Estonian start-up stories by Toivo Tänavsuu
Here’s the second part of my interview with Margus Uudam, Head of Private Equity investments in Ambient Sound Investments. He speaks about what sort of mitakes this VC company has made and what sort of lessons learned. And how have they invested their assets. Uudam also gives his opinion about the sectors that are over-invested and [...]
I have done a two-part video interview with Margus Uudam, Head of Private Equity Investments in Estonia’s most active VC firm Ambient Sound Investments. Some of my readers have wondered why Ambient Sound Investments hasn’t made any new investments in Estonia recently, why they have focused on Asia, when and how they will plan their exits etc. Here’s [...]
Last year Estonian venture capital firms joined forces by founding the Estonian Ventur Capital Association (EstVCA). Who are the players on the market today? Here’s a short overview which shows that: the Estonian venture capital market is expanding, VC culture is developing there are several new investors who have transferred from the field of real estate [...]
The biotechnology company EGeen, which mostly carries out clinical trials in Central and Eastern Europe, has demonstrated stable growth. CEO Kalev Kask (pictured) says in the interview that nowadays pharmaceutical industry has made progress and most illnesses are at least to an extent treatable [...]
At first sight, it seems that the Estonian chemical and biotechnology sector is experiencing obvious growth problems. Estonia is a small country, with just 1.3 million inhabitants, and hence there is probably a lack of bright chemists and biologists and, due to its young age, the state’s experience in sales, marketing and entrepreneurship is not [...]
When someone asks about the most successful Estonian Internet business, the answer would probably be Skype, with over 400 million subscribers. But how about start-ups? Fortumo, Edicy and UDC stand out as most promising ones. Let’s take a look at these companies and compare them in a subjective way.
Columnist Yrjö Ojasaar (pictured) continues to analyze the biggest mistakes start-ups are often making. This time he points out the typical financing related failures. Assuming that VC money is for you VC money is not the right financing tool for everyone. Your start-up may be profitable and growing, but if the company can’t rapidly scale, [...]
An Estonian start-up company Sportlyzer (sport+analyzer) is developing software that analyses training info for amateur athletes and accordingly plans target driven training sessions. Sportlyzer software should help amateur athletes overcome a common problem – unsteady motivation. “The person himself may not understand what his training pauses are caused by. This way distaste for any kind [...]
Estonian start-up SelfDiagnostics is developing a quick-test that could easily be used at home to identify sexually transmitted diseases. In the future such minilabs could become commodities avalible at a pharmacy for a couple of hundred kroons. Executive director of SelfDiagnostics, Marko Lehes reports that a patent application has been filed and a test model is planned to be [...]
This is a second column from an entrepreneur and lawyer Yrjö Ojasaar (pictured), who’s a fan of TigerPrises.com. Your product is not just the innovative new app/gizmo you invented. Customers usually expect an “out of the box” single source solution for their needs. The more assembly, coordination and troubleshooting the product requires, the cheaper [...]