• Founded in 2021, Menken develops an AI to automate and improve the monitoring of clinical trials. The startup claims it makes them faster, more accurate, and efficient. By automating monitoring in clinical trials with real-time compliance checks and error detection, its solutions aim to fill a critical gap in the market.

We believe that our success comes from changing the way clinical trial operations are viewed and carried out. By focusing on improving workflows, we aim to make clinical trials more efficient and compliant, —  Anna-Liisa Parts, one of the co-founders, commented.

• Recently, Menken Trials has entered Tenity, a Swiss-backed early-stage investing and accelerating program now operating in Estonia, as part of their growth efforts. The startup added that this partnership will help us expand in Central Europe, reaching more hospitals and biopharmas over the next 12 months.
• The grant was provided by the Tallinn-based EASi ja KredExi ühendasutus, the joint organisation, supporting entrepreneurship and the improvement of living conditions in Estonia, increase its international competitiveness, visibility and attractiveness as a place for business, living and studies. Estonian Business and Innovation Agency projects are co-funded from the European Regional Development Fund.

The fresh grant will help the startup to expand into Eastern Europe and Africa and to support its mission to improve clinical trial processes worldwide.

• Founded in 2018 by former Bigbank Group CEO Kaido Saar, Mifundo develops an AI-based cross-border data platform to enable the portability of credit profiles throughout the European Union. The company’s goal is to create a truly unified credit market in the EU, reducing financial inequality and providing better access to financial services for all European citizens.

• The startup also claims that its technology, combining cross-border data from credit bureaus, open banking and other sources helps to reduce the credit risk of foreigners up to 7 times and to increase bank’s business volumes by 15% while offering seamless UX both for banks and consumers. Additionally, in November 2022, Mifundo raised a €1.2 million in a pre-seed funding.

About the fresh financing:

• The grant funing was provided by EIC. In total it will invest 411 million in 68 companies that develop technology of strategic importance to Europe and have disruptive potential on a global scale. These were selected in a highly competitive process from nearly 1,000 candidates.
• Typically, the EIC invests in the deep tech sectors such as quantum computing, space technology, biotech and medicine. However, for the first time in the history, a fintech company has been chosen for the full scale investment.

With the new funding, Mifundo plans to integrate additional countries into its platform, further develop the pan-European data model and expand data service coverage within the EU.

About Helsing:

• Co-founded by Niklas Köhler, Torsten Reil, and Gundbert Scherf in 2021, Helsing develops a platform uses AI to analyze live data and improve the decision-making for defense, intelligence, and national security systems. The company employs 250 people. In September 2023, it raised a €209 million Series B  funding round led by General Catalyst, following a €103 million Series A fundraise led by Daniel Ek and Shakil Khan’s investment firm Prima Materia in November 2021.

• Helsing has been active in Ukraine since 2022 and recently established the Defence Manufacturers Alliance, a joint initiative with the Ukrainian government. Since its founding, the company has secured a series of government contracts, including the German Eurofighter Electronic Warfare upgrade, the AI infrastructure for the Future Combat Air System, and a number of classified contracts in the maritime and land domain.

The fresh Series C round:

• General Catalyst, the leading investor in the round, was founded in 2000 in San Francisco. The firm prefers to make investments in companies operating in consumer, enterprise, fintech, crypto, and health assurance sectors
• Elad Gil, an entrepreneur and investor from US, Accel, a global venture capital firm, Saab, a Stokholm-based defence and security company, Lightspeed, an US-based multi-stage venture capital firm, Plural, the Tallinn-based VC firm focusing on early-stage rounds between €1 million and €10 million, and Greenoaks, an investment firm based in San Francisco, also joined the investment.

European security is at a crossroads and Helsing will play a significant role in giving democratic societies the ability to deter and defend. But speed is of the essence. This new funding round allows us to further up the tempo and invest in large-scale R&D and capabilities across all domains,

the company’s three founders said in a joint statement.

According to company, the funding will be used for product development and R&D, a particular focus will be on bolster its work in the Baltics, as russia’s war in Ukraine goes on. 

• Founded in 2019 by Estonian entrepreneurs Martin Rand, Kaspar Korjus, and Kristjan Korjus, Pactum develops a solution using advanced mathematical models, cognitive science, negotiation techniques, and intelligent bots to digitally engage third parties and negotiate mutually-benefiting contracts, leading to better pricing, payment terms, and supply continuity.
• The company is based in Mountain View with engineering and operations in Estonia. Pactum also claims that its autonomous bots can contact thousands of suppliers simultaneously seeking the best pricing and terms for routine corporate purchases in logistics and a wide range of other sectors. Among its clients are Maersk, Walmart, Vodafone, and Veritiv.

Who supported the investment?

• The fresh round was led by Tallinn-based Karma Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, specialised in late seed and A round investments in Europe’s deep-tech software startups.
• An existing Vienna-based venture capital group 3VC also participated in the round, together with Atomico, a European Venture Capital firm headquartered in London, with offices in Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, Project A, an early-stage tech investor with offices in Berlin and London, an Estonian VC fund SuperAngel, and a Budapest-based Portfolion, the venture capital and private equity arm of OTP Bank Pactum.

The investment round brings its total fundraising to $55 million. In December 2022, Pactum raised €19 million.

Pactum will use the funding round to accelerate additional research and development into autonomous negotiations, refine autonomous negotiation tools specifically for procurement teams, and develop initiatives to help upskill procurement professionals.

• Aboard is a Toronto-based B2B SaaS platform for healthcare institutions that helps them implement HR programs. Specifically, the service automates manual workflows such as onboarding, offboarding, credential expirations, employment anniversaries, and more.
• It also automates tasks (e.g., calendar bookings, emails, notifications) and the work of employees. The company was founded in 2020 by Lee MacDonald.

• The round was led by US-based East Post Road Ventures, with participation from Estonian Startup Wise Guys, an accelerator that invests in early-stage startups from the Baltic, Central European, and African regions. It has invested in over 350 startups and had 13 exits.
• Startup Wise Guys typically invests up to €500,000 per startup through multiple funds that manage €45 million and are backed by more than 150 investors. The CEO of Startup Wise Guys is Cristobal Alonso. Recently, the fund announced its investments of €100,000 in 15 startups.

This funding will empower us to accelerate the development of our HR solutions tailored for healthcare, ultimately driving efficiency, reducing administrative burdens, and enhancing employee satisfaction within healthcare organizations,

said Lee MacDonald, CEO of Aboard.

This investment will drive Aboard’s expansion into the US healthcare sector. Its amount was undisclosed.

• Scaler was co-founded in 2021 by Zlatan Menkovic and Luc van de Boom in 2021, and specializes in ESG decision-making. Its platform provides real estate investors and asset managers with machine learning, ESG monitoring and reporting tools to decarbonise the industry at scale. Customers can model the impact of decisions and their overall portfolio to asset-level footprint, and generate reports for different disclosure and regulatory requirements.

• It’s also been designed for specialists and non-specialist teams so anyone can use the tool, from CFOs to sustainability leads and property managers. In addition, Scaler helps clients create roadmaps and order work such as retrofitting or installing heat pumps and solar panels. 
• Currently, the company is working with 30 customers, which have over $350 billion under management. The startup also claims it reduced their carbon output by 15 million kgs – equivalent to the electricity use of over 10,000 homes a year. 

The funding details:

• Plural, the lead investor in the fresh round, is an early-stage investment fund that backs founders on a mission to change the world through technology. Based in Tallinn and London, Plural aims to have a GDP-level impact on Europe, address systemic risks, and reduce the opportunity gap worldwide through the companies it backs. Recently, the fund also joined €6 million round in Feather, a German insurtech startup.
• Base10, an early stage venture capital firm from San Francisco joined the round.

Solving the real estate industry’s carbon problem is complex, when north of 60% of carbon emissions in major cities come from buildings and energy use is only increasing. In only a few years, Scaler has built the most compelling software solution in the market to rapidly appraise investors’ ESG scores across their properties and outline concrete strategies to meet net-zero targets. We’re excited to work with them to transform the real estate industry,

Khaled Helioui, Partner at Plural, said.

The company will use the funds to further develop the product, grow the engineering team, and expand to new markets beyond Europe.

• In the last five years, Antler has supported over 400 European startups, especially across the Nordics. With 140 investments in 2023 alone, Antler is one of the few early-stage VC firms that has increased its rate of investment during the downturn. Antler is also actively removing barriers to entrepreneurship and is committed to supporting a new generation of diverse founders.
• The first Antler’s fund was launched in 2021 and was valued €30 million.

About Nordic Fund II

• Nordic Fund II primarily targets the Nordic region, covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, and it has now entered the Estonian market. 
• Antler’s operating model is based on 12-week accelerator residency, where participants form teams and establish startups. Successful teams that emerge from the residency receive an investment of up to €300,000 to help propel their startups to the next stage.

SmartCap Venture Capital Fund has invested €5 million in the fund, strengthening its commitment to early-stage startups and innovative tech investment strategies. The fund has also received anchor investments from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Tesi from Finland.

Estonia has consolidated its position as one of the most exciting tech ecosystems in Europe. It has produced some of Europe’s fastest growing tech companies and Tallinn is home to more unicorn founders than established tech hubs like Manchester, Madrid and Copenhagen.

Antler is a global investor committed to supporting the best founders around the world and we are very excited to work with SmartCap to back a new generation of Estonian tech startups,

Jussi Kallasvuo, Partner at Antler, said.

About Feather

• Feather was founded in 2018 by Rob Schumacher and Vincent Audoire. The company develops a a platform to serve over 50 million expats working and living in Europe. Now, the company is operating in Germany, France, and Spain.
• The startup aims to simplify the insurance process based on individual needs and includes a digital claims process and transparent customer service, ensuring clarity and ease in navigating insurance options. Expats can manage their insurance needs, supported by personalized recommendations that align with their lifestyles.

Our goal is to give people honest, unbiased advice, with the information they need to make the right decision. And, because of how complicated insurance is, we offer tools, articles, and support where people can reach out to a human about problems or questions they have. Currently, Feather has helped people from over 150 countries get insurance digitally and is expanding quickly,

Feather’s team claims.

Investment details

• Keen Venture Partners is the lead investor in the current round. It is a venture capital firm that supports founders across Europe from Seed to Series B rounds.
• The Tallinn-based VC fund Plural also participated in the financing as the existing investor. Founded in 2022 by Sten Tamkivi, Taavet Hinrikus, Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui, Plural focuses on leading early-stage rounds between €1 million and €10 million.

In February this year, it led €83.6 million investment for the Estonia-born startup Starship Technologies.

• Senior executives from Allianz, AXA, and Bastian also participated in the deal.

The fresh funding round will accelerate its expansion into new European markets. The platform is expected to be launched in three more countries by the end of 2024.

About eAgronom

• Founded in 2016, eAgronom helps farmers monitor and verify sustainable practices, generate carbon credits, increase agricultural efficiency, and gain access to financing in the future. Now, eAgronom works with over 3,000+ farmers in 14 countries. The startup also claims that working directly with its platform, partner farms across Europe and Africa have already stored 525,000 tCO2 p.a., which is roughly equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of 100,000 people.
• The company is on track to reach its 4.1 million hectare target by 2025.

The average farmer has only 40 harvests to experiment with throughout their entire career. This makes the farming sector extremely conservative. If something is more or less working then it makes sense to continue with it. eAgronom’s sustainability programs – food value chain/scope 3, offsetting, sustainable finance, and others – help to reduce the risk for farmers by providing extra incentives and education,

Robin Saluoks, co-founder and CEO of eAgronom, said.

Investment details

To date, in 2022 eAgronom raised €6.4 million for its Series A round and further €5.5 million in 2023. Prior funding rounds have enabled eAgronom to initiate field trials and seminars with partner farmers, and determine best practices for each region with specific climate and soil conditions.

• The current round consists of €4.2 million raised during a booster round last year, now converted into equity and an additional €5.8 million raised this year. Swedbank AB is leading the round with a €4 million investment.
• In addition to the new lead investor, existing investors, Icos Capital, Soulmates Ventures, and SmartCap Green Fund, have also increased their investments to support the startup.

eAgronom will use the current investment to expand its presence in key markets and scale the company in several sustainable farming programs, especially Scope 3 and sustainable financing. In addition, the startup aims to raise an additional €2-4 million later this year.

• Founded in 2012, Stebby provides a software service platform for companies to manage their employee wellness benefits and helps employees access these benefits conveniently. Stebby has 180 000 users and 48 employees across the Baltics. In 2020, Stebby entered Latvia and Lithuania.
• In 2022, Livonia Partners, a pan-Baltic private equity investment firm, invested in Stebby. The firm is currently investing from €157 million Fund II, Livonia team works across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In addition to Stebby, other recent investments in Estonia include Bestair, Wildix, and Telema.

Stebby is a great example of Livonia supporting established management teams in buying companies. It has been a strong growth story and the employee wellness benefits market is still in its infancy in the Baltics, so we were thrilled for Up Group’s interest and vision,

Maarja Pärs, Investment Director at Livonia Partners, commented.

About Up Group

• Up Group is an independent international group that connects individuals, businesses and regions to develop management, transaction and relationship platforms that contribute to well-being and performance. The company designs integrated solutions (vouchers, cards, mobile applications, web platform) for different aspect of people’s daily lives: meals, gifts, culture, leisure, holidays, personal services,training, education, health, social assistance business expenses.
• Up has over 3 400 employees, generates €759 million revenues yearly and operates in over 23 countries.

Transaction details were not disclosed, but its known that the current management will continue to lead Stebby together with the new partner.

About Metaplanet Holdings

• Metaplanet Holdings is an early-stage investment firm started by Skype’s founder Jaan Tallinn. It has more than 160 companies in its venture investment portfolio. The fund invests in innovation with the potential to produce an outsized return for the benefit of humankind.
• Among its notable investments are SpaceX, DeepMind, and Anthropic. In December 2023, Metaplanet led a €2.5 million round for Woola, an Estonian company that makes protective wool packing.

WeatherXM investment details

• WeatherXM was founded in Athens in 2012 by Manolis Nikiforakis, Stratos Theodorou, and Nicolas Tsiligaridis. It is a decentralized network of weather stations. The network rewards station owners who are collecting and sharing local weather data through systems built on the blockchain.
• The company has developed a WS2000 Helium-LoRaWAN autonomous weather station that connects to a nearby Helium-LoRaWAN gateway. The station collects local ground weather information and is monitored by volunteers who are compensated with WeatherXM’s crypto token, $WXM.
• WeatherXM’s collected data is available to anyone for free personal use, with paid-for offerings for Web2 and Web3 businesses that wish to use it commercially. The startup has already deployed 5,000 of its weather stations in over 80 countries. 

WeatherXM raised $7.7 million during its Series A funding round. The funding was led by Lightspeed Faction VC. In addition to Metaplanet, Zurich-based Protocol Labs, US Web3 investment manager Borderless Capital, asset management firm Arca, Alumni Ventures, VC Placeholder, Red Beard Ventures, GS Futures, accelerator and investor Consensys Mesh, Westerly Ventures, venture studio dlab, and some business angels also participated.

The company will use the investment to increase headcount and expand its network to begin monetizing its commercial users.

Neurable investment details

• Founded in 2015 by Adam Molnar, Ramses Alcaide, and James Hamet as a University of Michigan spinout, Neurable develops AI-powered tools for brain signal translation and brain-computer interface technology. The platform enables brain-computer interfaces in everyday devices. Neurable is dedicated to creating a world where individuals can overcome physical and mental limitations through innovative neurotechnology solutions.
• In addition, the company designed headphones MW75 Neuro. The user can connect them to the Neurable app and start focus sessions, receive personalized break recommendations, review focus measurements, and receive insights to improve focus habits. When the brain is focused, it produces unique brainwaves that MW75 Neuro can detect using Neurable proprietary focus algorithm.

Neurable received $13 million in investment capital from the US-based Ultratech Capital Partners, TRAC, the Berlin-based firm Pace Ventures. Metaplanet is one of the participants in the round.

About Raft Capital

• Raft Capital invests in growth and expansion-stage companies across the Baltic States. It is a generalist investor, targeting multiple industries. The management team of Raft Capital Management is licensed by the Bank of Lithuania to engage in investment activities, and includes Artūras Gegužis, Andrejus Boicovas, Gintautas Galvanauskas, and Imre Visse (Estonia).
• According to Artūras Gegužis, the fund focuses on small and medium-sized firms in the Baltic region that growing. These include manufacturing companies that export, companies that innovate and create new products, service providers, and other businesses.

The fresh €50 million fund

• Raft Capital plans to invest between €2 and €10 million per company. The fund also claims these businesses should have sales of between €3 and €50 million and EBITDA of between €500,000 and €5 million.

Our primary investment region, the Baltic States, is seeing economic growth above the EU average, but there are less chances for business expansion due to a shortage of equity capital sources. Furthermore, in order to attain sustainable long-term growth and draw in the interest of reputable strategic and financial investors, the majority of Baltic enterprises must move into larger export markets,

Artūras Gegužis stated.

• In addition, Raft Capital would also consider investing in companies in the Nordic countries and Poland if these investments had clear synergies and benefits for the portfolio companies.
• Through Raft Capital Baltic Equity Fund, investments are made by the European Investment Fund, INVEGA, pension plans administered by Luminor investment management companies in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and other private investors.

In the future, Raft Capital also plans to launch the fund’s second round looking for additional €20-30 million.

About Bisly

• Founded in 2018 by Siim Vips with Ants Vill, Bisly is a startup that specializes in the development of an intelligent building platform. In addition, the startup also manufactures custom hardware components that can be integrated into an open software platform.
• On the software side, Bisly blends its Single Cloud Platform that integrates different stages of the customer experience with its digital twins system. Bisly claims, its digital twin system accelerates setup and continually tracks consumption data, optimising areas where efficiency measures are lagging and improving energy conservation and financial savings over time.

Investment details

• The fresh round was supported by new investors including Foxway founders Urvo Männama and Paul Padrik.
• The existing investors like Aconterra, a Belgium venture capital fund investing in European early-stage technology companies, SmartCap Green Fund, a venture capital fund managed by Estonian SmartCap, Pinorena Capital, a private equity firm led by entrepreneur, Illimar Mattus, supporting fintech companies, also joined the round.

Having proven their expertise in Estonia, Bisly is well-positioned to meet the increasing global demand for smart building technology. Their advanced solutions and strong team make them well-equipped to drive significant reductions in the carbon footprint of buildings worldwide, contributing to broader climate change initiatives,

Robert Martin from SmartCap commented.

• Along with the deal, the company also announced C-Suite transitions in the company. Ants Vips will take on the role of Chief Strategy Officer. The C-suite is rounded out by CFO Kristjan Kõrgmaa, CTO Jaanus Lepik, and CPO Mihkel Kõrgmaa. The supervisory board has also expanded with the additions of Sergei Anikin, the angel investor and former Pipedrive CTO, and Jarek Kurnitski, a Professor of Energy Performance and Indoor Climate in Buildings at Tallinn University of Technology.
• This funding round will be directed towards Bisly’s plans for expansion throughout Europe, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, where the company has already opened offices and started courting partnerships.

In October 2023, Bisly managed to raise €3.6 million from Aconterra, Second Century Ventures and REACH UK, SmartCap Green Fund I, and Pinorena CapitalI. Read more details below:

Four companies received the first investments:

• Fractile AI (UK) is a London-based computer chip maker that aims to speed up large-scale language models (LLMs), such as those powering ChatGPT.
• ARX ​​Robotics (Germany) develops unmanned robots for various tasks, from lifting heavy objects to surveillance.
• iCOMAT (UK) produces light and strong materials for vehicles.
• Space Forge (UK) uses the conditions of space (microgravity, vacuum) to manufacture semiconductors in orbit.

As part of the announcement, NATO Innovation Fund also provided support for a group of fund managers, including:

• Alpine Space Ventures, an early-stage fund bringing over 50 years of space industry expertise to empower select startups to deliver key space-enabled capabilities.
• OTB Ventures, an early growth fund originating from Central Europe, investing in spacetech, enterprise automation & AI, cybersecurity, and fintech infrastructure.
• JOIN CAPITAL, a Berlin-based early stage venture capital focused on deep tech investments across industrial and enterprise tech.
• Vsquared Ventures, which invests in early stage deep tech companies, whose groundbreaking technologies can address some of society’s most pressing challenges across AI & next-gen software, energy transition, new computing and sensing, new space, robotics and manufacturing, and tech-bio.

About NATO Innovation fund

The alliance announced the creation of the fund in the summer of 2022, months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, pledging to invest in technology that would strengthen its defenses.

The fund is partnering with venture capital funds Alpine Space Ventures, OTB Ventures, Join Capital and Vsquared Ventures to support deep tech investments on the continent. It is supported by 24 of NATO’s 32 member states, including Finland and Sweden, which joined the alliance earlier this year.

About Startup Wise Guys

• Startup Wise Guys accelerator invests in early-stage startups from Estonia and Central European and African regions. It has invested in more than 350 startups and had 13 exits since 2012. The CEO of Startup Wise Guys is Сristobal Аlonso.
• In May this year, Startup Wise Guys graduated 12 scaleups from its Growth Ukraine program. The chosen scaleups are mostly based in Ukraine, generate over €550,000 in monthly revenue, and have raised more than €2 million in funding.

Freshly selected startups:

• Birl, the UK-based SaaS startup that has developed a resale solution to allow customers of the brands to trade in previously bought items for meaningful credit on their next purchase.
• Esgrid, an Estonian SaaS platform that helps European medium-sized companies and financial institutions collect data to assess and improve their ESG performance.

• Zerow, a B2B marketplace from Italy that allows fashion companies to exchange excess high-quality recovered materials.
• Foodobox, the Bulgarian startup that helps food business owners reduce food waste by selling surplus through the Foodobox mobile application.
• Tekpon, the US-based marketplace that helps people find the software for their business. Among its clients are Google, TikTok, HubSpot, Monday.com, and Deel.
• Seenapse, a Spanish AI-powered assistant that helps teams brainstorm, providing people with hundreds of ideas in minutes.
• Planet Dataset, a Spain-based company providing a solution that helps eCommerce companies simplify pricing decisions, automate their routine processes, and free up time to spend time with their customers.
• Break-Event, a Spain-based solution for promoters, bookers, or those who want to organize a venue.
• Wall ID, the UK’s startup offering a decentralized ID checkout based on verified credentials. The checkout is tied to an individual’s bank account which allows individuals to identify themselves, pay, and checkout just with their bank account in one transaction. 
• AIManager360 from Germany, a business intelligence platform that identifies all the generative AI use cases of the company.
• Synapze, a Germany-based AI-powered document processing solution.
• Block-Auth, a Spanish blockchain-based digital identity authentication software that replaces traditional user credentials like usernames and passwords.
• Certopus, a solution for creating digital certificates and badges from India.
• Cloudtainer, a Spain-based solution to protect cargo, which can identify container openings, share information with authorities and the logistics chain, and alert and protect cargo in real-time.
• Passport.GG, the Estonian tool for gamers with a focus on creating a safer, more productive environment for gamers, particularly minors, and providing valuable tools for parents and educators to engage and protect them.

In the Startup of the Day column, Oksana Tolmatšova, Katrin Isotamm, Jevgeni Bogatõrjov, and Ott Ilves, the founding team of Esgrid, share the details about the startup’s idea, its product, and future plans.

The Startup of the Day column on AIN is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originate from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

Esgrid builds affordable value chain sustainability management tools for medium-sized enterprises and financial institutions. Our digital platform streamlines the entire process of value chain sustainability management and reduces ESG data collection and analysis costs by ten times. By utilizing the power of AI, we help SMEs (value chain companies) easily navigate the ESG assessment process and enable enterprise customers to gain deep insights from the collected data.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Our team believes that companies of any size should conduct business in a way that does not harm the environment and society, and that capital should support this approach.

When we started examining current financing and procurement processes a year ago, we discovered that most of them do not take value chain sustainability into account, which is a huge problem,

After talking to more than twenty companies in the Baltics, we realized that there is no easy way to collect and analyze the necessary data, so we decided to develop a needed solution.

How long did it take to reach the prototype or MVP? What did you encounter?

With over 10 years of startup experience in our team, we decided to find our first customer before even prototyping the MVP. We were lucky to attract interest from a large enterprise in Estonia, which helped us build the MVP to meet real customer needs.

It took us five months to build the initial product with very limited resources from the founders and family members. This allowed our pilot customer to efficiently collect ESG data from value chain companies and gain initial insights. The pilot results were very good, which encouraged us to move forward.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We charge enterprises and financial institutions an annual fee based on the size of their value chain. Value chain companies provide their ESG data for free.

In the future, we plan to introduce a monthly subscription fee-based premium plan for SMEs that will unlock easy-to-use sustainability management tools for them.

What are your target markets and consumers?

We target the medium-sized enterprise market globally, starting in the EU.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated.

Today, we already have 8 paying enterprise customers and over 150 registered value chain companies. We are growing 100% month over month in terms of the number of customers and ARR. Our platform delivers an exceptionally high ESG assessment rate of 82%.

What about your team? How many people are working in the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

Our six-member team is relatively small but very experienced. We are confident we can achieve this year’s targets with our existing resources.

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

We recently closed our €500,000 pre-seed round with participation from Lemonade Stand, Startup Wise Guys, EstBAN, and several angel investors. The raised funds will help us make several valuable additions to our product, acquire up to 30 enterprise customers, and expand into the financial sector in the next 12 months.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

We plan to introduce several AI-powered product features that will significantly simplify ESG data analysis for our customers. From a sales perspective, while continuing to build our customer base in the Baltics, we will run marketing experiments in several large EU markets.

AI maintained a top sector for investment, representing approximately 17% of global funding, according to the latest VC funding in CEE 1Q24 report presented by Vestbee. AIN analysed the report and shares the key points.

VC investment trends in CEE

• In the past five years, the value of startups in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) startup ecosystem increased from €89 billion in 2019 to €213 billion in 2023.
• However, the number of funding rounds dropped between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024. The overall investment volume remained stable, with a slight increase in Q1 2024.
• In Poland, there has been a noticeable decrease in venture activities, particularly among seed funds backed by public capital, highlighting their crucial role in the market.
• The availability of VC funding remains much better than it was pre-2019, although difficulties in securing financing are expected to continue into the second quarter.

Startup investment rounds in CEE in Q1 2024

• Number of funding rounds: 157 (134 fully disclosed in terms of amount, month, investors, and company details);

• The biggest disclosed investment rounds:
  • Mews closes Series D round of €101.3 million;
  • Project 3 Mobility receives €100 million in a Series A round;
  • Starship Technologies raises €84.6 million of funding;
  • Bob W closes Series B round of €40 million;
  • CloudTalk raises Series B round of €26.3 million;
  • Tuum received a €25 million in a Series B round.
• Total value of funding closed in CEE is over €640 million.

• Estonia leads with 31 funding rounds, followed closely by Poland with 30 rounds, and Czechia with 18 rounds.
• The most active VC funds were: New Vision 3, Credo Ventures, EIT Digital, Vitosha Venture Partners, Presto Ventures, FundingBox Deep Tech Fund, Inventures, Launchub Ventures, Movens Capital, PortfoLion Capital Partners, Practica Capital, Tera Ventures, Baltic Sandbox Ventures, CofounderZone, KAYA VC, Sunfish Partners, Techstars, ZAS Ventures, Coinvest Capital, DEPO Ventures, DOMiNO Ventures, Inovo VC, J&T Ventures, N1 Fund, Reflex Capital, Startup Wise Guys, Taiwania Capital.
• Enterprise Software, AI, fintech, healthcare, energy, SaaS, cloud are among the most popular industries for VC investments.

New VC funds from CEE in Q1 2024:

• OTB Ventures raised its second deeptech fund, amounting to $185 million, targeting Series A investments, with a small portion (up to 10%) designated for seed investments.
• Lithuanian-based Practica Capital finalized its third fund at €80 million, focusing on seed-stage tech startups in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This fund provides initial investments up to €3 million and can offer additional support up to €8 million.
• SMOK Ventures from Poland secured its second fund, valued at $25 million, aiming to support approximately 35 pre-seed and seed-stage startups across Central and Eastern Europe, including regional founders operating abroad. Investment amounts from this fund typically range from $100,000 to $1 million.
• Romanian GapMinder launched GapMinder Fund II, an €80 million venture capital fund. This new fund is dedicated to investing in seed and late-seed stage tech companies in Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Bulgaria.

You can also read the highlights of the CEE market report of 2023 prepared by the Vestbee team:

About ExpressionEdits

• Founded in 2021 by Dr Kärt Tomberg, Professor Allan Bradley, Dr Leopold Parts, and Dr Liliana Antunes, based on research from the University of Cambridge, ExpressionEdits is a biotechnology company dedicated to enhancing protein expression using advanced AI and proprietary intron technology.

• ExpressionEdits aims to advance genetic medicine through its intronization technology revolutionizes gene design by mimicking the natural genetic landscape. By strategically incorporating multiple short noncoding DNA sequences known as introns into artificial genes, ExpressionEdits has achieved enhancements in gene expression which leads to better protein production.

At ExpressionEdits, we’re revolutionizing gene expression by putting introns back where they belong, resulting in significant improvements in production. Our platform empowers precise decisions on which introns to use, where to place them, and how many, unlocking unprecedented levels of protein expression,

Dr. Kärt Tomberg, CEO & co-founder of ExpressionEdits, said.

Investment details

• Octopus Ventures is one of the lead investors during the round. It is one of the largest and most active venture capital investors in the UK and Europe, having invested in more than 180 businesses to date.
• redalpine also co-led the round. It is a Swiss venture capital firm with over €1 billion in assets under management.
• Other participants in the round are: BlueYard Capital, Wilbe Capital, Acequia Capital, Amino Collective, and Hawktail.

The funding will accelerate candidate selection for preclinical studies and develop a pipeline of protein-based therapeutics. The primary focus for the pipeline will be recombinant proteins.

About SensusQ

• Founded by Marko Kaseleht and Villiko Nurmoja, SensusQ is a defence technology company that can synthesize a large amount of different data and sources into comprehensive information. The solution aims to make information exchange in military units faster and reduce the failure of intelligence cycles.
• Currently, the startup focuses on the defense industry but plans to expand to other sectors dealing with large amounts of data daily, such as compliance, fraud, risk management, and security. SensusQ also aims to become a leading global IMS provider, participating in at least three major Estonian Defence League trainings annually.

Details of the investment

• New North Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on dual-use technology that can solve national security and commercial market problems from Manchester led the current round. This marks the first investment in dual-use technology for New North Ventures. Several angel investors also joined it.

The deployment of SensusQ technology in Ukraine has resulted in an increased demand for our intelligence system in allied countries, delivering to which we will be focusing on in the upcoming year. The knowledge and assistance provided by New North Ventures will undoubtedly aid us in fulfilling the increasing demand more efficiently,

Marko Kaseleht, CEO of SensusQ, said in a comment to Tech.eu.

• The fresh funding round will help SensusQ to grow its workforce and satisfy increasing market demand, while gaining access to the expertise, strategic guidance, and global network provided by its new partners.

This is the second investment for SensusQ this year. In February, the company secured an undisclosed amount of investment from Specialist VC, an Estonian venture capital firm known for backing successful ventures like Bolt, Starship, Veriff, and Salv.

• The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Martins Vaivars and Arturs Prieditis in 2023. It develops an AI-based solution allowing users to track their competitors. Every week users receive an update with the most important competitor insights, including changes in pricing, product changes, new hires, regulatory issues, clients, suppliers, tech stack, regulatory challenges, media mentions, and corporate filings.
• Currently, RivalSense uses over 80 sources for their weekly updates, including competitor websites, social media accounts, financial filings, and business databases.

Ask any founder, and they will say that properly following competition is a big pain and they would prefer not to do it all. But doing it is indispensable, since it helps with product direction, sales and hiring. We are creating a simple, appealing, self-service SaaS product out of a complex, expensive, enterprise-focused product category. Founders and executives can now be up to date with everything in their space while spending less than 5 minutes per week,

Martins Vaivars CEO, co-founder at RivalSense, commented on its product.

• The fresh funding round was led by the Tallinn-based Change Ventures that invests in founders from Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania, and the Baltic diaspora around the globe. Its investments range between €100,000 and €500,000 in pre-seed stage technology startups.
• The Budapest-based VC fund Fiedler Capital and local business angels also participated in the financing.

RivalSense plans to use new investment funds to expand its clients’ base and and introduce additional AI capabilities to uncover competitor insights.

About Helmes Group

• Helmes was founded 33 years ago. Now it specializes in custom software development and consulting, offering tailor-made services in strategy, service design, system integration, software, and mobile app development. In 2023, its turnover exceeded €100 million, the company employs approximately 1,400 people.
• Among its clients are international organisations such as Airbus, Telia, Kühne+Nagel, CERN, the European Space Agency, OECD. Helmes development centers are located in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, its support offices are in Switzerland, India, Nigeria, USA, and Uruguay.

Trinidad Wiseman acquisition details

• Trinidad Wiseman provides consulting, design services, and software development. The company also claims that its actions are guided by three core values: human-centeredness, professionalism, and autonomy.
• In 2023 its turnover reached €16.9 million, additionally, the company employs more than 130 people. Company’s clients include Elisa, SEB Pank, City24, Telia, ERGO, Tallink, SK ID Solutions, Alexela, Tele2 and various Estonian public sector and European Union institutions.  

We are very happy that Trinidad Wiseman, a recognised leader in the field, decided to join Helmes. It will be a strong partnership for growth in foreign markets. TWN is a successful company with a similar work culture to Helmes and carries the same values as us. Helmes’ clients are enterprises, who expect versatile, top-quality services. In cooperation with TWN, we will become even more competitive internationally in the field of service design, data analytics and AI,

Helmes’ partner and member of the management board Andres Kaljo, commented.

• The current deal will strengthen the companies’ competitiveness in international markets and expand their range of services. TWN will continue to operate as an independent company under its own name with existing management.

The companies also added that the transaction needs the approval of the Estonian Competition Authority to be completed, the process has started. The transaction was advised by Redgate Capital, Sorainen Law, Cobalt and PwC.

• The value of IT exports of Ukraine decreased by $20 million (approximately 3%) compared to March 2024 ($565 million), but this is $27 million more than what was exported in February ($518 million). The lowest figure remained in January — $508 million.
• The export of IT services accounted for more than 38.3% of total exports from Ukraine in April 2024 — $1,423 million.
• In general, in the first four months of 2024, the volume of export of IT services from Ukraine reached $2 billion 136 million. For the same period in 2023, it amounted to $2 billion 214 million.

The main partner countries of Ukraine remain being the USA, Great Britain, Malta, Cyprus, and Israel.

In addition, the export of Ukrainian IT services in 2023 amounted to $6.7 billion, which is 8.4% less than in 2022, when it reached a record $7.3 billion.

About CARÁ Health

• CARÁ Health was founded by pediatric nurse CEO Anna Strubel alongside serial entrepreneurs Carina Vantsi and Keiro Vantsi in 2022. It is an all-encompassing health and wellness platform that provides women with support and guidance throughout the maternity journey, from pregnancy to postpartum
• The founding team is supported by a medical board that includes family physician Dr Anna Melan and gynaecologist Dr Liina Rajasalu, alongside an office staff of 10 and 30 on-hand maternity and women’s health specialists. Currently, the startup now counts one in every two pregnant women in Estonia using the CARÁ app and has supported over 1,000 pregnancies in Estonia to date.

As a mother myself, I know firsthand some of the situations women find themselves in during the maternity process. They’re very personal, and a lot of these stories don’t get out. Still, a lot can be done during the preparation for the birth, and this is what we’re offering with our ‘whole woman’ approach during the pregnancy period. This can also prepare women for the postpartum period,

Carina Vantsi, CARÁ Health Co-Founder, comments.

• Alongside a comprehensive app, CARÁ Health also features physical locations in Tallinn, Tartu, and Berlin. The company’s Estonian spaces are staffed by a team of six with 25 maternity specialists on hand, while the Berlin location is staffed by a team of three supported by 10 specialists.

Investment details

• Tera Ventures is the lead investor in the round. It is a Tallinn, Helsinki, and LA-based venture capital firm, investing in seed-stage startups from the Baltics, Scandinavia, and CEE out of the €45 million 2nd Fund.

We were already impressed by CARÁ Health’s traction in its home market of Estonia, and as a relatively recent parent, I saw a huge opportunity in what they were building, and the feedback we had from their customers and users made the stars align and made the investment decision easy,

Eamonn Carey, Partner, Tera Ventures, says.

• The round also participation from Startup Istanbul founder Burak Büyükdemir via StartupIst Ventures. It bring the startups’ total funds raised to date to €750,000.

The investment will assist CARÁ Health in further developing its product and technology offer and expanding and growing in the DACH region.

Read more about the lead investor Tera Ventures in our interview with the fund’s Founding Partner, Andrus Oks, below:

• Founded in 2023, Esgrid provides value chain sustainability management solutions for medium-sized enterprises and financial institutions. The company has developed a platform that helps businesses assess, manage, and improve their value chain sustainability impact, ensuring compliance with ESG standards. 
• Esgrid launched publicly in December and won a €150,000 syndicate investment award from EstBAN at sTARTUp Day in January 2024. The company is targeting the medium size enterprise market, a business subset who are most likely to be impacted by the costs of their value chain sustainability management.

We are probably one of the first who are trying to utilise AI in sustainability fields. We offer full AI-supported assistance for value chain companies. We are also preparing to launch our first enterprise AI assistant for enterprise customers that helps get actionable information from collected ESG data,

Oksana Tolmatšova, CEO and co-founder, said.

• Recently, Esgrid launched a free tool for SMEs, the ESG self-assessment. It helps any company, to receive an ESG health report on their progress, data sharing with partners on the Esgrid platform, support and guidance at every step of the assessment. Now, over 100 companies uses ESG data on the platform.
• The pre-seed round’s investors are Lemonade Stand, an early stage tech VC firm in the Baltic and East European founders, Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN), Lithuanian Startup Wise Guys, and the Tallinn-based angel group Little Green Fund.
• Several angel investors, including Alvar Lumberg, Kairi Pauskar, Kair Käsper, and Martin Kõiva, also participated in the funding.

With the new funding, Esgrid will continue to build accessible value chain sustainability management tools.

About Beholder

• Founded in 2021 by Ukrainians Andriy Sevryukov, Serhii Lubkin, and Daniil Lubkin, Beholder develops an AI-based Remote Sensing Platform for critical minerals and energy resources exploration. It utilizes machine learning to process data from satellites to make predictions on mineral deposits at the same time thanks to remote sensing technology.

It was a huge honor for me to get our startup to the final. We beat more than 300 teams and 4 stages of selection. Andriy Sevriukov made a great final performance, which allowed us to win. Part of our team, including me, is based in Ukraine. And despite this, we are developing and building our company. This victory shows that the Ukrainian startup ecosystem has a huge potential,

Beholder, Daniil Lubkin co-founder, said.

Details about the winning prize and participation process:

The startup won the top prize, raising €600,000 of seed funding from startup pitching and committees. The total amount received during the event, including the prize money, totaled €1.5 million.

Apart from the prize capital, the startup also received additional awards, including €15,000 for legal services from Fondia legal, €5,000 from Google Cloud Credits, and €500 for PR support from PRnews.io.

The participation of the Ukrainian delegation was organized by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Startup Fund and Techosystem partnered with the European consortium Seeds of Bravery and Lift99.

About Latitude59

Latitude59 is Estonia’s annual tech and startup conference that was held on May 22-24 in Tallinn. This year, the pitch competition is organized by the Estonian Business Angel Network EstBAN and the investment fund Specialist VC.

About Telema

• Telema is an EDI and e-invoicing operator in the Baltics, offering IT solutions for automated data flow in the supply chain. Telema transfers, converts, monitors and processes electronic trade documents such as orders, invoices, delivery notes and other commercial documents.
• Over 5500 shops and 1500 suppliers from the Baltic States, but also from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Australia, altogether from 68 countries, use Telema EDI network. Annually more than 25 million documents are exchanged. Now, Telema has more than 30 employees across offices in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius.

Livonia Partners leads the fresh round

• Livonia Partners is a pan-Baltic private equity investment firm. In September 2022, Livonia Partners raised €157 million for its Fund II. Livonia team works across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

• Among its recent investments in Estonia include Stebby, the largest pan-Baltic employee wellness benefit platform, Bestair, a heat pump and green home climate solutions provider, and Wildix, an unified communication solutions provider. The fund’s LPs are Baltic and Nordic pension funds, including Swedbank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Fund (EIF), and others.

Having an institutional shareholder on board brings us a wealth of knowledge and best practices that will make us even stronger. With Livonia Partners by our side, we are poised to leverage their strategic insights and financial support to accelerate our expansion plans and enhance our offerings even further. This partnership not only underpins our commitment to delivering superior customer experience but also reinforces our market leadership in the Baltics,

Hele Hammer, founder and CEO of Telema, commented.

The transaction is pending Estonian Competition Council approval and is anticipated to conclude in June 2024. Unfortunately, the exact amount of the deal is undisclosed. However, according to Pitchbook, all the previous investments in Telema amount to around $157 million.

About Nanordica Medical

• Nanordica Medical is a spin-off of the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (Estonia). The company was founded in 2019 by scientists Olesja Bondarenko PhD, Anna-Liisa Kubo PhD, Dr. Grigory Vasiliev PhD, and joined by business co-founder Meelis Kadaja, PhD, MBA in 2023. Its first product is an antibacterial wound dressing to address the issue of chronic wound healing.
• Nanordica Medical is a member of the Tehnopol HealthTech Community. Additionally, in February 2023, the startup raised a €375,000 in a seed round led by Erki Mölder, Heidi Kakko, and Martin Goroško.

We achieved a crucial milestone by demonstrating the safety and efficacy of our advanced wound dressing in patients with the most challenging wounds, diabetic foot ulcers. Our next goal is to get the product to the market and in the hands of patients,

co-founder and CEO of Nanordica Medical Olesja Bondarenko, stated.

• The Tallinn-based fund Specialist VC led the current round. It is known for backing successful ventures like Bolt, Starship, Veriff, and Salv. In February 2024, it led the investment for the Estonian defense tech startup SensusQ.

• Estonian Superangel, an early stage investment fund and company builder, and Amalfi also participated on the investment.

The funds will be used for finalizing regulatory approval, conducting a multicenter clinical trial, and bringing to the market Nanordica Medical’s first wound care product, advanced antibacterial wound dressing, to treat severe wounds.

In the next step, Nanordica Medical’s team plans to convey a study population involving 170 patients with diabetic foot ulcers is planned to start in Q2 2024. Nanordica Medical’s first product for veterinary use Ravimus Vet was launched in 2023, and the human product is planned to launch in 2025.

In the Startup of the Day column, Frank Sondors, founder of Salesforge, shares the details about the startup’s idea, its product, and future plans.

The Startup of the Day column on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originate from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

Salesforge is an AI copilot in sales execution with a vision to make sales organizations leaner & meaner.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

I was a the SVP Sales for Whatagraph leading a sales team of 50 and I realized the only way to attain the sales target was by hiring more reps, which I thought was wrong. The software market was broken, which optimized for more bums on seats. This is exactly the reason why we’re building Salesforge.

How long did it take to reach the prototype or MVP? What did you encounter?

It took us 2 months to build the MVP and another 2 months to build a BETA product.

When exactly did you launch your product? Or when the launch is planned?

We launched the product in June 2023.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We monetize Salesforge and Mailforge via consumption based pricing where you assemble your plan based on the planned consumption across multiple line items whether it’s capacity, AI credits, mailboxes etc.

What are your target markets and consumers?

US market targeting pre-seed, seed, series A stage companies and also lead generation agencies.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated.

We received almost a $1 million ARR in 9 months with a team of four.

What about your team? How many people are working in the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We’re expanding the team rapidly right now. In the last weeks we’ve hired amazing individuals and are a team of 10 people right now. Our hiring for A players is evergreen and are currently focused on Go Engineers, Product Designer and Account Executives

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

Recently, our team raised a $500K,000 in a pre-seed round together with Bad Ideas Fund of 50 angels, Fiedler Capital, Spring Capital and Super Angel Maciej Zawadzinski in order to release AI agents by Q4’24.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

The future for Salesforge is to build the next Pipedrive in the sales execution category with multiple forges and autonomous sales execution capabilities.

• VOOL was founded in 2018 by Juhan Härm, Sander Vahtras, and Hindrik Kilter. The startup develops a full EV charging system. According to the startup, VOOL’s software enables cost-effective charging based on power market pricing, making the move to electric vehicles simple and affordable for businesses and individuals.
• Headquartered in Tallinn, VOOL operates with a team of 44 members and supports customers across the Baltic countries as well as Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In 2023, the startup secured €2.9 million in a funding round led by Specialist VC.

Investment details

• The fresh round was led by the Estonian energy firm Alexela, which develops a sustainable network of service stations through the creation of biomethane, LNG, electricity and, in the near future, hydrogen filling up facilities. The company launched an LNG terminal in Hamina (Oct 2022), Finland, and develops a renewable energy hydropower storage facility called Energiasalv in Paldiski. Furthermore, the energy company has 40 convenience stores.

Alexela joins VOOL as an investor and starts offering VOOL chargers, load management devices, and software as part of their turn-key solution to both business and private customers,

VOOL commented on the investment.

VOOL plans to accelerate its development to accommodate the estimated 80,000 electric vehicles expected on Estonian roads by 2030. 

• Founded in 2013 by Markus Villig in Tallinn, Bolt is a mobility company, providing ride-hailing, food delivery and scooter rentals, including:
  • Bolt Rides
  • Bolt Scooters and E-bikes
  • Bolt Food, delivers ready-made meals from restaurants
  • Bolt Market, a grocery delivery service
  • Bolt Drive, free-floating car-sharing service
  • Bolt Business, a corporate mobility service
• The company operates in more than 45 countries, primarily in Europe and Africa. Bolt is Estonia’s fourth tech unicorn. In January 2022, the company raised $709 million during its Series F round. In October 2023, Siena Secondary Fund announced a follow-up investment in Bolt. At that moment, its valuation reached almost $8.4 billion.

The facility, initially met with robust demand, was substantially upsized during syndication and ultimately oversubscribed. It was provided by a consortium of relationship banks, including Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, LHV Pank, and Luminor.

Our inaugural revolving credit facility is an important milestone for Bolt, demonstrating the company’s strength and financial maturity. We have secured highly attractive terms due to our solid financial standing. It is a clear reflection of our banking partners’ confidence in our trajectory and provides us with additional flexibility as we work towards being IPO-ready,

Markus Villig, founder & CEO of Bolt, said.

This financing will bolster Bolt’s cash position and fortifies its liquidity profile, positioning the company for sustained growth and strategic initiatives.

What is Stargate Hydrogen?

• Stargate Hydrogen is a startup developing green hydrogen solutions. Instead of precious metals, Stargate uses a ceramic-based catalyst material, allowing to deacresed the cost of green hydrogen to €1 per kilogram. Additionally, Stargate has developed its proprietary stack and system design, using a development approach that considers electrolyser as a battery system.

• Stargate is also recognized as an IPCEI project and to be part of the hydrogen technology wave that includes companies such as Enel Green Power, De Nora, Sunfire and others. The core of Stargate’s IPCEI is complementing and robust alkaline technology with a new form of catalyst material that is inherently more active compared to alternatives available on the market today.
• The IP portfolio of Stargate covers all the levels of the system, including materials, electrodes, stack and even control systems of the whole plant. Among its clients are Utilitas, one of the largest renewable energy developers in the Baltic Sea region.

The investment details:

• The financing round is led by a Tallinn-based VC fund UG Investments, focusing on sustainable businesses in the energy, industrial, infrastructure and utility sectors. Stargate is alo received a grant financing from IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) framework for hydrogen technologies but also includes other investors and grants.

• With the fresh investment, Stargate Hydrogen is thrilled to announce the appointment of Mr. Taavi Madiberk, Skeleton founder, as a non-executive Chairman.

When I first met with the CTO, Dr. Rainer Küngas, I immediately realized that his approach to developing electrolysers is completely different and could be a game-changer on the market. The management team of Stargate has made exceptional progress over the past years and there are already large corporations using their technology. I have been supporting Stargate from the beginning, but I look forward to working with the team even closer now,

Taavi Madiberk commented on his appointment.

The fresh investment will help Stargate remains committed to decarbonising the industry by enabling the switch from grey to green hydrogen.

About the Growth Ukraine program

• The four-month acceleration initiative was designed for Ukrainian scaleups to amplify their business footprint in Europe and globally. The selected startups went through an elaborate program that included business diagnostics, intensive sprint weeks focused on performance, market engineering and product design, and guidance from coaching and mentoring.
• On April 16, the programme’s official graduation event took place at the Google for Startups Campus in Warsaw, where the startups presented their achievements. The event attracted 200 investors and founders from different countries. The stage also featured 15 international speakers and panelists, including Sharon S. N. Wu, Dan Meshulam, and Michał Kramarz.

This initiative has once again shown the resilience of Ukraine’s tech sector and its vital role in the country’s post-war recovery and reconstruction. We are very proud to assist talented Ukrainian entrepreneurs in unlocking new business opportunities, and we wish them success. We are grateful for the support of TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund, which has long aided our efforts to foster growth through innovation and private sector development across the EBRD region,

Alex Pivovarsky, Director of Capital and Financial Markets Development at EBRD, commented.

Winners of the program

12 chosen scaleups are mostly based in Ukraine, generate over €550,000 in monthly revenue, and have raised more than €2 million in funding. Among them are:

• InVisionary Box, a SaaS solution offering AR-based gamified experiences to boost offline customer engagement. InVisionaryBox is a solution for customer engagement and brand awareness.
• KYCaid, a startup developing automated document processing, data extraction, and validation based on internal computer vision algorithms and AI for document segmentation.
• PLATMA, a platform that helps SMBs pass IT developers and automate business processes without IT skills.
• Revisior, а feedback and NPS service that allows to collect feedback, process and analyze the level of service from each point of contact with clients, as well as to propose solutions to problems.
• Spendbase, a platform for companies to optimize SaaS, cloud, and corporate card spending.
• xTiles, the startup developing an all-in-one platform to help creators gather and process information in one place in a visual way.
• BannerBoo, a tool to build ads for ad platforms and social media without coding.
• BazaIT, an IT recruitment platform. It provides vacancies in IT companies, clear feedback, and a supportive community.
• Effy AI, an AI-powered employee performance review and 360 feedback tool for teams and SMBs.
• IntelSwift, a limitless no-code AI integration for businesses, including predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, data insights, and AI chatbots.
• Knopka, an advanced call system for hospitals and care homes. It notifies nurses and helps them respond immediately.
• Tur.ai, a tool to power business processes with AI Automation, tailored to organization’s context.

About Startup Wise Guys

Startup Wise Guys is one of the most active accelerator funds in Europe and Africa, with a portfolio of over 400 early-stage startups in B2B SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity, XR, sustainability, and other verticals. Since founding in 2012, has 15 exits from its investment portfolio. The firm is headquartered in Tallinn.

• 10Lines was founded in 2019 by Tarmo Prints and Janno Paas. The startup develops technology for pavement marking that will allow operators to replace the existing manual process with an automated solution.
• The company claims its robots and software can complete line markings seven times faster than current processes, cutting out exhaustive measuring and pre-marking and significantly reducing the requirement for human oversight.

• The round was co-led jointly by Tera Ventures, an Estonian venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups, and Karista, a Paris-based early-stage venture capital firm created in 2001 investing in Health, Digital, Tech, and NewSpace.
• Butterfly Ventures, a seed-entry deep tech VC in the Nordics with offices in Oulu, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, and Copenhagen, and the Ukrainian investor Mike Oliinyk, ex-Uber,  Wise, and Wolt, also joined the fresh round.

The 10Lines team is creating its own product category with an ingenious application of AI and Robotics to automate line marking operations. We are honored to support their vision and expand their offering to the rest of Europe and the US,

James McDougall, Venture Partner of Tera Ventures, said

10Lines has already established a presence in the US market, where the startup aims to capitalize on the growing demand for autonomous line marking solutions. The additional capital will enable 10Lines to accelerate the development of its autonomous robots and software, expand its team of top-tier engineering talent, and strengthen its market presence in the USA.

• Founded in 2012 (formerly Veebimeedia) by Olari Tõnison and Allan Tatter, Outl1ne is a software development boutique specializing in creating intelligent digital services and products. The team at Outl1ne provides an expertise in implementing language models and developing custom business software. Today, Outl1ne’s team consists of 25 people.
• Net Group is an internationally operating business and software development company with 23 years of experience. This company offers solutions that combine innovative business models with technology for enterprises and organizations. In addition to Outl1ne, the company holds stakes in Elsavie, Synerall, and Depowise.

Through this merger, a synergy between the experiences and knowledge of both companies is created, allowing Net Group to offer comprehensive business and software solutions that cater to the growing demand for advanced and forward-looking technologies. Artificial intelligence is the fastest-growing technology affecting every industry, 

Priit Kongo, CEO of Net Group, stated.

Following the merger, Net Group has 100% ownership of Outl1ne, aiming to bolster its expertise in artificial intelligence and specialize in large language models. The founders of Outl1ne, Olari Tõnison and Allan Tatter, will continue to lead the company. The deal amount was undisclosed.

• Launched in January 2023 by Daniel Grek Sanchez Castellanos, Dovydas Volodko, and Frank Sondors, Salesforge is an all-in-one sales execution app used as AI co-pilot for small and large sales teams, augmented with AI agents, and even replacing sales teams in full.
  For now, Salesforge has two products — Salesforge, that crafts emails in any language with a focus on deliverability, while Mailforge provides the necessary infrastructure with domain and mailbox management.
• Since the launch, Salesforge attracted over 800 customers across the US and EMEA growing to $1 million ARR in less than 10 months. Its team consists of four people.

We believe that the sales teams of tomorrow are going to be very lean and execution will be more programmatic, which will drive significant conversion lift across the sales funnel. Our approach combines a keen focus on multi source AI personalization with an eye for deliverability, which is underscored by a flexible, usage-based pricing model, solving the problem of bloated teams,

Frank Sondors, CEO and co-founder, commented.

• The investment round saw participation from the Latvian BADideas.fund, investing €50,000 — €250,000 tickets in early-stage startups from CEE, the Estonian Spring Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses in early-stage companies in the Nordics & CEE+, and the Hungarian VC firm Fiedler Capital, which recently joined a €1.1 million for Serbian startup Collabwriting. The private investor Maciej Zawadzinski also joined in the round.

The current funding round will fuel Salesforge’s growth to unlock new channels, enable autonomous capabilities together with CRM integrations.

• SmartCap is a small fund management company, a subsidiary of the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (after the merger of Foundation KredEx and Enterprise Estonia), registered with the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority and managing the SmartCap Venture Capital Fund and SmartCap Green Fund.
• SmartCap Green Fund was advised by Ellex Partner Antti Perli and Counsel Gerd Laub. One of its latest investment deals was the €4 million round for the Estonian producer of sustainable carbon nano-materials UP Catalyst.

Details about SmartCap Green Fund Direct Investment Program and new changes

• The Green Fund Direct Investment Program aims to support early-stage startups that develop green technologies, operating energy, agriculture, food industry, transport and logistics, material and chemical industry, and environment. The companies must be established in Estonia and conduct business activities there.
• Through SmartCap’s Green Fund, the volume of which is 100 million, it is planned to offer equity investments together with private investors until 2026. 
• After changes, the Green Fund’s investment in one startup will now range from €500,000 to €5 million. The Green Fund is also ready to invest in later stages, including Series C funding rounds, where companies are in an active expansion phase and need capital to accelerate growth.

The purpose of the changes is to ensure better access to capital for green technology companies that have already passed the first rounds of financing and to provide the next push to further develop their product or services and enter new markets,

Ellex Partner Antti Perli, commented.

As before, the following principle will continue to apply. The Fund invests in companies together with private investors, and private money must account for at least half of this funding round. At the same time, at least 30% must be new private capital for the company.

• Founded in 2001 by current CEO Enn Õunpuu, Elcogen is a manufacturer of clean energy technology that delivers a green hydrogen and emission-free electricity. Elcogen has its registered office in the UK and manufacturing facilities in Estonia and Finland that have served 160 customers in 30 countries.

• Elcogen’s solid oxide technology offers solutions for converting fuel sources into emission-free energy and green hydrogen. It also includes solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrolyser cell (SOEC) technology.

• The fresh capital injection is a combination of the equity investment from UK’s Hydrogen One Capital Growth plc, HD Hyundai, and Mirae, as well as project grants from the European Commission, including an IPCEI project, totaling more than €24 million.
• In addition, the company has secured a proposed debt of €15 million. The US-based energy tech company that has 55,000 empoyees, Baker Hughes also participated in the round. Following this investment, Baker Hughes and Elcogen plans to collaborate on green hydrogen production solutions based on Elcogen’s solid oxide electrolyser cell (“SOEC”) technology.

We are delighted to welcome Baker Hughes as a strategic shareholder. I believe this is a significant vote of confidence in our technology from a leading energy technology company. We look forward to building on this relationship as we continue working together,

Chris Nash, Chairman of Elcogen, said.

The investment round will help the company with continuous development, enabling Elcogen to expand its manufacturing capacity as it continues to build its new factory facility in Tallinn, with a capacity of up to 360MW.

• Founded by tech entrepreneurs Priit Haamer and Marko Klopets in 2021, Supersimple develops an AI-native data analytics platform that combines a semantic data modeling layer and explainable AI. The startup claims it can give users reliable, consistent data to power their day-to-day work. Supersimple was designed specifically for teams at B2B SaaS companies.
• Currently, its team includes software developers, data scientists, and product designers. Earlier, the co-founder and CTO Priit Haamer co-founded Sixfold where co-founder and CEO Marko Klopets also worked.

We aren’t building a data tool. We aren’t building a BI or product analytics tool. We’re building something to give knowledge workers the right context they need to do a great job at building great companies. And we’re only getting started,

Marko Klopets, co-founder and CEO of Supersimple, said.

• The round is led by Tera Ventures, an international investment firm based in Tallinn, Helsinki, LA-based VC investing in exceptional founders from Baltics, Scandinavia, and CEE. Founded in 2016, Tera Ventures is currently investing our of its €45 million 2nd Fund. 
• Specialist VC, an Estonian venture capital firm known for backing successful ventures like Bolt, Starship, Veriff, Salv, SensusQ, also participated in the round along with Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, and several angels as Ott Kaukver, Alvar Lumberg, Märt Kelder, Indrek Kasela.

Supersimple will utilize the fresh capital to accelerate customer growth for its business intelligence platform and advance the position of art in explainable AI.

• Co-founded by two Estonians Kaarel Roben and Matt Clannachan, Finn Sami Nieminen, and Ukrainian Svyat Polishchuk in 2022, Flowstep provides a UX library, consisting of recordings and screenshots of top applications such as Airbnb, Klarna, and Spotify. The company claims its solution helps users analyze these applications and design their own products faster.

Any creative process starts with imagination. The difficult part is turning it into something material. To achieve that today, designers have to adapt to the tools at their disposal, rather than the tools adapting to them. This creates incredible friction in the product design process. We’re building something radically better and more advanced than anything seen before. And we can’t wait to share it with the world,

Matt Clannachan, CEO and co-founder of Flowstep, commented on the previous round.

• Among the company’s users are Meta, Nubank, Paramount+, Spotify, and DoorDash. In May 2023, Flowstep was awarded with €600,000 under the Pitch Competition 2023. Additionally, in November 2023, the startup closed a pre-seed round at €755,000 led by Tera Ventures.

• The current grant was provided by Enterprise Estonia, an organization with a purpose to promote business development throughout the country by contributing to innovation, internationalization and profiling. It was founded in 2000, its foreign representative offices are located in Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Kyiv, Astana, Dubai, New Delhi, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, and New York City.

The startup will apply the fresh grant capital for “turbocharging” its AI and Design research efforts, as well as for team expansion.

• The startup was founded in 2019 by Alain Aun and Maiko Saluorg. Rendin aims to connects and protects landlords and tenants, saving everybody’s time and money by combining technology, insurance, real estate agency, and law firms. Currently, the team consists of 20 people with the company being active in the Estonian and Polish markets.
• In total, Rendin has raised €4.2 million in investments since the end of 2020. Previous investors include Iron Wolf Capital, Truesight Ventures, Zaka VC, and several other funds and angel investors. Up to 600 rental contracts are signed on its platform every month.

Involving customers in the investment is the only right choice. Landlords who use us have always asked how they can be a part of our success story. Thanks to Startup Wise Guys, we found such an opportunity, and landlords are still welcome to join during March if they wish,

Alain Aun, CEO and co-founder of Rendin, comments.

• The lead investor of the transaction is Tera Ventures, a Tallinn, Helsinki, and LA-based venture capital firm, investing in founders from the Baltics, Scandinavia, and CEE. Nearly a hundred Rendin landlords also participated in the investment through the Startup Wise Guys fund.

With the fresh investment, Rendin plans to become a pan-European platform for safe renting. The company is also preparing to involve additional investments in the near future to expand to the following markets and secure its market position in Estonia and Poland.

• Founded in 2021, Crypto Rogue Games is a game development studio focusing on developing Web3 gaming experiences. The studio is currently working on the development of its next title Crystals of Naramunz, an action-packed hack‘n’slash RPG set in a post-apocalyptic steampunk universe.
• Crystals of Naramunz (CoN) is a free-to-play experience set in a world centuries after a global disaster known as “The Nexus.” Players take on the role of different heroes and explore a world filled with ruins, dungeons, and powerful relics. The Closed Beta version will launch in June this year.

At Merit Circle Investments, we live and breathe quality gameplay. Crystals of Naramunz scored very high in our internal extensive playtests. The founders’ extensive experience in the realm of action role-playing games, coupled with their skills in crafting captivating gaming economies, perfectly matches the best use cases of blockchain gaming. We’re thrilled to be part of their adventure and can’t wait to see them reach millions of players,

Steven Bryson-Haynes, Head of Investment & Partnership in Merit Circle, comments.

• Merit Circle, a decentralized autonomous gaming organization (Gaming DAO), and Avalanche, a Singapore-based company that provides smart contracts platform for Web3 developers, backed the current round. 
• Other prominent investors such as SNZ, Coinfund, Lyrik Ventures, Devmons, and Bryan Pellegrino, CEO and co-founder of Layer Zero, also participated.

Crypto Rogue plans to use the fresh capital to expedite the game development process and establish the studio as a leader in blockchain technology within the gaming industry.

• Founded in 2021 by Ukrainians Andriy Sevryukov, Serhii Lubkin, and Daniil Lubkin, Beholder develops an AI-based Remote Sensing Platform for critical minerals and energy resources exploration. It utilizes machine learning to process data from satellites to make predictions on mineral deposits at the same time thanks to remote sensing technology.

• The startup claims its tech stack allows to map minerals which are critical to green energy transition , rare earth elements, conventional and non conventional energy resources, verify geological prospects and automate sustainability reporting. It also assists with green mining practices through providing data on environmental impact and insights.
• Currently, the startup has offices in Midlletown and Tallinn. The startup’s clients include mining companies Filo Mining, GrupoHunosa, Petroteq Energy, etc.

The Rockstart Energy Program aligns perfectly with our focus on the energy transition. With our advanced technology, we aid miners to deliver critical minerals for batteries, motors, and generators which are vital to get to net 0 goals by 2050. Rockstart provides support with networking, scale strategy, outreach, and great mentorship and guidance,

Andriy Sevryukov, CEO at Beholder, adds.

• The round was led by the European InnoEnergy fund. Rockstart, an Amsterdam-based early stage investor, and STRT Ventures, a global early-stage VC investor in B2B startups in the financial services sector were the co-investors.

Beholder will use the funds to scale the business, enter foreign markets, and develop two versions of the product for B2C and B2B. In 2024, the startup plans to increase the company’s capitalization to $20-30 million and sign contracts with 20 new clients.

About Gscan

• Founded in 2018, GScan provides muon tomography or muography, a technique that uses cosmic ray muons (μ) to generate two or three-dimensional images of volumes using information contained in the Coulomb scattering of the muons. In simple words, GScan’s technology allows to “see inside” objects made of concrete, steel, and composite materials, even if these objects are tens of meters large.
• Currently, GScan works on a maiden project with the UK National Highways, AtkinsRealis, and Jacobs, assessing the integrity of steel components inside a post-tensioned concrete bridge. In partnerships with academic institutions – including Imperial College London, the University of Sheffield, CERN, and the European Space Agency – GScan explores further applications of the technology in areas such as defense, national security, healthcare, and space.

• The company employs over 35 staff members. According to GScan, in its first major commercial project, it scanned through 10 meters of concrete and steel for details of two Soviet-era nuclear submarine reactors in Paldiski, Estonia.

We have also launched the SilentBorder initiative to use myon tomography in finding for example narcotics and other contraband inside shipping containers without manual inspection. The advantage of myon tomography over x-rays is also that there is no harmful radiation,

Marek Helm, CEO of Gscan, said.

• The fresh investment was co-led by Bolt-founder Markus Villig, undisclosed Japanese corporate venture funds, as well as several business angels.

GScan will use the seed funding to advance the technology in order to enhance the performance of its cosmic ray muon tomography.

• Latitude59 is Estonia’s biggest annual tech and startup conference that will be held on May 22-24 in Tallinn. In 2023, it is expected to welcome nearly 3,000 attendees, including 800 startup representatives and 500 investors from around the world.
• In 2024, the pitch competition is organized by the Estonian Business Angel Network EstBAN and the investment fund Specialist VC, which has set a goal to attract new entrepreneurs from Ukraine.
• Applications for the Latitude59 Pitch Competition are accepted until April 1, on the conference’s website.

Latitude59 is no longer just a conference – our pitching competitions have demonstrated a tight sieve and very successful startups. EstBAN and Specialist VC can be sure that they will find someone to bet on,

Liisi Org, the CEO of Latitude59, commented.

About the Latitude59 pitching process

Before the Pitch Competition, a pre-selection will be made from among all applicants, and the 40 strongest will participate in the public pre-finals already at the beginning of May, after which 10 startups will proceed to the next round.

Working behind the scenes with the investors and mentors, the top five startups will reach the finals, taking place on May 24 on the main stage of Latitude59 2024, where the investment recipients and community award winners will also be announced.

• Beast is a sustainable mobility startup founded in Tallinn in 2020 by Anna-Maria Mikaberidze and Micha Mazaheri. The company provides a renting of electric Tesla cars on a per-minute billing model as well as the option to rent a vehicle on a subscription basis or order it for a specific time with delivery to a designated location.

• The company also claims it equally focuses on users interested in long-term use of the vehicle, proposing simplified rental procedures – without the need for filling out paperwork or meetings, with the car ready for pickup at a designated location, opened using a mobile app, and without additional charges for international travel.
• Since the launch, Beast states that its customers have traveled nearly four million kilometers, which has allowed for a reduction of CO2 emissions by an impressive 464 tons compared to driving traditional combustion vehicles.

The creation of Beast was preceded by extensive market research and consumer needs analysis. Our goal is to provide a premium rental service which is accessible 24/7 thanks to a fully automated and fun mobile app that’s helping customers access a more comfortable and environmentally conscious travel experience. This way, our customers traveling for tourism or business can ensure a car waiting for them on-site with just a few clicks in our app,

Anna-Maria Mikaberidze, CEO of Beast Rent, commented.

• According to Crunchbase, the startup managed to secure close to €5 million of total investment through two seed deals: €1.5 million in 2021 and €3.3 million in 2023.

Currently, Beast is already present in 7 European countries, and plans to expand its operations into European markets. Additionaly, the company is set to offer a new, even more convenient and eco-friendly way of using shared vehicles.

• CognitiweAI specializes in AI solutions for visual analysis. Its product, Wefresh, targets the retail industry by offering a solution designed to enhance retail operations. Utilizing artificial intelligence and image processing technology, Wefresh provides real-time insights and data-driven predictions, enabling retailers to optimize their business operations.
• The startup claims that its technology is effective in areas such as quality control, smart stock tracking, and ensuring product freshness. In 2022, CognitiweAI received its first investment round led by TechOne VC, with the participation of StartersHub, Startup Wise Guys, and EGIAD Angels.

Throughout our journey, while perfecting our product, we have also focused on the necessary infrastructure work to become a global player. We have signed contracts with local partners and global sales networks in many different regions of the world. As a result, we have gained significant visibility in various regions, from South America to Australia, from the Middle East to Europe. With the conclusion of our new investment round, we will focus on growth by both enhancing our team and engaging in more intensive activities to reach customers,

CognitiweAI OÜ co-founder and CEO, Attila Algan stated.

The fresh round saw participation from several venture capital firms and angels, including:

• TechOne VC, an Istanbul-based smart capital fund that invests in seed and early-stage technology startups with technology and disruptive business models;
• Eleven Ventures, a pre-seed and seed VC based in Sofia, supporting entrepreneurs in South Eastern Europe;
• Flat6Labs, an Egypt-based MEA’s seed and early stage venture capital firm, currently investing in more than 100 technology-driven startups;
• DOMiNO Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund operating worldwide from its offices in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Baku, Astana, and Tashkent;
• Caucasus, a Baku-based VC fund that invests in tech entrepreneurs from Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.

The funding will be used to establish Cognitiwe solutions on the market, to expand its solutions globally, focusing on growth through team expansion and the development of more intensive activities to reach customers.

• Founded in 2021 by Mete Bayrak and Attila Algan, Cognitiwe is on the mission to help fresh foods retailers optimize storage and distribution using AI-driven visual analysis. By using regular IP cameras, Cognitiwe’s unified vision platform provides real-time insights and predictions to improve daily operations.
• Cognitiwe currently has two pioneering products. WeShelf, which estimates the stock levels of products in real-time, and WeFresh, which determines the freshness of fruits and vegetables by analyzing factors such as color, shape, and size. According to the company, these solutions can help achieve a 40% drop in missed online orders and a 27% improvement in in-store product availability.

The grand vision for Cognitiwe revolves around redefining the retail landscape, ensuring customers never face the disappointment of encountering “out of stock” products, be it online or strolling through the aisles. More than that, they aspire to revolutionize efficiency and sustainability, minimizing food waste and ensuring every produced item reaches a willing consumer. The ultimate goal is to pave the way for a smarter, more connected, and waste-free retail world,

Eleven Ventures representatives commented.

• Eleven Ventures, a Bulgarian early-stage VC investing in technology companies in Central and Eastern Europe, was one of the main founders in the startup. One of the fund’s most recent investments was in LANGaware during €2 million round.

• The round received support from TechOne VC, an Istanbul-based early-stage VC fund, Flat6Labs, MENA region’s leading VC firm, Domino VC, a Dutch-based early-stage VC fund, and Caucasus VC, which invests in tech entrepreneurs from Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. Several undisclosed angel investors also participated.

With the fresh capital, Cognitiwe remains dedicated to extending its reach to new markets.

About Groover

• Groover was founded in 2018 in Paris by Dorian Perron, Rafael Cohen, and Romain Palmieri. The company develops a platform that connects independent artists with the best curators, radio stations, and labels seeking emerging talents.
• The platform guarantees that music curators and professionals will listen to the author’s track, respond with feedback, and share the tracks they like. Since its launch, Groover has attracted nearly 350 000 independent artists from over 180 countries, generating over 4 million personalized reviews.

Who are the investors?

• Trind Ventures is one of the lead investors in Groover. It is an Estonian seed-stage venture fund focusing on European software startups with a consumer or community component. Since the launch in 2022, the fund managed to invest in over a dozen European companies.

Romain and his passionate team are solving one of the major pain points for artists and are doing so in a very smart and scalable way. The industry is changing as seen from our three other music related companies. Groover is well positioned to continue growing into an important piece of the puzzle of the new music industry architecture. We are thankful to the Groover founders and team for allowing us to be part of the journey with them!

Taavi Lepmets, Partner at Trind Ventures, commented.

• The round was also co-lead by OneRagtime, Techmind, and MozzaAngels. Groover was also backed by historical backers, Partech, Bpifrance’s Tech & Touch fund, Verve Ventures, and Frenchfounders.

What’s next for Groover?

With the fresh capital, Groover plans to integrate two additional services to the platform, New Groover Club membership service and Groover Obsessions, as well as strengthen its position in North America, Europe, and Latin America.

• Founded in 2020 by Marko Kaseleht and Villiko Nurmoja, SensusQ is a defence technology company that can synthesize a large amount of different data and sources into comprehensive information. The solution aims to make information exchange in military units faster and reduce the failure of intelligence cycles.
• While currently focused mainly on the defense industry, SensusQ aims to provide a solution for other civilian sectors that work with large amounts of data on a daily basis soon. The company has a team of nearly 40 experts from Estonia and the UK. Its previous investors include StartUp Wise Guys and Lemonade Stand.

We are pleased that venture capital funds like Specialist VC see increasing potential in the defence sector. SensusQ’s mission is to revolutionise the world of intelligence, and a significant part of the investment will go into AI-related research development,

Marko Kaseleht, founder of SensusQ, comments.

• This is the first defense tech-focused investment for the fund. So far, Specialist VC has mainly invested in early-stage companies related to Internet technologies from its €50 million fund. The fund currently operates in both the Baltics and Finland. Their portfolio includes nearly 60 companies, including Bolt, Salv, Veriff, Cybexer, and Starship.

With the money raised, SensusQ, which has operations in Ukraine, the UK, and Estonia, plans to continue its international growth and accelerate product development.

In the new research of the Baltic states, Vestbee made an overview of the Estonian startup and VC ecosystem from 2014 to 2023. AIN.Capital shares the key notes of the report.

Estonian startup ecosystem overview

• 1400+ startups currently operate in Estonia, with a total of €36.3 billion in enterprise value.
• Estonian ecosystem has the highest number of startups per capita in the world — 1,090 startups per 1 million inhabitants.
• There are 10 unicorns in Estonia: Skype, Playtech.com, Wise, Bolt, Pipedrive, Zego, ID.me, Gelato.com, Veriff, and Glia.
• In 2023, the country registered 108 transactions, the total funding decreased to €400.05 million
• Top sectors are fintech (€196 million in turnover), business software & HR (€162 million), cybertech (€142 million), as well as consumer products & services (€83 million).

Estonia’s biggest funding rounds of 2023

• ID.me received €122.1 million in a Series D round from Scout Ventures, CapitalG, FTV Capital, Moonshots Capital, Viking Global Investors;
• Skeleton Technologies raised €54.0 million from Marubeni and Siemens;
• Hi secured €27.7 million in a early-seed stage from Animoca Brands;
• Rangeforce closed Series B with total of €18.5 million investment from KPN Ventures, Cisco Investments, Paladin Capital Group, Energy Impact Partners (EIP), and LAPA CAPITAL
• Binalyze received €17.5 million in a Series A round from Molten Ventures, Citi Ventures, Cisco Investments, OpenOcean, Deutsche Venture Capital.

Estonian VC ecosystem overview

Estonian investment landscape is full of both regional as well as foreign VC firms. Around 94% of venture capital in Estonia comes from foreign funds, the most active of them include: 

The most active local investors, angels, and accelerators are:

Newly launched regional funds are:

• In February 2023, Startup Wise Guys the first €25 million closing of its €45 million fund. The firm will back early-stage startups across B2B SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity, XR, and sustainability spaces throughout CEE, Italy, Spain, and Africa.
• In September 2022, Trind Ventures opened its second €55 million fund, which will invest in startups from Northern and Central Europe, developing B2B and C2C software solutions. 
• In June 2022, Superangel announced its new €50 million fund, planning to invest in deep tech startups in the Baltics and Nordics. Additionally, it introduced tokens to reward those contributing to the success of the portfolio startups. 
• At the beginning of 2022, Specialist VC announced a new €50 million fund to focus on pre-seed to seed startups across the Baltics and Ukraine/Finland. The core interest areas of the firm lie within B2B, SaaS, fintech, platforms, software-enabled hardware, and deeptech.