helping customers reduce their e-commerce footprint. With €80K in revenue in their first year of operations, KIUD acquired customers like Telia, Magnum Grupp, SEB and Südameapteek, made its first export sales to Switzerland and Germany, and boosted production capacity to 20K pcs/month.
G) Lifeyear
Lifeyear is creating a world without heart disease by helping global healthcare systems provide cardiovascular care to a larger number of patients with less cost. Their platform combines multiple state-of-the-art technologies, such as novel risk assessment algorithms, remote patient monitoring and AI-enabled clinical treatment programs. Launched in 2023, the company has grown out of a €1M research and development project funded by the EU and Enteprise Estonia. The team is backed by world leading clinical and research institutions, including the newest shareholder Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2023, Lifeyear ranked TOP3 at Slush100, graduated from the Oxford University Hospitals accelerator and the Google for Startups: AI for Healthcare program.
H) Mifundo
Mifundo is a data-solution which enables cross-border lending for people and banks in Europe. Banks can reduce the credit risk of foreign customers up to 7x. The first version of Mifundo was introduced in 2023, gaining recognition worldwide: Europe Banking Tech Awards 2023 - Fintech Startup of the Year; Europe Fintech Awards 2023 - LendTech of the Year, Startup of the Year; selected by Mastercard to top 15 fintechs and Amazon to its Global Fintech Accelerator; finalist at Latitude59. In 2023, they got 3 paying banks and 20 in the pipeline waiting for the geographical rollout. At the end of the 2023, they received additional €1.2M VC funding.
I) RAIKU
RAIKU is a cleantech company that has developed a breakthrough packaging material (100% natural, compostable, beautiful, and shock-absorbing) and a production technology to solve the massive pollution issue in the packaging industry. In two years, they've raised €1.2M in pre-seed and €8.8M deal (€5.6M closed) from the European Innovation Council becoming a strategic project for the EU. EIC has an Olympic Award in the funding scene, with a ~5% success rate. RAIKU has built a team of 10 engineers and will double the team in 2024. They have their own IP and patents, and have their first products on the market with validated pricing and great feedback, most of it export. In 2023, they won multiple international awards and shipped products across Europe. There are ~250 companies - including world's top brands - that have expressed direct interest, now RAIKU just needs to scale up the production!
J) VOOL
VOOL's CEO, Juhan Härm, has taken the company from scratch to now opening a second office in Norway. VOOL offers a unique EV charging and energy management platform with its own hardware, which allows users to charge up to three times more EVs using the same existing power grid. VOOL has raised over €7M, launched serial production in July 2023, and is active in the Baltic States and Nordics. In 2024, VOOL generated over €400K in revenue and has over 12,000 monthly charging sessions done on their platform.
CATEGORY 2
The Revenue Hack of 2023
2023 was a challenging year even to the strongest revenue-making machines! Many startups went through nipping and tucking to keep on scaling with grace. Who managed to come out on the top and keep the momentum of revenue growth?
WINNER: Klaus
II PLACE: Skeleton Technologies
III PLACE: Modash
SHORTLIST FOR THE REVENUE HACK OF THE YEAR 2023:
A) Fractory
Fractory is a cloud manufacturing platform connecting hardware engineers to manufacturing capacities. Fractory guides manufacturing to a more sustainable future through making information exchange, production and logistics more efficient. In 2023, they reached the OEM production market, with their service being valued as "irreplaceable" for their top customers. In 2023, Fractory's top 10 customer value was 4x higher than any previous year. They grew their gross profit revenue from €1.9M to €3.1M, at the same time reducing their monthly burn 2.5x, with all of the burn today coming from R&D.
B) Klaus
Klaus’ software helps to improve customer care centers’ quality and consistency. Using AI-automated analysis of 100% of interactions, it leads to focused insights and broad overviews. When asking for comments about the achievements in 2023, the founders don't reveal much: "It was pretty normal. Everything was carefully thought through. The accountant kept the books, on one hand we were sort of melting away, and on the other, we were investing. We tried to keep things in place." However, the public news of this year's very first exit (Klaus is being acquired by Zendesk, a company with a market capitalisation of over $9.62B) demonstrates what was cooking under the hood in 2023. In the past, the team has raised over $20M across several rounds, including a €12M Series A deal in October 2022.
C) KrattWorks
Krattworks provides smart drones for defence applications. In 2023, they grew 4x - to a turnover of €1M. The target for 2024 is €7.5M. In 2023, they closed the seed round of €450K and opened up the Ukrainian market. Their team has grown to 18 people and office space from 100m2 to 500 m2. They are working on series A round of €5M and raising a bridge of €150K at the moment.
D) Modash
Modash helps more than 1100 consumer brands - like Bolt, Wolt, Farfetch, Montblanc, and Surf Shark - to scale their partnerships with online creators. In 2023, they grew subscription revenue 250%, nearing $4,500,000 in ARR. According to Chartmogul benchmarks, this puts Modash in the top 1% of Software companies in 2023. They also crossed the 1000 customer mark. In Q3 2023, they private-launched a payments product which has already transferred millions of dollars to creators and resulted in additional 6 figures in revenue. They've accomplished this having raised $2.1M to date (and burned less than half of that). Modash is default alive, and raising Series A.
E) RebelRoam
RebelRoam is improving passenger Wi-Fi onboard of thousands of buses, ships and trains for over 4 million passengers every month. They finished their financial year with €3.5M (+52%) revenue and €1.2M (+69%) EBITDA. The company is profitable. In addition to good results, RebelRoam was chosen as the TOP 1 telecom in Estonia by Äripäev.
F) Salv
Salv is at the forefront of the fight against financial crime. Specializing in innovative SaaS solutions for the financial sector, Salv empowers banks, fintechs, and crypto enterprises to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and sanctions evasion collaboratively. In 2023, Salv expanded its collaborative crime-fighting product Salv Bridge across EU & UK, initiated groundbreaking Public-Private Partnership collaborations, and achieved substantial growth. Notably, Salv oversaw €167B in transactions for criminal activity searches, witnessing a 2.7x increase from 2022. The Annual Revenue surged by 1.9 times, reaching new heights. In 2023, Salv successfully expanded its customer base to 15 countries, made significant headway into the US market, and secured pivotal pilot agreements with Tier 1 UK banks, setting the stage for continued success in 2024.
G) Skeleton Technologies
Skeleton Technologies helps companies reduce CO2 emissions and save energy with their high-power, fast-charging energy storage for grid, transportation, heavy-duty, automotive, and industrial applications. Skeleton is a global leader, and policy innovator, actively advocating for a change. They work with some of the largest companies in the world - from European automotive companies to aerospace prime contractors. In 2023, completed a €108M funding round, bringing the total funding to over €300M (ranking Skeleton among Europe's top-financed clean tech and deep tech firms). In 2023, welcomed Siemens (a customer and partner in industrialization efforts) as an investor. In 2023, they also added new commercial agreements of over €10B - getting a clear estimate of the market demand for supercapacitors and SuperBattery products. In 2024, they will open the largest supercapacitor factory in the world in Markranstädt, Germany; and fully focus on scale-up and execution.
H) Threod Systems
Threod Systems creates high-tech defense equipment: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); electro-optical intelligence, surveillance and recognition (ISR) systems; also drone launchers. In 2023, they continued delivering surveillance drones to Ukraine and 5 NATO countries, partnered with many global key players to develop joint solutions, and opened new facilities to increase the production of drone launchers. The revenue increased from €7M to €21M (3x) while increasing profitability, the headcount grew from 59 to 120 (2x).
I) Woola
Woola is using waste wool to replace bubble wrap. In 2023, they signed deals with two brands that belong to the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group. Won the LVMH Innovation Award in Sustainability and joined LVMH accelerator. Signed key accounts in France (Mademoiselle bio, Binocle), Scandinavia (BioGaia, Källa) and Benelux (RVDK Salle Privée). Raised €2.5M round led by Metaplanet and followed by Future Ventures. Became a B Corp (first manufacturing B Corp in the Baltics, second overall in Estonia) and became FSC Certified. Launched a new production line and a counter-movement against COP28 (due to links to Big Oil) and eco-badges without external auditing. Fundraised and bought a NAFO truck for Ukraine — because winning the war is an existential question for all startups.
J) Yaga
Yaga is a marketplace for selling and buying secondhand fashion with a focus on Africa. Reached 800K registered users and 3M items on sale last year. Currently at €22M annual GMV run-rate, growing more than 50% YoY, revenue above €1M from Yaga fee in 2023, highly capital efficient. Team of 22. Raised €2.3M seed round in late 2022, targeting break-even at €35M GMV run-rate by the end of 2024.
CATEGORY 3
The Investor of the Year 2023
The best investors are team-players, gate-openers, and bridge-builders. They give meaning to the phrase “smart money”. PS. Made at least 2 investments in 2023.
WINNER: Helery Pops
II PLACE: Sten Tamkivi
III PLACE: Siim Teller
SHORTLIST FOR THE Investor OF THE YEAR 2023:
A) Erki Mölder - Verge Health Fund
As Managing Partner at Verge HealthTech Fund (the world's first global scale, HealthTech only, early-stage VC fund) Erki seeks and supports founders who are creating transformative HealthTech companies that will touch millions of lives in the future. With more than two decades of experience as a healthcare investor and entrepreneur (for example, he was the CEO of Quattromed, acquired by Synlab in 2013), he has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the sector, and a passion for making quality healthcare accessible for all. Erki also co-founded Health Founders, a platform for ambitious founders who are building the future of health, where he provides coaching, mentorship, and connections to the HealthTech ecosystem. In addition, Erki serves as a Supervisory Board Member at a leading academic hospital in Latvia, where he advises on strategic management and innovation.
B) Helery Pops - Practica Capital / Honey Badger Capital
Helery is a Co-Founder of Honey Badger Capital. Her focus is on companies that are making a difference, even if this difference takes longer to achieve. Ticket size: €100K. She's also an investor at Practica Capital, bringing fresh capital to Estonia and supporting Baltic tech companies (incl. deep tech, hardware, marketplaces, SaaS). Ticket size: €200K - €3+M. Investments in 2023 include Sentante, Breezit, Atrandri Biosciences, and Heavy Finance. Helery is also a mentor (Tenity, Ajujaht) and a community activist - in 2023, she co-organized the Startup Regatta that helped founders and investors connect in a non-formal environment.
C) Herty Tammo - Startup Wise Guys
Herty Tammo started Startup Wise Guys 12 years ago and they have invested in 450+ startups so far. With the help of 50+ team members in 9 cities in Europe, SWG added 80+ startups to their portfolio in 2023. Investments are typically in pre seed round with €100-250K tickets. In 2023, he invested in many Estonian startups like Vool, Biteful, Scorestars, etc. His portfolio also includes: VitalFields, Ready Player Me, SkySelect, Bolt, Montonio, Planet42, Katana, Skeleton, etc. In 2023, he co-founded a new €50M Cleantech VC fund 2C Ventures.
D) Ivo Remmelg - Super Hero Capital
Ivo Remmelg invests in angel and seed rounds, into startups with a large market potential and that significantly increase the efficiency of existing processes. Ticket size is anything between €10-100K. In 2023, he invested in Mydello (the only investment ins 2023 through Superherocapital fund), Cino, Respeecher, 3dkTech, Finfra, Gearbox Biosciences, Machineric, Alpha AR, Fractory, Innoair, and Jeff App.
E) Jaak Ennuste - EBAN
Jaak Ennuste seeks B2B SaaS startups that are export-oriented and have multiple founders registered in Estonia, working in Estonia. His investments are in pre seed and seed round, with a typcial ticket size of €25-75K. He has also participated in syndicates with a smaller investment of €10K (if possible, he is happy to invest more later.) Jaak made 5 investments in 2023: Askly, Change, Flowstep, Cino, and Salv. He has a total of 19 companies in his portfolio, 18 of them kept on growing in 2023. The average MRR growth of the portfolio was 105% last year.
F) Jaan Tallinn
Jaan invests through Metaplanet - an evergreen investment firm backing missionaries who build safe technologies for humanity. Ticket size: min €500K. Jaan has had a long career in tech, most notably as a founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa. He founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk with Huw Price and Martin Rees, and he's a co-founder of the Future of Life Institute and philanthropically supports other existential risk research organizations. He is also a partner at Ambient Sound Investments (asi.ee), an active angel investor, and has served on the Estonian President’s Academic Advisory Board. He has given a number of high-profile talks highlighting the potential risk from advances in artificial intelligence.
G) Riivo Anton - Specialist VC
Riivo Anton is a founding partner at Specialist VC, a VC firm covering the Baltics and beyond. Specialist VC is a sector agnostic investor focusing on primary opportunities in pre-seed to Series A and secondary transactions into post Series A companies. Specialist VC invests anything in between free advice and good karma to €1M as an initial ticket in the early stage. They can follow up with up to €3-4M over multiple funding rounds. In 2023, they made 15 investments, incl. Value Space, Flowstep, GearBox Bioscience and others.
H) Siim Teller - Lemonade Stand
Siim Teller (Lemonade Stand) usually invests €100-200K into pre-seed and seed stage companies across the Baltics and Eastern Europe. His focus is on B2B software products that have a positive impact on the burning challenges of the world. In 2023, invested in Value Space and contributed with additional funding to Reverse Resources and Woola.
I) Sten Tamkivi - Plural
Sten Tamkivi leads seed and series A rounds with €1M-15M tickets through Plural. Very hands on and involved, investing in just 1-2 new companies a year, seeking to help serious founders with massive ambition to have GDP level impact on Europe. Sten’s Plural investments include VSParticle, Ready Player Me and Koos. As Taavet+Sten duo, he also manages a long-standing angel portfolio of 150+ investments over the last decade, including Estonian Lightyear, Starship, Veriff, Bolt, Skeleton, etc.
CATEGORY 4
The Giving Back Powerhouse of 2023
Passion, dedication, humility, impact. An organization, event or person who gives back without asking, their contribution undoubtedly has made our whole community stronger in 2023.
The winner was announced by Triin Preem from Swedbank: “I’m really happy to give this to a person who shares the same mission and values as Swedbank. I encourage all the women to be as supportive and kickass as Triin Kask and the Female Founders are!” Triin Kask stressed that the award is not just for her, but there are a lot of amazing women who have been helping to organize the event series for years. “I encourage all people to become founders,” said Triin Kask, “to be more entrepreneurial, and found great things like Taavi Kotkas has with HK Unicorn Squad. That’s the only way to save the future. Mic drop.”
WINNER: Triin Kask & Female Founders Meetups
II PLACE: Taavi Kotka & HK Unicorn Squad
III PLACE: Sten Tamkivi, Taavet Hinrikus & CDL Estonia
SHORTLIST FOR THE GIVING BACK POWERHOUSE OF 2023:
A) Ajujaht
Ajujaht is the best-known startup accelerator and TV competition in Estonia. For 15 years, it's been a place for founders to prepare their product/service idea for scaling and investments. Ajujaht has popularized entrepreneurship in Estonia with dedication and passion, offers a clear pipeline for investors, and cooperates with startup support organizations across the country. Many of our leading startups, teams and founders have started their journey from Ajujaht.
B) Allan Martinson
Allan's contribution to the Estonian startup scene is hard to underestimate. He's been a tech executive, entrepreneur and investor for over 30 years. Throughout his career, he's been a member of countless boards (including Estonian Founders Society). For decades, he's shared his expertise with the next generation of startuppers. Allan has held key roles in many highly successful Estonian startups and entreprises, most notably as the CEO of Xolo and COO of Starship Technologies.
C) Grit podcast
Since 2020, the Grit podcast has been uniting the best startup marketers in Estonia and bringing their collective know-how to the listener. With professional and knowledgeable hosts and interesting guests, everyone can find something new from their hours upon hours of materials. In 2023, the podcast spun into an online course led by Marelle Ellen to elevate the efficiency of any startup marketer in Estonia.
D) Jana Budkovskaja
For the past 7 years, Jana has been putting her passion and dedication into leading the Prototron fund (during its 12 years of operation, Prototron has financed 98 smart ideas with a total of 1.27 million euros, and the teams have raised more than 85 million euros in follow-up investments). Jana was also the founding partner of the business hub OBJEKT in Narva in 2020, and has since been dedicated to bringing life and new initatives to the Eastern parts of Estonia. In 2023, she took on a new challenge - leading Beamline Accelerator as CEO.
E) Latitude59
In 2023, Estonia's flagship tech and startup event grew to new heights, gathering attendees from 67 countries (2/3 of the audience came in from abroad), hosting official delegations from 20+ countries, setting up a prize fund of €1.25M for startups (a record for the region, surpassing even Slush), and revamping the concept of a classical conference with formats like the Late Afternoon Show. In December 2023, Latitude59's team organized their first satellite event in Kenya, Africa, to build stronger international connections between ecosystems - and that's just the beginning; new locations are already on the horizon. Led by Liisi Org, Latitude59 is bolder than ever, prioritizing impact over all, and keeps making Estonia bigger, thus paving the road for our startups to succeed on a global scale - because we all part of a global village.
F) Sten Tamkivi & Taavet Hinrikus - CDL-Estonia
In 2023, Sten and Taavet's long list of contributions to Estonian startup ecosystem got yet another addition - they are Founding Partners of CDL-Estonia (Creative Destruction Lab), an entrepreneurship program located at the University of Tartu that offers a Digital Society stream for early-stage founders working on digital governance, cyber security, and public health or genomics innovations. Participants can develop and pilot their business models on real data produced by its digital government ecosystem (incl. 300 government registries). Sten and Taavet are both serial founders and startuppers who value a tolerant, open and creative society, often speaking up for startups, actively invest through Taavet+Sten, push for better tech education.
G) Taavi Kotka - HK Unicorn Squad
For over a decade, Taavi has been in leading positions to lift Estonia higher as a digital nation. For the younger generation, his impact has been snowballing through the HK Unicorn Squad. The iniative brings the next generation of women to the world of tech, thus giving the participants a head-start wihtin the sector, helping to bridge the gender gap, and highlighting the role models our ecosystem needs to thrive. In 2013, Taavi Kotka became Estonia’s first-ever Chief Information Officer to oversee the country’s development as an advanced digital nation. As the CIO, he introduced ideas that have come to define the concept of ‘e-Estonia’ as a digital nation and these best practices are now being copied and implemented by governments around the world (e-Residency, data embassies, country-as-a-service, the no-legacy policy, VAT fraud detection, etc). In addition, he has been consulting large enterprises and governments on digital transformation and acted as a jury member of Rakett 69.
H) Triin Kask - Female Founder Meetups
Triin Kask is a founder and an activist with a passion for diversity, mental health and community building. She's represented female founders at the Founders Society as a board member, and lately took the lead in organizing Female Founder Meetups (which are highly popular and much needed, the community reports, based on the gatherings in 2023). As roughly 2% of VC fund go to startups led by females, the statistics back up the popular demand! Triin is also a serial entrepreneur (co-founder and the CEO at her third startup Soulie), an angel investor, and a co-founder of a new international Challenger Diversity Accelerator for diverse teams with at least one female founder.
CATEGORY 5
The GreenTech of 2023
We only have one Earth. One home. Green solutions must become as great a need as the air we breathe. The startups in this category know - and teach us all - that sustainability is the only way forward!
“Innovation is a vital pillar in the economy. We need to use our resources carefully,” said Joosep Vimm from the Tallinn City Government, introducing the category, “startups have the mindset for the change that we need, especially those that have taken protecting the environment as the core of their business. We need the planet more than the planet needs us. The winner embodies the vision for a cleaner, greener and more sustainable tomorrow. Money talks, and the winner makes the money talk where it matters.”
WINNER: Grünfin
II PLACE: Woola
III PLACE: VOOL
SHORTLIST FOR THE GREENTECH OF 2023:
A) eAgronom
eAgronom scaled annual carbon removal from 100K to 450K tonnes of CO2 annually, comparable to the GHG footprint of 97,000 people (Tartu population). Over 1000 farmers in 14 different countries are applying regenerative farming practices while removing CO2 from the atmosphere and improving soils. eAgronom is working with banks, food companies, and carbon credit buyers to bring various economic benefits to these sustainable farmers.
B) Futugrid
Futugrid develops smart devices and a platform to make your energy use support a stable power grid. Futugrid brings private households to energy market as active participants. Futugrid enables lower cost of electricity to households and security of supply to power grid. 2023 in numbers: 150 private households in large scale of testing, 0,5 MW flexible asset portfolio. They got confirmation of suitability for aFRR solution by Elering AS. Beamline Accelerator onboarded to Futugrid, and they raised €200K. A team of 12 dedicated, experienced professionals.
C) Grünfin
Grünfin makes simple green investing available for everyone – individuals, companies and employers from all over Europe can grow their money without compromising in sustainability or returns. Grünfin’s 100% stock portfolios are beating the market since inception. In 2023, Grünfin grew revenues 5x and volumes by 270%, opened investing possibilities for freelancers, small businesses and also employers - creating a perfect alternative for stock option plans.
D) KWOTA
KWOTA accelerates global material reuse by connecting producers targeting CO₂ emission reduction with businesses seeking impactful carbon savings. The platform promotes a circular economy, offering a competitive edge to producers who enhance their products with recycled materials. Through KWOTA, material producers gain additional revenue, earning at least 10% more on the purchase price. Since inception, KWOTA has established a network of producers - reducing carbon emissions by over 200,000 tonnes in 2024 alone, equating to a potential sales value of €12.5M. With €2M in funding, their nine-strong team is poised to triple annual carbon savings starting from 2024, driving the sustainable business model forward.
E) RAIKU
RAIKU is a cleantech company that has developed a breakthrough packaging material (100% natural, compostable, beautiful, and shock-absorbing) and a production technology to solve the massive pollution issue in the packaging industry. In two years, they've raised €1.2M in pre-seed and €8.8M deal (€5.6M closed) from the European Innovation Council becoming a strategic project for the EU. EIC has an Olympic Award in the funding scene having a ca 5% success rate. RAIKU has built a team of 10 engineers and will double the team in 2024. They have their own IP and patents, and have their first products on the market with validated pricing and great feedback, most of it export. In 2023, they won multiple international awards and shipped products across Europe. There are ca 250 companies - including world's top brands - that have expressed direct interest, now RAIKU just needs to scale up the production!
F) Solarstone
Solarstone believes that small scale PV installations play a key role in the future of housing and in transition to renewable energy. In 2023, Solarstone opened Europe’s largest building-integrated photovoltaics factory, launched 1 new product, installed 1000th solar roof, and increased turnover by 33%. Additionally, they unveiled a sleek new website and an MVP of online in-roof solar calculator to simplify solar adoption.
G) Stargate Hydrogen
Stargate Hydrogen is enabling energy transition by making green hydrogen cheap. The company has developed a novel ceramic-based catalyst material that is making hydrogen production cheaper and more efficient. Stargate has raised €XX of equity financing and €XX of grant financing, the team is comprised of 45 professionals with many of the team leads coming from top companies in the hydrogen industry. In 2023, the technology was validated by Fraunhofer institute, products were sold to 4 large B2B customers and key partnerships were established globally (ABB, Neom, Enel Green Power).
H) VOOL
VOOL's CEO, Juhan Härm, has taken the company from scratch to now opening a second office in Norway. VOOL offers a unique EV charging and energy management platform with its own hardware, which allows users to charge up to three times more EVs using the same existing power grid. VOOL has raised over €7M, launched serial production in July 2023, and is active in the Baltic States and Nordics. In 2024, VOOL generated over €400K in revenue and has over 12,000 monthly charging sessions done on their platform.
I) Woola
Woola is using waste wool to replace bubble wrap. In 2023, they signed deals with two brands that belong to the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group. Won the LVMH Innovation Award in Sustainability and joined LVMH accelerator. Signed key accounts in France (Mademoiselle bio, Binocle), Scandinavia (BioGaia, Källa) and Benelux (RVDK Salle Privée). Raised €2.5M round led by Metaplanet and followed by Future Ventures. Became a B Corp (first manufacturing B Corp in the Baltics, second overall in Estonia) and became FSC Certified. Launched a new production line and a counter-movement against COP28 (due to links to Big Oil) and eco-badges without external auditing. Fundraised and bought a NAFO truck for Ukraine — because winning the war is an existential question for all startups.
J) ÄIO
ÄIO, a deep-food-tech startup established in 2022, is dedicated to developing microbes capable of transforming industrial sidestreams into edible and health-promoting fats and oils. In 2023, ÄIO achieved significant milestones, securing over €1.3M in private investments and more than €2.2M in competitive research grants. The company also doubled its workforce from 5 to 11 employees, introduced 3 products for testing, and expanded its partner network to include over 50 companies. These partners are actively testing ÄIO's products in various end-user applications. Furthermore, ÄIO successfully established an automated strain engineering lab and designed a pilot-scale in-house production facility named ’Good Fats Wörks’.
CATEGORY 6
The HealthTech of 2023
Our HealthTech sector is booming, and saving lives. With a unique digital platform and such a collaborative ecosystem, Estonia is well-positioned to soon take the lead on a global scale with solutions in preventative medicine, patient self-treatment, industry efficiency, etc.
The winner was announced by Erkri Mölder from the Verge HealthTech Fund: "We are missing 10 million doctors and 32,000 hospitals where people can get cured. 100 million people annually are pushed into poverty because of medical bills. The platform is burning. HealthTech market in the world is €9 trillion. In Estonia, it can be hard to understand the situation the world is in, though Covid helped us understand. The platform is burning.” CARÁ Health is one of the startups offering real solutions during burning times - the HealthTech of the Year 2023.
WINNER: CARÁ Health
II PLACE: Certific
III PLACE: Better Medicine
SHORTLIST FOR THE HEALTHTECH OF 2023:
A) Antegenes
Antegenes’ genetic tests evaluate the genetic predisposition of cancer and give clinical recommendations for cancer precision prevention. Their comprehensive approach has the potential to contribute to a significant 30-40% reduction in mortality rates for the most common deadly cancers. In 2023, they achieved 5x increase in net sales; successfully conducted 4 clinical implementation pilots in the national healthcare systems of Sweden, Norway, Portugal, and Estonia; published 2 peer-reviewed scientific articles; entered the German market and were selected among 20 most promising scale-ups in EU by EIT Health. They are now operational in 7 countries.
B) BetterMedicine
Better Medicine is using the latest techniques in machine learning to revolutionise cancer diagnostics in radiology. They identify suspicious lesions throughout the body with accuracy and consistency, enhancing early detection while saving valuable time and increasing inter-radiologist agreement rates. Launched at the end of 2020, Better Medicine has secured €1.25M in private funding and €3.3M from public grants. They have hired a team of 20 (in EE, UK, UA), clinically validated their first product for kidney cancer detection and launched pilots in Estonia, South-Africa and UK.
C) CARÁ Health
CARÁ is the most comprehensive pregnancy app in the world that was launched in March 2023. They've got 10K users and 35K health diary entries. After German launch in June, they ranked in TOP 16 medical apps in all Germany. A team of 15 medical specialists, hired 3 key employees (EE & DE), their podcast got over 100K listenings. Every second pregnant woman in Estonia uses the CARÁ app.
D) Certific
Certific is committed to reducing clinicians’ administrative burdens by streamlining patient communication and automating all routine tasks. Their clinical communication platform launched a year ago is being used by more than 70 clinics and over 450 clinicians, serving more than 200,000 patients. Having already secured a 15% market share in Estonia in 12 months, pilots ongoing in Romania and Ireland and being in pilot preparations with the biggest hospitals in the region, Certific’s goal is to foster seamless communication, elevate patient care, and make healthcare 10x better for both clinicians and patients alike.
E) Elsavie
Elsavie is a gut health-focused startup, founded with Estonian microbiome scientists. Their mission is to help people prevent deadly gut diseases by giving insights about their gut microbiome with easy at-home stool tests. Elsavie microbiome test is made in in-house metagenomic pipeline, combining 16S rDNA sequencing technology, bioinformatic processing, and vast databases. In the last 3 years, they have given insights to 5000+ people and helped them to improve their gut health through dietary changes. Today, 75% of revenue comes from B2B: private clinics, that offer the tests to patients suffering from symptoms from irritable bowel syndrome, IBD, and even colon cancer. Since 2022, the business has grown 2x. The annual revenue in 2023 was €400K. In 2023, they launched a mobile app for gut health tracking.
F) Lifeyear
Lifeyear is creating a world without heart disease by helping global healthcare systems provide cardiovascular care to a larger number of patients with less cost. Their platform combines multiple state-of-the-art technologies, such as novel risk assessment algorithms, remote patient monitoring and AI-enabled clinical treatment programs. Launched in 2023, the company has grown out of a 1 million euro research and development project funded by the EU and Enteprise Estonia. The team is backed by world leading clinical and research institutions, including the newest shareholder Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2023, Lifeyear ranked TOP3 at Slush100, graduated from the Oxford University Hospitals accelerator and the Google for Startups: AI for Healthcare program.
G) Migrevention
With a focus on over 1 billion individuals, Migrevention is dedicated to creating an innovative pathway for the effective management of primary headaches, enabling a 10x increase in efficiency and care. Established in 2020, Migrevention brought the healthcare provider product to the market in Estonia, validated the UK as a beachhead market, and supported over 7000 people in their disease management on a daily basis through Migrevention Headache App (MD, CE) in 2023.
H) Nanordica Medical
Nanordica Medical develops advanced nanotechnologies for medical devices, solving the problem of acute and chronic wounds that affect hundreds of millions of patients. Their first product is a veterinary wound dressing Ravimus Vet that was launched in 2023. The clinical trial showed excellent results and twice better outcome in healing wounds compared to the standard of care, having promising new approach towards wound healing. In the same year, Nanordica raised €3M, hired a team of 10, submitted 2 patent applications, and received the prestigious EIC Accelerator grant of €2.4M that is given to the top 4% innovators. Sales revenue grew from 0 to €20K and the team grew from 4 to 10.
I) SpeakTX
SpeakTX is a digital speech therapy platform that enables children and adult patients to overcome their speech and language development challenges. They help to significantly save speech therapists' time and therefore bring town healthcare costs, while making speech therapy accessible to people regardless of their geographical location or other restraints. SpeakTX launched in 5 new markets in 2023. The platform now features over 1000 evidence based speech therapy exercises in 6 different languages created by their international team of speech and language therapists.
J) Viveo Health
Viveo is developing a healthcare system that intelligently integrates the purchasing power of health insurers through advanced technology. This leads to substantial cost savings and enhances the overall customer journey and experience. In 2023, Viveo successfully completed the pivot and obtained a proof of concept for their new business model. They also established partnerships with three leading insurers worldwide to develop new business verticals. Total investments raised now stand at €8.2M.
CATEGORY 7
The DeepTech of 2023
By the end of Q3 2023, our DeepTech companies collectively employed 1504 professionals, contributing €23.3M in employment taxes during the first 9 months, and presenting a combined turnover of €117.5M. By 2030, Estonia plans to have 500 DeepTech startups. Exciting!
WINNER: Pactum
II PLACE: GScan
III PLACE: Gelatex
SHORTLIST FOR THE DEEPTECH OF 2023:
A) 7sense
During 2023, 7sense advanced its deep tech USP, Haptic Material™from prototype stage into series production stage. The first product using their Haptic Material™ is Superbrain 1 which makes the blind and visually impared “see” via haptics. The product was also developed in-house at 7sense, and it holds significant market value with over 3M blind people in EU, and over 200M+ worldwide. Raised €500K in private funding. The EIC Accelerator project 1st phase was finished successfully in September, resulting in about 1 million euro grant release from EU. They have started multiple pilot projects in various EU countries, which have shown a remarkable effect on the independence of blind people. The team grew over 50% in 2023, bringing in a lot of new young talent that is extremely eager to bring this revolution to market – and make the blind “see”!
B) Alpha3D
Alpha3D is a generative AI-powered platform that empowers users to convert text prompts or 2D images into 3D digital assets within seconds. In 2023, they secured additional funding, bringing the total funding close to 2 million. In 2023, ARR grew by 95% YoY; the launched platform hit 200,000 users by the end of 2023 (46% CMGR) with hit partners like Nvidia, The Sandbox, WANNA, Farfetch, LVMH, and many more.
C) Cybexer
CybExer Technologies excels in delivering digital twin-based testing and training environments that empower users to achieve cyber excellence. In 2023, the company's success story unfolded with a steep increase in demand, significantly contributing to its stellar performance. CybExer achieved a remarkable over 70% growth in revenue and expanded its customer base by over 50%. These substantial numbers underscore its industry impact, positioning CybExer as a leader in cyber range solutions, with key hires in place to drive even faster growth in the future.
D) Elmo
Elmo is the stubborn teledriving* deeptech developer; the world's first with road-legal operations and in cross-border teledriving (Vilnius teledriver, Tallinn car, 600km). 2023 was defined by resilience, overcoming financial challenges against all odds - six months post-runway, we secured €2.6M euros. Despite the hurdles, we launched tech 2.0, achieved street-legal status in 3 countries, built a 50+ client pipeline across the EU and US from 6 sectors, garnered intense investor interest (including top car manufacturers), and rode a wave of high momentum in the dynamic teledriving sector. *Not self-driving, i.e. vehicle is controlled from distance/office via 4G.
E) EyeVi Technologies
EyeVi Technologies is an AI-powered digital geospatial data production company. Their mission is to make the management of road infrastructure sustainable through digitalization.
F) Gelatex
Gelatex pioneers nanofibrous scaffolds for biotech, slashing costs by 90%. Proven by 100+ companies, our tech transforms wound healing and eliminates animal use in medtech. US, CN, HK, SG patents granted, first patent licensing deal, customers are multi-billion dollar biotech companies, commercial expansion underway.
G) GScan
GScan is a verified Green/Climate Tech, reducing CO2 emission in the real estate and infrastructure sectors. They create cosmic-ray based solutions for 3D imaging and redefine the boundaries of 3D scanning with Muon Flux Technology (MFT) detectors. In 2023, they brought in €1.5M in revenue (EBIT positive with the grant income +€1.4M); and raised €3M new grants for GScan and the R&D partners like Imperial College London, CERN, FBK (Italy). Their first project was successfully completed in the UK, and they opened an office in London.
H) Pactum
Five years ago, Pactum created a new category of disruptive technology: Autonomous negotiations. Their AI-powered chatbot is trained to understand what the client's business values so it can calculate and conclude better deals on supplier contracts. Their first customer was Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, and they have since began working with several other of the world’s largest companies. They immediately validated the category. 2023 was a record year for Pactum. While maintaining 100% client retention, they increased both the number of customers and the ARR by 5x, while speeding up the implementation by 6x, ensuring new clients experience the benefits of AI sooner than ever - and can monitor their savings in our new negotiation suite also rolled out in 2023. Pactum's constantly learning and developing AI now has the largest library of negotiation modelling in the world. In addition, their team has grown to nearly 100 employees with development based in Estonia.
I) Patchstack
Patchstack covers the complete lifecycle of open-source security. Patchstack’s community of ethical hackers report new security vulnerabilities to its bug bounty program; it then helps developers to identify & fix these issues in their software; and then automatically mitigates vulnerabilities on the end-users applications. Patchstack is the global leader of WordPress vulnerability intelligence, monitoring over 5 million websites every day and preventing millions of attacks each month. In 2023, Patchstack increased the team from 12 to 20 people and did 86% MRR growth.
J) UP Catalyst
UP Catalyst turns heavy industrial CO2 emissions into sustainable graphite – to cut down EU dependency on Chinese imports and provide a local alternative to electric car battery raw materials. They raised €4M in equity, €6M in grants, and scaled-up their production capacity 10x in 2023. UP Catalyst team expanded by 35%; they conducted over 1000 R&D tests in the labs, produced 50 pouch cells and completed full battery cell tests with the largest electrode producer in Europe – UniverCell – with outstanding results. Their force is transformative for the battery landscape – by replacing fossil-based graphite with UP Catalyst green graphite, the battery anodes will become CO2 negative, contributing to 118.7 megatons of CO2 emissions avoided annually by the year 2030.
CATEGORY 8
The Founder of the Year 2023
Whatever you admire in a founder, this person fills you with awe and inspiration. Who went the extra mile in 2023? Who stood the tallest? Whose impact was the clearest?
WINNER: Martin Kõiva & Kair Käsper
II PLACE: Taavi Madiberk
III PLACE: Martin Sokk & Mihkel Aamer
SHORTLIST FOR THE FOUNDER OF THE YEAR 2023:
A) Avery Schrader - Modash
Modash helps more than 1100 consumer brands - like Bolt, Wolt, Farfetch, Montblanc, and Surf Shark - to scale their partnerships with online creators. In 2023, they grew subscription revenue 250%, nearing $4,500,000 in ARR. According to Chartmogul benchmarks, this puts Modash in the top 1% of Software companies in 2023. They also crossed the 1000 customer mark. In Q3 2023, they private-launched a payments product which has already transferred millions of dollars to creators and resulted in additional 6 figures in revenue. They've accomplished this having raised $2.1M to date (and burned less than half of that). Modash is default alive, and raising Series A.
B) Juhan Härm - VOOL
VOOL's CEO, Juhan Härm, has taken the company from scratch to now opening a second office in Norway. VOOL offers a unique EV charging and energy management platform with its own hardware, which allows users to charge up to three times more EVs using the same existing power grid. VOOL has raised over €7M, launched serial production in July 2023, and is active in the Baltic States and Nordics. In 2024, VOOL generated over €400K in revenue and has over 12,000 monthly charging sessions done on their platform.
C) Kadri Haljas - Triumf Health
Kadri Haljas is that solo female founder with a doctoral degree who is on a mission of changing the mental health landscape since 2017 with Triumf Health. 2023 was the year of winning a lot of international awards but also a year of hard pivots and expanding beyond EU to countries like Moldova and Kenya. All without any VC funding. Thousands of children benefited, but it should be millions. "But we'll get there", she says, because slow and steady wins the race eventually in the mental health world.
D) Karen K. Burns - Fyma
Karen raised €2M for Fyma in November 2023, after what was a truly very difficult year. To date she has raised nearly €4M from international VC's including US’ largest real estate organisation NAR. Fyma transforms security cameras into analytics sensors for large asset managers, optimising revenue in mixed portfolios. Despite the difficult year, Fyma grew its revenue by 70% from the year before, got a patent in the US, moved its HQ to the UK and opened new markets in Canada and the US, where first Fyma customers are expanding across their properties. Personally, Karen discovered running and completed her first half-marathon in 2023.
E) Katrina Laks - Migrevention
Katrina, a leading force in Estonia's digital health community, co-founded Migrevention, transforming the idea into a software-based medical device and reaching active sales within three years. Positioned for the UK healthcare market in 2024, she raises awareness of primary headaches, aiming to provide relief to over 1 billion global sufferers. Katrina keeps showcasing her relentless dedication and warm-hearted support not only within her expertise but also as a pillar for her team, and health tech community.
F) Mari Joller - Snackable
In 2023, Mari led the acquisition of Snackable by Amazon. Founded in 2018, Snackable used AI to extract valuable data and insights from spoken audio, opening up recordings like podcasts, and making them efficient and useful for listeners. Mari raised $5.5M from US and Estonian institutional investors during Snackable’s lifetime. Snackable’s customers included global companies like Gartner, UiPath and AllianceBernstein. With the Amazon acquisition, Mari brought Amazon to Estonia where she and the Snackable team continue their vision of building AI-powered products, now exclusively for Amazon Music.
G) Mari-Ann Meigo Fonseca & Märt-Erik Martens - Gelatex
Gelatex pioneers nanofibrous scaffolds for biotech, slashing costs by 90%. Proven by 100+ companies, our tech transforms wound healing and eliminates animal use in medtech. US, CN, HK, SG patents granted, first patent licensing deal, customers are multi-billion dollar biotech companies, commercial expansion underway.
H) Martin Kõiva & Kair Käsper - Klaus
Klaus’ software helps to improve customer care centres’ quality and consistency. Using AI-automated analysis of 100% of interactions, it leads to focused insights and broad overviews. When asking for comments about the achievements in 2023, the founders don't reveal much: "It was pretty normal. Everything was carefully thought through. The accountant kept the books, on one hand we were sort of melting away, and on the other, we were investing. We tried to keep things in place." However, the public news of this year's very first exit (Klaus is being acquired by Zendesk, a company with a market capitalisation of over $9.62B) demonstrates what was cooking under the hood in 2023. In the past, the team has raised over $20M across several rounds, including a €12M Series A deal in October 2022.
I) Martin Sokk & Mihkel Aamer - Lightyear
In 2023, Martin & Mihkel led Lightyear to a 700% growth in customer assets and 1 billion in annualised transaction value. Users trusted Lightyear with a high 4.8 Trustpilot score and more with their money as an average account size growing 3x. Lightyear built products to support investors in the tricky macroeconomic situation, including its startups offering of BlackRock Money Market Funds, helping Estonian businesses extend and secure their runway in hard times. MMFs are already used by Ready Player Me & Katana.
J) Oliver Sild - Patchstack
Oliver is a founder from Pärnu, who has stayed loyal to his home-town. From there he runs Patchstack, a 20 people fully-remote cyber-security startup that has large international customers such as GoDaddy, DigitalOcean, cPanel, and many others. He has attracted cyber-security talent from all over the world, and is seen as a global thought leader in WordPress, which today runs more than 40% of all websites. He’s a strong supporter of the local communtiy, where he also co-founded Forwardspace - the popular startup hub and co-working space in Pärnu. He has the well known “Pärnu Grit” and is an inspiration to many that big things can be built from anywhere.
K) Taavi Madiberk - Skeleton Technologies
Skeleton Technologies helps companies reduce CO2 emissions and save energy with their high-power, fast-charging energy storage for grid, transportation, heavy-duty, automotive, and industrial applications. Skeleton is a global leader, and policy innovator, actively advocating for a change. They work with some of the largest companies in the world - from European automotive companies to aerospace prime contractors. In 2023, completed a €108M funding round, bringing the total funding to over €300M (ranking Skeleton among Europe's top-financed clean tech and deep tech firms). In 2023, welcomed Siemens (a customer and partner in industrialization efforts) as an investor. In 2023, they also added new commercial agreements of over €10B - getting a clear estimate of the market demand for supercapacitors and SuperBattery products. In 2024, they will open the largest supercapacitor factory in the world in Markranstädt, Germany; and fully focus on scale-up and execution.
Congrats to all the nominees and all the winners! Our biggest gratitude goes to the official sponsors who made the event possible: Binalyze, Estonian Founders Society, icebreaker.vc, Invest Estonia, Karma Ventures, Koos.io, Latitude59, LIFT99, Lightyear, NFTPort, Nordic Ninja, Practica Capital, Ready Player Me, Salv, Siena Secondary Fund, Specialist VC, Swedbank, Tallinn city, Trind Ventures - thank you! Finally a word of thanks to this year’s core team - Rannar Park, Merit Vislapu, Kadri Barclay and Marina Bachmann - and our lovely hosts - Kätlin-Carolyn Noormägi and Joao Rei.
Estonian Startup Awards 2024 is happening on January 24, 2025. Click ‘Follow’ on Estonian Startup Awards’ very own Instagram or Linkedin account, not to miss the news. Stay playful, keep on building great things, and see you around!