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Estonia’s digital success story doesn’t stop: besides setting sights on an AI leap in education, the country continues to produce high-performing startups and grow its scale-ups. In the first half of 2025, the sector posted record revenues, all despite the funding scene becoming more modest.
Startup revenues surged 25% to a record €2.42B compared to €1.9B in the same period last year, according to data from Startup Estonia, the government’s startup development programme. The growth signals that Estonia’s tech companies are successfully pivoting toward profitability amid tighter capital markets.
“Paying customers and profitability have become the new normal, even in the early stages of startup development,” said Vaido Mikheim, head of Startup Estonia. “The sector as a whole has managed to remain competitive in difficult economic conditions.”
Ride-hailing giant Bolt dominated with €837M in revenue, followed by sales software maker Pipedrive (€191M), fintech Wise (€80M), betting platform BetPawa (€56M), and identity verification firm Veriff (€52M).
The youngest startups showed the strongest growth momentum. Companies aged five years or younger saw revenues jump 41% to €184.5M, while those aged 6-10 posted a more modest 21% growth to €1.44B.
The funding landscape painted a different picture. Total investments dropped to €174.8M across 32 deals, down from €242.6M and 39 deals in the first half of 2024. Mikheim attributes the drop partly to a shift in deal composition. Early-stage companies under five years old now represent over 80% of all transactions, up from less than 50% a year ago. These deals are typically smaller in size, dragging down overall investment volumes.
The largest funding round went to AI contract negotiation platform Pactum, which raised €47M. Other notable deals included Blackwall (€45M), Stargate Hydrogen (€11M), and Ultra Corporation (€11 million).
The sector saw seven startup acquisitions in the first half, including two in the second quarter. Notable exits included U.S. mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower’s acquisition of gaming analytics company Video Game Insights and Indigo Technologies’ purchase of autonomous delivery startup Clevon.
