The Estonian startup ecosystem has been growing rapidly, transforming the country into a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.
One major factor driving this growth is the ability of Estonian startups to secure substantial funding.
And the year 2024 is no exception!
€302.7M funding raised
According to the report by Startup Estonia, a total of €302.7M was invested in sector companies during the first three quarters of 2024, marking a 1.5-fold increase (approximately 52 per cent) compared to the same period in 2023 ( €199.2M).
Of this, €63.7M was raised in the third quarter alone, reveals the report. There were 49 new investment deals, with 25 deals valued at more than €1M.
10% increase in turnover in 2024
By the end of Q3 2024, Estonian startup sector companies generated €2701.3M in turnover, marking a 10 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023, says the report.
Among sector companies, the largest turnover was generated by Bolt with €983.7M (36 per cent of sector turnover), followed by Pipedrive with €203M, Veriff with €76.7M, and more.
Notably, the top 10 companies contributed 56 per cent of the sector’s total turnover during the first three quarters of 2024, underscoring the concentrated strength of leading players in the startup ecosystem.
Employed over 14K people locally
According to the statistics from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, Estonian startup sector companies employ 14,267 people locally.
The workforce continues to undergo a slight decrease, declining by 3 per cent compared to the end of the third quarter of 2023 when the employee count stood at 14, 687.
By the end of Q3 2024, 45 per cent of people working in Estonia’s startup sector were employed by the top 10 companies, says the report.
The largest employers are Wise with 2,028 employees, Bolt with 1,321, Playtech with 653, Yolo with 553, and Swappie with 435.
The Estonian startup ecosystem has come a long way and is set to grow even stronger in the future.
Having said that, we have compiled a list of the top 10 biggest funding rounds in Estonia for 2024, and some of these companies are hiring.
Stargate Hydrogen
Fund raised in 2024: €42M
CEO: Marko Virkebau
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
Stargate Hydrogen offers stacks and electrolyser systems for producing green hydrogen. The company provides engineering support to help clients advance their hydrogen projects.
Hydrogen from electrolysis is important for the green energy transition, as it can help reduce emissions in sectors like heavy transport, steelmaking, and the chemical industry, where electrification alone is often insufficient.
Elcogen
Fund raised in 2024: €24.9M
CEO: Enn Õunpuu
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
Elcogen manufactures clean energy technology that produces affordable green hydrogen and emission-free electricity.
The company’s solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) technologies efficiently convert fuel sources into emission-free energy and green hydrogen. This approach aims to reduce costs and facilitate the transition away from fossil fuels.
Tuum
Fund raised in 2024: €25M
CEO: Myles Bertrand
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
Tuum provides banking solutions for financial institutions across Europe and the UK.
The company offers modules for core banking, lending, cards, and payments, the four critical functions in banking services.
The company’s core banking module streamlines the management of accounts, transactions, deposits, and pricing. Its lending module accommodates the loan management process, from application to contract.
The card module facilitates the issuance of debit and credit cards. Banking firms use Tuum’s payment module to initiate and validate payments based on their preferred payment formation rules.
BotGuard
Fund raised in 2024: €12M
Founder/s: Nik Rozenberg and Denis Prochko
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
BotGuard is a web traffic management company that enables businesses to filter good, bad, and costly web traffic.
The company’s proprietary technology selectively blocks negative traffic, including hackers, malicious bots, and neutral traffic – which would otherwise drive up management costs – while granting unrestricted access to human users, search engines, and affiliate bots.
Modash
Fund raised in 2024: €11M
CEO: Avery Schrader
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
Modash is an influencer marketing platform that provides brands with the tools to find, analyse, and monitor influencers at scale.
The company raised $12M (approximately €11M) in Series A funding. The funds will enable the startup to streamline administrative tasks for marketers, empowering them to focus on creativity and relationships.
eAgronom
Fund raised in 2024: €10M
Founder/s: Robin Saluoks and Kristjan Luha
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
eAgronom is an agriculture-focused climate tech company helping farmers adopt sustainable practices for the health of their soils and the planet.
The company now works with over 3,000+ farmers in 14 countries. Working directly with eAgronom, partner farms across Europe and Africa have already stored 525,000 tCO2 p.a., which is roughly equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of 100,000 people.
The company is on track to reach its 4.1 million hectare target by 2025.
Bisly
Fund raised in 2024: €6.2M
CEO: Ants Vill
Hiring: No
Bisly provides smart building automation platforms that integrate hardware and software to solve scalability, cost, and integration challenges.
The company’s Single Cloud Platform and patented digital twins system use building floor plans to speed up setup and track energy consumption. This helps improve efficiency and save costs over time.
Bisly’s hardware works with various brands, avoiding vendor lock-in and cutting overhead costs by up to 80%. The company focuses on customisation to meet clients’ specific needs, while its open software platform ensures scalability for future developments.
ÄIO
Fund raised in 2024: €6.1M
Founder/s: Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee
Hiring: No
Founded as a spin-off from TalTech (Tallinn University of Technology), ÄIO has created a method that aims to lessen the food industry’s dependence on environmentally harmful animal fats, palm oil, and other vegetable oils.
The company uses specialised yeast to convert by-products from wood and agricultural processes, such as sugars extracted from sawdust, into food-grade fats and oils.
This method is designed to be faster and more environmentally sustainable.
Miros
Fund raised in 2024: €6M
Founder/s: Heikki Haldre, Mart Parve, Paul Pällin
Hiring: Yes| Apply here
Miros is building out the next generation of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), where humans can interact with computers in a humanly intuitive, conversational fashion. With Miros, online shoppers find what they need in an online shop in 60 seconds or less.
Fairown
Fund raised in 2024: €5.7M
Founder/s: Hendrik Roosna and Taivo Türnpu
Hiring: No
Fairown is a multi-category B2C subscription service provider. The company operates a product-as-a-service (PaaS) platform that allows consumers to access products through a monthly subscription.
The company buys the product from retailers, and consumers pay a fixed fee to use it for a specified duration. At the end of this period, the product is returned to Fairown, which then either reuses it through the manufacturer or offers it to a new user.
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