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Three Estonian startups win Tech Tour Defence & DeepTech pitching contest

Estonia's innovation scene continues to evolve, as Tech Tour brought together the brightest minds in DeepTech & Defence to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the future.

This October, Tech Tour, Europe’s largest community of technology entrepreneurs and investors, came to Estonia with its debut event in Tallinn, dedicated to Defence & DeepTech topics. The high-level investor-startup matchmaking event took place in partnership with Invest Estonia, Startup Estonia, and the Estonian Founders Society. 

Grand opportunities

Estonia is compact but mighty when looking at digital infrastructure and innovations, stressed Allan Martinson from the Estonian Founders Society. “It grew into an economic powerhouse and put us up high in the world when it comes to per capita metrics for innovations.” Currently, the Estonian tech sector has over 2,100 startups, 5,000+ founders, and 16,000 employees, which adds 2.5% of GDP. It’s no longer the cheapest market, as Estonian engineering talent earns roughly the same as specialists in Japan, one of the world’s biggest economies. Yet, it is still in demand because of its excellent education and dynamic approach, said Martinson.

Tech Tour was also attended by Kristen Michal, Prime Minister of Estonia, who has emphasised the importance of the DeepTech sector to the future. Estonia’s goal is to have 500 deep technology companies operating here by 2030, and it’s on track to get there. Today, 161 deep technology companies operate in the Estonian startup sector. As of the end of the first half of the year, they employed 2,212 people, or 16% of all Estonian start-up sector employees. In the first half of the year, the turnover of companies operating in the field increased by 28% YoY to €160.4M, and investments totalled €171.8M, or as much as 72% of the total investment volume of the start-up sector.

 

Equally important is the defence sector, which also aligns with Estonia’s commitment to helping Ukraine in the coming years. “If your product helps Ukraine to win and can be made in Estonia, the government will buy it”, emphasised Michal. And there are plenty of other opportunities in the sector — Estonia’s defence spending will total €6.35B in the next four years, of which €219M will be allocated for non-military applications, such as cyber tools, a “smart drone border wall”, and more.

On October 3rd and 4th, the event gathered 15 Estonian companies among a grand total of 40+ high-potential startups representing the fast-growing ecosystem of Defence and DeepTech in the heart of the New Nordic Tech Valley. The list includes CybExer Technologies, Elnora AI, GScan, Timbeter, KrattWorks, KWOTA, Lendurai, MyCeen, Nanordica Medical, PowerUP Fuel Cells, RAIKU Packaging, Salv, Spacedrip, UP Catalyst, Vidar Systems.

 

Best of the best

Some of the participating Estonian startups went all the way to the top in pitching competitions. Selected by an expert jury in their respective fields (from drones to new energy solutions), they got €2500 worth of legal advice from Sorainen, an official event partner, and a spotlight position to raise new funding from attending investors.

The Estonian winners are:

  • Lendurai, which develops autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles with satellite navigation and radio control independent operation. The company has extensive experience and works closely with the units of the Ukrainian air forces.
  • Salv, a RegTech company that leverages its network’s collective power to reduce non-compliance and financial crime, utilising the hive’s strength to support those on the right side. With only 1% of financial crime being detected worldwide, Salv’s mission is to give financial institutions tools to fight financial crime more effectively.
  • Spacedrip, which develops water treatment robots. The company’s technology can purify wastewater from homes into clean water that can be reused for a variety of purposes.

All the companies are currently open to fundraising and scaling their ambitious vision. Want to find your next unicorn investment in Estonia? Reach out for a personal e-Consulting offer.

 

Besides Estonian businesses, the international participants also impressed the jury. Other winners include:

  • DataCrunch (Finland) provides high-end GPU instances in the cloud, with best-in-class rates and fully powered by renewable energy.
  • Optics11 (Netherlands) builds innovative solutions in fibre optic sensing technology for ultra-sensitive early warning systems.
  • Scrona (Switzerland) has developed the industry’s first multi-nozzle 3D printing platform that can digitally print the impossible with sub-micrometer precision.
  • Innatera Nanosystems (Netherlands) aims to simplify how sensor data is processed in power constrained devices. Its ultra-efficient neuromorphic processors mimic the brain’s mechanisms for processing sensory data.
  • Roseman Labs (Netherlands) develops Multi-Party Computation (MPC) software that is both high-end and pragmatic and easy to implement. Its secure collaboration software enables parties to link and analyze data sources without having access to each other’s underlying data.

In addition to bright founders, Tech Tour gathered dozens of industry executives, investors, and leaders, once again marking Estonia as a hub for cutting-edge innovation in the Defence and DeepTech sectors.

Want to build in the DeepTech & Defence? Make the most of our 1:1 e-Consulting service to get the best personalised advice about investing in Estonia.

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