Swedbank, the largest bank in Estonia, has taken on a mission to help Estonian startups succeed. Their support of the ecosystem strategically covers the full lifecycle of a startup. From cool cooperations with companies like Tuul and eAgronom, to partnering with organizations like Startup Wise Guys, Garage48, EstBAN, and Prototron, Swedbank’s resources are channeled far and wide within the community. In the upcoming quarter, you can find Swedbank’s team at sTARTup Day and the Estonian Startup Awards.
Before we dive into the past, present, and future - how are you doing? How was 2022 for Swedbank?
Like banks in general, we also had a very successful year behind us. But in order to stay on that course of success, we want to further push the growth of local startups and the Estonian startup ecosystem. If we look to the future, then for us at Swedbank it is quite clear that the role of startups in the Estonian economy will be even greater. We have no doubt that possibly already in the next few years the number of Estonian unicorns could double. We hope that through various cooperations Swedbank can have an impactful role in helping Estonian startups reach further, faster.
What was the most impactful startup-related move among Swedbank’s activities in 2022? How was it significant and are there any results to be seen already?
I think our boldest startup-related move in 2022 was actually an internal one - we decided to make supporting startups and the startup ecosystem one of our main goals, and started to visibly work towards that goal.
“We decided to make supporting startups and the startup ecosystem one of our main goals.”
On the business side, an important change in attitude was that, as a bank with a low risk appetite like us, really found a model to cooperate with startups in different growth stages. We finance the creation of prototypes through Prototron.
That’s how Kõu Mobility took off, for example. For startups that are further down the pipeline, we have financing through local VC funds like Karma Ventures, Trind VC, and Practica Capital. For more defined and experienced startups, Swedbank can offer traditional financing. We are proud that we managed to finance several well-known and fast-growing startups in 2022. So we are with startups during their entire life cycle.
Probably, Swedbank’s cooperation with venture capital funds is the most remarkable development, because it is beneficial both for our clients - future pensioners - and for the local economy by helping to develop the most competitive and innovative part of the economy. Today we are the first pioneers, but this will, for sure, create new funding opportunities for local startups as others will follow.
In 2022, Swedbank supported the winners of Latitude59 Pitch Competion through their partnership with Prototron
Tell us about an exciting trend that you see coming up in 2023. What kind of change could it bring along for our startup scene?
As a bank we see that 2023 is going to be rough for most companies. At the same time, this year is going to be a breaking point in several areas. An already ongoing big thing - which is growing even more - is the role of ESG. Our very important role is to support companies in being more sustainable. We see that there are more and more sustainability-related startups and they have good potential of being partners for traditional companies in achieving their sustainability goals.
Also, we believe that in 2023 we will be able to increase the amount of funding for startup companies in our portfolio again, which is especially important considering the direction in which the financing of growth companies is currently moving in the world.
Name a challenge that you see the Estonian startup ecosystem struggling with currently. What could be a solution?
As we all know - the Estonian startup ecosystem is one of the best ecosystems in the world. So, how do you make something better that is already very good? It’s always much more complicated compared to starting from zero.
One of the main questions we see is how to attract more talent to Estonia. It’s important so we all could keep innovating. It’s not only important for the startups but for all the other companies too. Also, it makes more sense for the startups to keep or make their headquarters in a country where talent is available.
In 2022, Swedbank presented their own award - equity-free cash of €10K - at the sTARTUp Day’s pitching competition
If you could pick any Estonian startup to become a major global success overnight, who would it be and why?
Estonia is a rich country in terms of startup companies, there are many companies with great potential here. Among the sectors, sustainability and circular economy, and fintech companies are close to our hearts.
As co-organizers of sTARTUp Day, we certainly hope that we can see the rapid rise of Äio tech, which stood out at last year’s pitching competition; and of Kõu Mobility, which started from Prototron. We will certainly keep our fingers crossed for eAgronom, with whom we started cooperation last year for the sustainable financing of agriculture.
In fact, we are happy about every international success story that started in Estonia, and we believe that having 25 unicorns by 2025 is a worthy and reachable goal for us as a country.
At The Estonian Startup Awards 2022, you are giving over the award for The Giving Back Powerhouse of 2022. How does this category resonate with you? Can you drop a little teaser on how you will sum up the movements in this category in the past year?
Estonian tech and startup ecosystem as a whole offers such a huge and unique value to the world. For us, it has become clear that we want to support developing it further, in any way we can. We understand and value the impact that each and every nominee in this category has had on the ecosystem.
The Giving Back Powerhouse is someone who, despite their own success, hasn’t forgotten where they came from. They are using their own journey and hard-earned resources as a platform for others to rise, too. We need more of those role models and community activists among us. We need to share their stories and inspire new role models to rise up and take the lead.
About Swedbank
Swedbank is the largest bank in Estonia, with more than 130,000 business customers. Among all those companies there are big and small ones - more traditional ones, and also startups. Swedbank has defined its role as a bridge between the fast-growing startups and the traditional economy, and is actively working towards having a positive impact through that role.
In 2023, Swedbank is contributing to bringing to life the Estonian Startup Awards 2022, taking place on 27.01.2023. The broadcast of the awards gala will be available online.
Swedbank knows that startups are the future. Here’s what they have to offer to the fastest-growing sector in Estonian economy.