Talinn, Estonia – Last night, the most successful startups, founders, and investors in Estonia were recognised. The winners of the Estonian Startup Awards were selected from over 300 candidates.
In his opening speech, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal said that startups account for nearly 4% of Estonia’s GDP, whereas not long ago, this figure was 1.5%. „Such growth highlights the importance of the sector to Estonia’s economy and its people, both locally and internationally. However, it is not only due to their innovation but also their role in strengthening Estonia’s reputation as a global technological leader. The past few years have been challenging for everyone. Yet Estonian startups have not only weathered the storm but have emerged stronger. An increasing number of startups are becoming profitable, contributing to our economy in ways that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. I congratulate all the nominees and winners who inspire us all and remind us that in Estonia, adaptability means success—and success leads to a better tomorrow.“
Elise Sass, co-founder of LIFT99, highlighted that this year’s winners prove Estonia’s startup sector is shifting towards deep technologies and innovation requiring long-term development. “At the same time, revenues grew last year, customer bases expanded, and new products were brought to market. The Estonian startup sector has kept pace with global developments, and our local defence industry is undoubtedly a driver of this progress. It’s also encouraging to see the emergence of deep technologies where science transforms into products. This proves that Estonian founders are not afraid to act boldly in fields that directly impact us,” said Sass.
According to Startup Estonia, there are currently about 1,600 startups operating in Estonia, and the best in the Estonian startup sector were announced across 11 categories.
The Founder of the Year 2024: Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, Lightyear
Founders Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer head up Lightyear, an investment platform transforming Europe’s investing landscape, empowering everyone to grow their wealth in a simple way. In a standout year, Lightyear grew to over $3B in annualised transaction volume, expanded their business offering to 19 markets, and launched tax efficient investment accounts in multiple markets — resulting in exceptional growth across its 22 markets in 2024.
The Investor of the Year 2024: Taavet Hinrikus, Plural and Skaala
In 2024, Plural raised their fund II of €500M and continued investing in the most ambitious European founders. Plural led the $90M funding round for Estonian robodelivery company Starship. Besides Plural related activities, Taavet’s team branded the Estonian Taavet+Sten partnership as Skaala – an independent investment company focused on long-term value. Contrary to Plural, Skaala invested in lots of “bricks and mortar” last year – they took part in the Kristiine Keskus buyout and started with Krulli Kvartal redevelopment. Lastly, Taavet continued investing and supporting the kood/Jõhvi coding school which is now exporting its solution to Finland.
The Newcomer of 2024 and The DefenceTech of 2024: Frankenburg Technologies
Frankenburg is a defence company built to defend Europe and equip the free world with the technology to win the war. Proudly single-use and heavily mission-oriented. Their missile systems are designed to intercept and neutralise 99% of UAV threats, and with that, they have created a totally new category in the military industry: affordable, mass-manufactured drones with a total addressable market of millions of units per year. With their unique design and manufacturing principles, they reduce the price of current air defence missiles by 90% and manufacture them in quantities hundreds of times larger. Providing affordable mass in warfighting is the only industrial way the free world can preserve its peace and prosperity. Frankenburg has attracted healthy seed funding from leading industry partners and, within a few months, expanded its team to 40 world-class specialists. It has also extended its business operations to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and, most recently, the UK.
The Hardware Startup of 2024 and The Revenue Hack of 2024: DefSecIntel Solutions
An Estonian DefenceTech powerhouse, developing and producing cutting-edge AI-powered mobile autonomous surveillance and air defence systems for defence and border security. In 2024, they achieved remarkable milestones: skyrocketing revenue from €7M (2022) to €40M, doubled the team to over 85 in Estonia, opened a new factory in Estonia (in addition to factory and R&D/maintenance Hub in Kyiv with 30 people), and launched a new product – C-UAS/ ultra-short-range air defence system EIRSHIELD.
The Giving Back Powerhouse of 2024: Taavi Kotka
HK Unicorn Squad started in 2018 with 17 brave girls from local villages. 2024 was special, because they now have more than 4000 girls in the system. This also means that in the age-group of 8-12 years olds in Estonia, there are now more girls than boys studying technology. The second stage – Unicorn Squad PRO – is also growing. Together with Taltech, they have focused on 16-18 year old girls to influence their career choices by introducing detailed courses to understand what it really means to become a software engineer, electronical engineer, etc. In 2024, they also partnered with Google, to translate their AI materials and to provide AI courses in the age group of 11-14 to all Estonian children if their school is interested in participating.
The DeepTech of 2024: GScan
GScan leverages muon tomography and AI to detect defects over 10 meters deep in critical infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels, and nuclear systems. In 2025, GScan is prioritizing recurring revenue through partnerships with global corporations such as BP, National Highways, AtkinsRealis, and Jacobs, while strengthening its presence with new offices in Cambridge, UK, and Munich, Germany.
The GreenTech of 2024: Yaga
Yaga is a marketplace for buying and selling secondhand fashion with a focus on Africa. They strongly believe in the future of fashion resale, benefiting sellers, buyers, and the environment. More than 4M+ secondhand items have been sold on Yaga to date, meaning the same amount of items has been left unbought as new. As market leaders in Estonia and South Africa, Yaga recently expanded to Kenya.
The FinTech of 2024: Lightyear
Lightyear is transforming Europe’s investing landscape, empowering everyone to grow their wealth in a simple way. In a standout year, Lightyear grew to over $3B in annualised transaction volume, expanded business offering to 19 markets, and launched tax efficient investment accounts in multiple markets — resulting in exceptional growth across its 22 markets in 2024.
The SaaS Startup of 2024: Katana
Katana’s platform acts as a system of records for all their 1500 paying SMBs globally, using Katana for all their purchasing, manufacturing, order management, inventory management, and warehouse management needs. Katana ensures the customers can deliver the right product to the right customer at the right time and avoid overstocking and stockouts. In addition to their own product functionality, they enable the best-of-breed tech stack via integrations with Shopify, Hubspot, Quickbooks etc.
