Sometimes it seems new Estonian startups pop up like mushrooms after the rain. We have compiled a list of the newest startups to watch, based mostly on usability and usefulness, rather than financial indicators. Most of these are up to six months old and not older than a year. Some, such as Lingvist and Taxify, have already raised substantial funding, some are still in beta phase and some, such as DonateIT, in pre-launch mode.
DonateIT – an app that links together blood donors and donation centres in an quick and convenient way, allowing centres to inform potential donors when their particular blood type is needed and to keep them involved throughout the year. It also tracks and shares your blood donations, how much you donated, when you can do it next time etc. The app makes blood donations socially engaging – basically you can compete with your friends on how many lives you have saved.
Jobbatical – connects skilled professionals and companies looking for their expertise in six to twelve-month stints. Jobbatical helps convert your skills into an adventure.
Wellbiome – a health app that offers scientific personalised dietary recommendations based on the microflora in person’s gut. It creates a nutrition plan based on your DNA and gut microbiome that is specific to the person. In beta phase.
Taxify – a taxi dispatch platform for taxi companies and drivers, a mobile app for clients for ordering any taxi instantly, without a hassle.
Rahu – it alerts the family in case of an accident and sends the data to its monitoring centre, which then picks out key patterns and sudden movements – enabling alerting through the Rahu app or a text message when, for example, your grandmother has not got out of the bed or when she falls.
3D Wayfinder – an indoor and outdoor navigation software that is running on touchscreen self-service kiosks, mobile devices and websites. The solution has been designed to provide a pleasant and a convenient navigation experience.
Lingvist – a personalised approach to learning languages that aims to make every learner a fast one. Using mathematical optimisation, the tool tailors tasks according to your knowledge and skills. In beta phase.
HealthDiary – a safe and a private place to keep, access and easily export all health-related notes, reminders, reports, pictures of children. You can record your child’s growth milestones, stomach troubles and doctor’s visits. Reminders help you keep track of important appointments. It also lets analyse your child’s data across the years or bring it along to the next doctor’s visit. In pre-launch mode.
Funderbeam – a global startup rating, tracking and funding platform, with a strong team that has a lot of experience working with the financial markets. Funderbeam helps startups to connect with supportive, mentoring investors around the world. For potential investors, it x-rays startups, using standardised scores and familiar metrics from the financial markets. In pre-launch mode.
Fleep – a chat communication tool for teams and businesses. Incorporating some elements of Skype and email, Fleep is a simple tool that helps organise your multiple discussion streams easily.
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Cover photo: Tallinn skyline by Gen Vagula.
I did a quick search, and 4 of the 10 startups in that list have received money from the government. It seems sort of sad that so many startups are being funded by the government. I can see a lot more pressing needs for government spending than paying for a taxi locator app.
Why can’t Estonia do it like the rest of the world, and just let private investors do all the funding?
I believe most of the governmental funding has been through Enterprise Estonia which is state institution but they are giving “project” money for applicants, various types – export, marketing, buying machinery etc. I don’t think it’s a bad way, everyone can apply, just the startups are creating more hype and probably better project writing & presenting skills.
About the investors, Estonia is small and unimportant for a lot of people in the world, therefore the awareness and trust towards our startups is relatively low. Changing this perception will take a while – we just have to prove us everyday to come and develop our networking & sales skills to become top competitors 🙂
You are exactly correct understanding of the nature of our small country. It all takes time…
Just because we do not have investors:))
Estonia isnt like rest of the world thats why.. We have the desire to do things our own way and sometimes the long way… Its about creating new technology and jobs and opportunity not as much about the efficiency and market. This comes in the next phase with years of experience.
Why shouldn’t government help startups with global potential…
When we talk about the rest of the world, there are a lot of government led programmes to support startups.
In Estonia, we prefer the state giving support to small startups that actually need it, instead of bailing out huge existing corporations with incompetent business plans.
John, the rest of the world does no such thing. Nearly every country (US and UK included) has a variety of funds and/or tax incentives to encourage entrepreneurship. The folks who run Estonia’s Development Fund have private investment backgrounds, and look at each investment in the context of “does this have commercial potential?” — if not, they won’t fund it.
Interesting list. I can add one more startup I personally know about, IDroo.com. I’m familiar with their team. It’s a nice educational classoom drawing board…I use it for teaching my kids form work during a lunch brake, kids really like if they can study on their tablets.
And there’s another one which is my personal favorite. They recently won a competition of business ideas called “ajujaht”. http://timerdiameter.com/
Correct link timberdiameter.com
Perhaps Estonians like to play their cards close to their chests, after seeing what Foreign investors do in other countries?