Tag: innovatsioon

Everything originated from the men’s own experience and concern when it was necessary to wait at home for a courier for goods ordered online. “By mapping the problem, we realized that the couriers are also concerned – often, when the courier arrives, people are not at home to receive the parcel. Of course, we initially had more questions than answers: where to start, what resources do we need, what is our value proposition? We realized that we needed to start with the materials and tools we had, and we built the first concept out of cardboard boxes, glue, bolts, and nuts and finished with spray paint. The first result greatly boosted our confidence. The second prototype was already made of finer materials and techniques, and we were very satisfied with the result,” said Andres Sampka, one of the authors of the idea.

Crazy development

From then on, everything progressed at a crazy pace. In October 2020, the men filed a design patent; in November, the first two prototypes were successfully tested on both electronics and hardware. The first MVP product was ready for Christmas; on January 20, smart mailboxes were installed for test customers in Tallinn, Viimsi, and Pärnu, and the production of smart mailboxes started.

In addition to the founders Andres and Indrek Jürgenson, who covered skills starting from IT & hardware development, strategic thinking, and operations management, the ParselSea team was joined by Tanel Raun, an expert in logistics who has a thorough knowledge of the courier world and top engineer Timo Tolmusk, who makes sure that the entire product development process runs on its right tracks.

The smart mailbox is working

“We are now sure that the smart mailbox works in different weather conditions, and it is time to focus on real use cases. We started asking beta testers and couriers for feedback so that the smart mailboxes produced by April would already take into account different situations, parcel sizes, and everything we can’t predict today. At the same time, we will introduce our product to courier companies so that by April 2021, everyone will know what a smart mailbox is and how to deliver different packages there,” said Andres, and added that cooperation with Omniva, DPD, COOP, Selver, Prisma, DHL, UPS & others is already going on.

We applied at Prototron with the expectation of gaining additional momentum from the startup landscape experts through practical advice and homework. It was also interesting to see how other startups, who are more or less in the same stage. For example, Product Market Fit and One-pager Homeworks were particularly good, directing us to organize previous analyzes of the market, goals, and value proposition. The whole structure of the program was logical, and I see that it will be of great benefit to those who have not been in the field for a long time. At the same time, there are many former leaders on our team, but when making a new startup, you can often get confused and different opinions about priorities may arise. Thanks to the advice received at Prototron, we put together a good enough pitchdeck to make presentations to investors before the finals.
– Andres Sampka, founder of ParcelSea

Estonia’s first prototype creation foundation Prototron has announced its Autumn round with up to € 70,000 funding. Prototron has allocated funding for 68 smart ideas for a total of approximately € 833,000.

Jana Pavlenkova, who is celebrating her seventh year as Prototron’s CEO, said that in Estonia, the challenge is not just to find innovative and smart ideas but to choose from a variety of powerful ideas, the most potent solutions, including those with a background in science.

“Prototron appraisers, mentors and expert committee, as well as other innovation sponsors, are confronted with ideas every day, most of which could make a successful startup. Many do so without the support of Prototron or anyone else. It is our job to identify ideas that will benefit as many people as possible and that will specifically manage some bottlenecks in our daily lives and help bring them to life as soon as possible,” Pavlenkova said.

For example, the team Futuclass, who won funding in the Spring round, makes school subject learning more playful using virtual reality technology and brings ultra-cool science experiments to the classroom. Another example is a snowplow robot Lumebot, which is special because it starts to work when it starts to snow outside; it is able to charge itself; works 24/7 and, for instance, keeps parking areas clear in the snowy season.

“Applying research findings to everyday life and bringing high-tech and complex solutions to the market often requires more time than, for example, the creation of some much-needed app. Prototron is the best breeding ground for such ideas. We are flexible, patient and our expert mentors are able to provide the teams with the support they need,” Pavlenkova explained why it is worth it to apply for money even with complex ideas. “We are aware they are not only money- but also time-consuming,” she confirmed.

Ideas can be submitted by October 15 at www.prototron.ee. The winners will be announced on December 1 as part of the Robotex Festival. The funds for this round are put together by Swedbank, TalTech, Science park Tehnopol, Tallinn city and Samsung Electronics.

Established in 2012 with the cooperation of Swedbank, Tallinn University of Technology and the Tehnopol Science Park, Prototron Foundation has allocated funding for 68 innovative ideas to date for the amount of 833,000 euros. Teams whose ideas were supported by Prototron, have already raised over 20 million euros in follow-up investments.

3 years of development

“We have developed our technology over the past 3 years. Several global luxury brands are interested in using our textiles. We feel that now is the time to accelerate our activities to bring the product to market faster,” comments Gelatex co-founder Mari-Ann Meigo Fonseca. “The US is at the forefront of bringing disruptive innovations to market. We believe that participating in the accelerator will help us to do the same.”

Initial investment of 120 000 USD

Gelatex co-founder and CTO Märt-Erik Martens adds that Gelatex will benefit tremendously from industry connections with The Heritage Group. “Besides gaining the tools to develop sales and attract investment, we hope the program will be able to dramatically accelerate our product development through partnerships via this global company,” says Martens. Finally, the accelerator program also offers Gelatex an initial investment of 120 000 USD to expand product development and operations.

Eco-friendly materials for everyone

Currently Gelatex is tackling the problem that 95% of all leather today is made with toxic chemicals and eco-friendly solutions are not scalable. It has developed the first non-toxic, eco-friendly textile that is chemically identical to leather and easy produce in mass-scale. The material is made from gelatin derived from the waste material from the leather and meat industry, adding value for the an abundant waste material. Material is chemically identical to leather but comes in rolls, it is made using no toxic chemicals and its production is fast and environmentally friendly.

Besides Prototron Gelatex has been supported by Estonian Ministry of Environment, Climate-KIC, Enterprise Estonia, Archimedes, Horizon2020 SME Instrument and others.