Startup Ecosystem

Estonian Startup Awards 2023 - The Winners, The Nominees & Everyone Else Still Standing

Estonian Startup Awards 2023 - The Winners, The Nominees & Everyone Else Still Standing

Estonian Startup Awards 2023 is done! On the evening of February 2, 2024, the Estonian startup community gathered at Nobel Hall in Noblessner to officially wrap up the year, celebrate our community’s biggest wins, and look into the future, together. Will it be bright? Well, yes. Eventually.

Estonian Startup Awards 2022 - The Official Wrap-Up!

Estonian Startup Awards 2022 - The Official Wrap-Up!

The gala for Estonian Startup Awards 2022 took place on January 27, 2023. Almost 500 startuppers and impact makers gathered at The Glass Hall of the Song Festival Grounds to officially wrap up 2022 and celebrate the biggest wins of the year. Here are the biggest takeaways from the year, inspiring words from the winners, and the full list of all the nominees.

CR14’s predictions for 2023: DefenceTech keeps growing. The one with the best AI wins.

CR14’s predictions for 2023: DefenceTech keeps growing. The one with the best AI wins.

Siim Alatalu, CR14’s CEO shares professional insights from the frontlines of their booming startup sector - defence and security tech - with continued funding and growth predicted for 2023. On January 27, CR14 is taking the stage at Estonian Startup Awards to present the Defence and Security Tech of the Year award. Thank you for the hard work and the support, CR14!

Hardware startup Sunly: “Growth for the sake of growth will be challenged.”

Hardware startup Sunly: “Growth for the sake of growth will be challenged.”

Sunly is a hardware-led startup that is building a renewable energy platform, developing new solutions, and investing in fresh technologies that can boost our region’s energy transition. Their investment radar includes young startups whose clever ideas need a boost. In 2023, Sunly’s team is also boosting the success of the Estonian Startup Awards!

Deel in 2023: "I encourage every team to have this built into their hiring plans."

Deel in 2023: "I encourage every team to have this built into their hiring plans."

Besides building the world’s fastest-growing SaaS company with a super diverse team from 80+ countries, Deel is also dedicated to boosting the Estonian startup ecosystem - in 2023, they are supporting the success of the Estonian Startup Awards 2022. How was 2022 and what do they predict for the Estonian startup scene in 2023?

Swedbank in 2023: "Supporting startups is one of our main goals.”

Swedbank in 2023: "Supporting startups is one of our main goals.”

Swedbank, the largest bank in Estonia, has taken on a mission to help Estonian startups succeed. Their support of the ecosystem strategically covers the full lifecycle of a startup - from cool cooperations with early-stage founders, to partnering with community-leading organizations, Swedbank’s resources are channeled far and wide. In the upcoming quarter, you can find Swedbank’s team at sTARTup Day and the Estonian Startup Awards 2022.

Hedman Law Firm: “With this award, we are showcasing exciting Estonian scaleups, deservedly so.”

Hedman Law Firm: “With this award, we are showcasing exciting Estonian scaleups, deservedly so.”

Hedman Law Firm sums up the highlights of the Estonian startup scene from 2022, and shares what makes them excited about the times ahead. In January 2023, Hedman’s team is helping to make the Estonian Startup Awards 2022 a success.

Humans of LIFT99: Martin Ahe

Humans of LIFT99: Martin Ahe

Artisanal Cheese Sandwiches™, a perfectly orange dog and dope sweaters - that’s what comes to mind first when we think of Martin Ahe. He seems to be an unstoppable force for good, brightening the dark and dreary winter days at LIFT. But how did he end up at LIFT99? Why does he speak so many languages that even his dog is multilingual?!? That’s why we sat down with him and asked him.

Estonian Startup Awards 2021

Estonian Startup Awards 2021

Estonian Startup Awards 2021 gala took place on January 21, 2022. Over 300 startuppers and impact makers of the sector gathered at Vaba Lava to officially wrap up 2021 and celebrate the biggest wins of the year. Most noteworthily, 8 award trophies found a new home - scroll down to see the FULL SHORTLISTS and WINNERS of Estonian Startup Awards 2021.

Estonian Startup Awards 2020 - The Winners, The Nominees & Big Trends For 2021

Estonian Startup Awards 2020 - The Winners, The Nominees & Big Trends For 2021

Estonian Startup Awards 2020 took place on January 14, 2021, to officially wrap up the past year and celebrate the most outstanding achievements of Estonian startups. If you want to know who made it to the shortlist of Estonian Startup Awards 2020 and who took home the prizes in our 9 categories, you are in the right place. Sit back, settle down, here we go!


Ukrainian Startup Awards 2019 - The Fastest, The Biggest, The Most Impactful

Ukrainian Startup Awards 2019 - The Fastest, The Biggest, The Most Impactful

Ukrainian Startup Awards 2019 recognized the most impactful activists and fastest-growing Ukrainian startups in 9 categories. Whom did the community nominate, who won, and what does it mean for Ukrainian startup ecosystem for 2020? Read all about what happened at the awards ceremony at LIFT99 Kyiv Hub on January 24th, 2020!

Estonian Startup Awards 2019 - The Fastest, The Biggest, The Most Impactful

Estonian Startup Awards 2019 - The Fastest, The Biggest, The Most Impactful

Estonian Startup Awards 2019 took place on January 22nd, 2020. The initiative, lead by LIFT99 and Startup Estonia highlighted the most outstanding startups and community activists in 9 impactful categories, summing up the brightest moments of 2019.

Ukraine's Top 15 Startups Launching the Wall of Fame [2019]

Ukraine's Top 15 Startups Launching the Wall of Fame [2019]

15 startups on the Wall of Fame are marking the beginning of a new chapter for the Ukrainian startup ecosystem. Among the locomotives is a widely-known unicorn Grammarly, which raised $90M in 2019. Readdle with their 100M product downloads. And People.ai, which raised $60M with a valuation at about $500M. Who else is on the Wall and is there landscape for the next unicorn?

List of 400+ Startups In Ukraine & Why Do We Even Need An Ecosystem

List of 400+ Startups In Ukraine & Why Do We Even Need An Ecosystem

Ukrainian startups are the heroes of this story. They are the ones creating massive opportunities for themselves, and if they succeed, for the whole country in general. That’s why we’ve created a list of 400+ Ukrainian startups - to gather into one place the core of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem, the most important ingredient, the startups themselves.

34 Most Active Estonian Angel Investors

34 Most Active Estonian Angel Investors

Raising your first round might seem like a mission impossible. Raimonds Kulbergs has put together a list of the most active Estonian angel investors, including their investment focus and ticket size. May this be a piece of the starter-kit for all the young founders out there… so they wouldn’t “half-ass through the process”. Like Raimonds did.

Founder Stories: Yuriy Zaremba, AXDRAFT

Founder Stories: Yuriy Zaremba, AXDRAFT

Yuriy believes that if you don't have any high level professional experience, you can’t build a great company – unless you are a true prodigy. The idea for AXDRAFT is based on some real struggles he was facing as one of the top lawyers in Ukraine, the same unnecessary hassle that all lawyers experience daily. His idea took off and today he’s a YC graduate, sharing his story and practical tips with others founders, in person, via our Salto network, and in Ukraine in general.

LIFT99 Kyiv Hub TAKEOFF

LIFT99 Kyiv Hub TAKEOFF

The morning after the LIFT99 Kyiv Hub TAKEOFF – the grand opening party of our Kyiv hub – a message popped up on our team’s Slack channel: “Guys, did anyone go on the roof last night?”. After long silence another message popped up: “Well, there might have been around 20 people on the roof... including some famous journalist, some hot shot investors, and startup founders. Oopsy daisy!”

Yes, Houston, we had a party!

Announcing: Startup Wall of Fame Ukraine

Announcing: Startup Wall of Fame Ukraine

When putting together the Startup Wall of Fame Ukraine, growth was an especially important indicator. Essentially, these are the local tech companies with a unique solution that have already proven they can grow 80% - 100%. And that doesn’t mean once. That means year over year.

My 5 Lessons as an Angel Investor

My 5 Lessons as an Angel Investor

Investing is my side project & I am still mostly a startup entrepreneur, with sleepless nights & 23-hour work days. But there a few things I have learned from the privilege of seeing things from both sides of the table - the point of view of an investor, as well as a founder.

Ukraine – From a Pool of Developers to an International Tech Hub

Ukraine – From a Pool of Developers to an International Tech Hub

The country that is currently a pool of tech talent for many huge American and Western European IT companies will soon become an ocean of successful startups. The writings are already on the wall.