the 9 best funding and mentoring programmes in estonia
E-residents can apply and participate in a variety of mentoring programmes, incubators, accelerators and paths to funding - here are some of the best open rounds in 2024!
Estonia is known for having one of the most active and supportive early stage startup scenes. As a former founder I can attest to this – besides a tight-knit founders community, there are numerous mentoring programmes and accelerators, focusing on a variety of fields from AI to health and space. These programmes offer various forms of support, including grants, raising funds, incubation, and more. Many of these accelerator programmes are currently open for applications and, more importantly, are suitable for e-residents as well.
Check out this list to see when, why and who should apply for a certain programme.
1. Ajujaht (Brain Hunt)
Ajujaht is the best-known startup accelerator in Estonia. Teams participating in the Ajujaht competition have the opportunity to make their product or service ready for scaling and investment. The accelerator programme is based on 15 years of experience and focuses on the elements that startups need most in their initial phase.
The Ajujaht competition involves a TV show consisting of eight episodes, which monitors the development of the teams during the accelerator programme and introduces the startups to the Estonian public, so it’s also a great platform for raising awareness about your product. Who doesn’t like free marketing?
The programme runs from May to November 2024 and you can read more about it on the Ajujaht website.
PS: Trainings and events of Ajujaht take place in both Estonian and English, so it is useful if the team speaks both languages.
A Spanish e-resident founder Jose was among the top 20 teams last season with his cloud services startup Glassity:
“It was a really great experience! Ajujaht was the first of the three accelerations we did during our first year with Glassity and the quality of content and mentors is comparable with the most expensive one, but the value this programme had in terms of networking, PR and communication is far beyond any other else. We made great friends, we learned from great mentors, we were super grateful to work every week, hand in hand with Raul Liive from Veriff and we have what we have today mostly because of Ajujaht. If I started my startup journey again today I would still apply for Ajujaht – for me it is the proof and result of a mature and well developed startup ecosystem.”
2. Beamline Accelerator
Are you a cleantech startup looking for an investment to grow your innovative solution? This programme might be for you! Beamline Accelerator is working towards impactful innovation, policies and systematic sustainability.
The programme offers €60,000 investment and €100,000 direct follow-up investment to the best teams. Their mentor pool consists of 50+ relevant sector-specific experts, founders and CEOs: such as Heidi Kakko and Anu Oks, well-known angel investors; Jaanus Uiga, the Director of the Energy Department of the Ministry of Economy and Communications; and founders of successful cleantech startups such as Sunly, Ampler Bikes, ÄIKE, and others.
The programme starts in the second half of 2024 and lasts for three months. Read more on the Beamline website.
A Ukrainian e-resident Julia Bialetska, the CEO & Co-founder of S.Lab shares her experience with Beamline accelerator:
“During the programme, we signed a contract with a huge customer, raised €100K, won a few competitions, and advanced every part of S.Lab. Beamline was always responsive to our needs we felt seen and heard. It is an experience that every founder should have!”
3. European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre
Make space part of your business! ESA’s Business Incubation Centre (BICs) works to inspire entrepreneurs to turn space-connected business ideas into commercial companies, and provide technical expertise and business development support. The main mission of the ESA BIC Estonia is to support startups during the incubation phase, set up a “loan” scheme with a financial partner, administer the cash incentive from ESA and the local partners to the startups, and coordinate activities within the ESA BIC programme.
Deadline for the next selection campaign is in April 2024.
4. Health Founders
The health economy is one of the world’s fastest growing industries that covers a wide range of services, applications and technologies focused on improving human health and longevity. Health Founders is the first vertical health technology accelerator in the Baltics helping founders develop breakthrough ideas into sustainable business models. Their mission is to help create 100 new health technology companies over the next 10 years. This programme has continuous acceptance.
Find all investment, grants and growth opportunities in the e-Residency funding portal.
5. Tehnopol Startup Incubator AI
While the rest of the world is trying to catch up, Estonians have already set up an AI incubator. This accelerator helps new and upcoming technology companies to enter the market that are working with artificial intelligence designed to take the production, processes, or products of small and medium-sized businesses to a new level. A specialist training series focused on AI together with mentors and experts will help participants complete the development cycle.
Applications for the new accelerator round will begin in February 2024 and you can read more and apply at the Startup Incubator AI website.
6. Elevator Startups
Elevator Startups is a business and product development incubator, training and consultation unit within the digital agency group ADM. They offer 3 programmes: Business Idea Validation, Product Development and Scaling business. The programmes provide practical business development knowledge and hands-on experience to get your first customers. The programmes have been developed in collaboration with Enterprise Estonia and are specifically designed to bolster the creative technology sector.
Each programme accepts up to 8 teams per year and you can find more information on the Elevator Startups website.
7. Tenity Nordics
Tenity is a global innovation ecosystem and early-stage investor making innovation work and advancing the future of finance. Since 2016, they have incubated and accelerated more than 250 early-stage and growth-stage startups across all areas of FinTech and InsurTech. Their Nordics programme has an extra focus on impact, sustainability and climate fintech solutions. They invest €50,000 in the startups selected for the programme, in exchange for an equity stake of 2.5% and programme participation fee; but additionally, they may invest up to €250,000 as part of the Tenity Deal.
Nordics Pre-Seed Incubator Batch 4 starts in May 2024, which culminates with the Slush conference in the fall.
Fintechs and Insurtechs can read more and apply for this round on the Tenity website:
8. Prototron
The Prototron acceleration programme was created to help turn smart and innovative ideas into tangible prototypes to grow into major businesses. Equally important to the €35,000 funding is the mentoring, training, and useful contacts made during the Prototron programme. Applicants may be individuals as well as businesses with ideas from all the technical verticals. Selected teams learn about financing, intellectual property, prototyping, communication and sales. Teams get mentoring sessions with field experts and investors, followed by a pitch-training and invest-readiness programme.
The Prototron round fund is backed by Swedbank Estonia, TalTech, Tehnopol and the city of Tallinn for up to €100,000 in total. Read more on the Prototron website.
Prototron participated in our special live Q&A on fundraising, grants and growth in March 2023. Watch the recording here now!
9. E-Residency founder mentoring
E-Residency is hosting a startup founders study trip on 22 May 2024. We have an exclusive programme planned for entrepreneurs to get to know the local ecosystem, hear e-resident success stories and build your network in Estonia. This event is part of our pre-Latitude59 schedule, so it’s easy to step right from the training into the buzz of Estonia's flagship tech conference. This will be the second time we are hosting a study trip, after our successful pilot last year. Read our debrief from last year's pilot to get a better sense of what to expect if you join us in May. And if it sounds like something you'd like to participate in, register your interest below!
E-Residency has developed a portal containing many more fundraising, grants and growth programmes available to e-resident founders. Here, you will get a better understanding of all entrepreneurship programmes, from accelerators to incubators, VC funds to angel investors and support / mentoring / training programmes.
This post was written by Ülane Vilumets, e-Residency's Head of Business Development. Ülane is also an entrepreneur and has founded several successful startups in Estonia.
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