Tag: prototype

Two men interested in technology have started to solve the problems of the courier service, both on the part of the customer, who until now had to wait for the courier with the ordered goods at home, and of the couriers who were having trouble with people who are not at home to receive the parcel. The solution is the ParcelSea smart mailbox, which allows you to use parcel and food courier service in a contact and communication-free manner. The idea received a special prize of 5,000 euros from Samsung in the autumn round of Prototron 2020.

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

On May 17th on the main Estonian startup conference Latitude59 we announced the winners of Prototron springround at the main-stage of Latitude59. 4 teams got 60 000 € to turn their ideas into reality.

The biggest grant – 25 000€ was given to Lumebot – a self-driving snow removal robots are more than 10x cheaper to make than snow plows. This allows each parking lot to have a dedicated snow removal robot(s). Through continuous work, it is able to keep the parking lot clean 24/7. Autonomous snow removal robots that start working as soon as it starts snowing.

10 000€ was worth the idea of Futuclass – an educational virtual reality game that brings awesome science experiences to classrooms. A game where players solve interesting and fun pre-made science puzzles and learn by doing. Science experiments in VR are cheap, safe and easily accessible. Like Rakett69, but in VR.

Team Unsinkable Robotics got 20 000 to build an underwater robot that could perform several tasks underwater without an operator. The robots reduce the need for divers to perform dangerous and time consuming tasks such as mine detection.

Kibu.energy wants to empower the inhabitants of the smart city in the usage of renewable energy by offering a foldable solar panel that can be deployed in balconies, terraces or gardens. It integrates storage and can be plugged in directly to a wall socket.

Autumnround is less than 5 months from now. Get inspired and apply before October 15th.

Toomas Türk/ Chief Specialist in Innovation at Tallinn City Enterprise Department

The City of Tallinn is a good place for testing prototypes. There are enough people, businesses, locations with different orientations here as well as other resources needed to test and develop services/products and create new startups and businesses. First of all test the market and then bring your product to the world.

Certainly, every Prototron applicant has very cool thoughts on how to make the Estonian capital better by testing new business models while always having a global dimension in mind.

Use the existing data

For example, one good way to test you solution is to think about improving the services currently provided by the City of Tallinn. Choose your favorite area of activity or suitable keyword from the list of services on the Tallinn website www.tallinn.ee – familiarise yourself with today’s situation and create your own solution-idea prototype. Don’t forget to have a look at Open Data databases, where you’ll find real data that can help you create new business opportunities or solve everyday challenges.

Test the market with supporting of the startup ecosystem

Tallinn has a very supportive and constantly evolving business ecosystem. For example, Tallinn has cooperation agreements with most Estonian universities. If you are a student, find out from your teaching staff, supervisor or dean, which projects are currently in progress and how you can contribute.

If you are creating a prototype or company and are looking for help in the form of a mentor, with creative economy product or service please contact the Tallinn Creative Incubator or with technology-based products Startup Incubator. There is a clear indication of their value proposition, what they want from you for it and how you can apply for it. Of course, you can always take part in various hackathons and business competitions that take place periodically in Tallinn.

Bring product to the world with new contacts

The most successful leaders of the Tallinn business community are clusters. A cluster is a combination of companies and organizations whose members cooperate and compete simultaneously. Cluster leaders are people with very good contacts who can guide you fast to the right contact or company in Estonia and abroad. If your successful product or service is for export, then after testing or marketing it in Tallinn, it is possible for the next reference to find contacts from twinned towns of Tallinn.

There are several major events and conferences in Tallinn where the city plays the role of organizer or supporter:

• Tallinn Innovation Forum MELT,
• The biggest robotics event Robotex,
• Conference of the Tallinn Music Week ,
• Dark Nights Film Festival PÖFF,
• Biggest startup conference Latitude59,
• Artificial Intelligent conference North Star AI jpt.

, etc.

With great pleasure, we are partnering with the Prototron Fund, which has great potential for testing and implementing ideas for the development of the City of Tallinn. Tallinn is a city where bold ideas and thinking far and wide are always welcome!

Ragmar Saksing / Head of the field of Green Technology, Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol

Green technology is a relatively new industry, and as with any new direction, it creates some doubts in people. The representatives of large and old industries are particularly distrustful and to dispel these doubts, I will briefly explain the nature of green technology and its benefits for entrepreneurship.

The main goal of green technology is to reduce the impact of human activity on the environment and to improve the environment. It is a sustainable and environmentally friendly technology that to the maximum extent utilizes renewable energy sources and materials. At the same time, energy use is minimal and/or, the created materials are recyclable. It is important that the products to be created are environmentally friendly throughout their life cycle.

Chemistry vs. physics

Today’s economy is largely chemistry based. At the heart of such an economy is the extraction and recycling of mineral resources. The economy of the future is more physics based, utilizing all the operating forces and renewable energy. For this purpose, new business models are created that define how we have been used to doing business so far. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this means generating revenue through change.
Smart entrepreneurs welcome change, seek and find new opportunities. They develop companies in a multi-layered manner, on a wide scale. Smart entrepreneurs do not get rich at the expense of the environment; they make the entire business climate better while taking the environment into consideration.
A very simplified example of this is solar energy. People do not buy solar panels just because they have a green state of mind. Solar panels are installed to save money and/or generate revenue. Solar energy can be widely used, and while doing that, the environment becomes better. The useful life of most solar panels is 25+ years and who would not like to live in a house, drive a car or scooter and do it for free?

New opportunities in traditional areas

In particular, the decentralization of central systems is one of the areas that should be observed in the development of green technology. Energy savings, energy efficiency in buildings, alternative energy sources, and energy use, food production, recycling of materials, transport and logistics bring along many new opportunities. In all of these areas, science-based businesses are gaining momentum, where smart entrepreneurs help fund scientific inventions.
A contemporary man emerged about 200,000 years ago, the first proof of agriculture dates back to 23,000 years, the industrial revolution began less than 300 years ago. In this time scale, one should not underestimate the formation of nature during 3.8 billion years. People have invented plenty of things and reaped a lot of economic benefits from the inventions. In the future, we could look at nature as a catalog of products, where all the achievements have benefited from 3.8 billion years of research and development. Now our challenge is to put it to work for humankind cleverly.

In the second round of Prototron in 2018 the Expert Committee decided to give out funds worth of 62 500 euros. In addition teams were able to gather additional funds on the Fundwise platform.

In total almost 300 ideas were submitted out of which 5 reached a successful funding.

• Pillirookõrs, which is making straws out of reed is already a brand well-known for a conscious consumer. In addition to a straw they’re now developing a material based on reed to develop alternative single-use plates or cups based on reed. They were supported with 20 000 EUR.
• Vetik is working on a marine algae based natural and healthy red colorant to substitute current unhealthy ones used in the cosmetics industry. They were supported also with 20 000 EUR.
• Decomer Technology received 7500 EUR from Prototron, in order to develop a novel water-soluble packaging material suitable for food and other industries.
• Captain Corrosion is developing handheld corrosion management device and providing corrosion-related consultations. Funding received: 7500 EUR.
• Questcity is developing an VR-augmented professional platform for designing and completing interactive quest-excursions. Funding received: 7500 EUR.

The winners will be awarded with a six-month free incubation space at Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol and legal assistance from Hedman Partners and an opportunity to use the Mektory labs and the premises of the Tallinn University of Technology. Veebimajutus awarded winners with 6 months of free web hosting and e-mail services together with know-how on website development.
For the first time the the winners were consulted by the team of Fundwise – how, when and for what can crowdfunding be used. In addition they had a chance to experience it first hand and collect additional funds.

Prototron fund is put together by Swedbank Estonia, TalTech, Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol and tallinn city. Next round of Prototron opens in January. You can submit your ideas via our web until 15th of March 2019.

Few days after the announcement of TOP40 teams, they gathered to Mektory for some useful tips and knowhow about all the relevant subjects for startups – crowdfunding, intellectual property protection, how to validate product/service, what to keep in mind making a webpage and how Swedbank and Science Park Tehnopol can help the teams.

Starting this round all Prototron winners get 6 months web hosting and e-mail service for free from Veebimajutus.ee, plus all their know-how, how to make a really good web page. How, why and what, Marko Toom from Veebimajutus.ee made it all clear.

Software development

Taavet Tamm from Singelton said, they are following a simple narrative: software is about
making machines work for humans. It is important to understand, do You need custom software for Your business and figuring out what and how to build based on business needs and goals.
Five steps to working software:
1) Understand your user flow
2) Prototype & create user stories
3) Get the estimates for budgeting
4) Prioritise & decide
5) Build.

Finances

The core message of Vahur Vallistu from Swedbank was – there has never ever been more money for startups on the market, as there is right now. Use it!
Jelena Žovnikova from Fundwise gave a closer look how crowdfunding works for tech startups.

Startup community

Triin Ilves from Tehnopol gave inspiring overview of Estonian startup scene in numbers.
550 startups, 4300 new jobs created, startups paid €35M in employment taxes year 2017, raised over €880M in the last 10 years. Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol helps startups and growing companies by providing modern business and science environment. Tehnopol Startup Incubator invests up to 10 000€ worth of expertise to a start-up company in one year to attract seed round investment or reach the export markets.

IP questions

Intellectual property, investment contracts and other legal issues is the work-field of Toomas Seppel from Hedman Lift. He spoke about, what is intellectual property in terms of startups. It´s copyright, trademark, industrial design, inventions (patent, utility model) but also a trade secrets. How to protect your idea and work in early stages etc.

Thank you, Vahur Vallistu from Swedbank Eestis, Marko Toom from Veebimajutus.ee, Taavet Tamm from Singleton, Toomas Seppel from Law Firm Hedman Partners, Yelena Žovnikova from Fundwise and Triin Ilves from Tehnopol!

Thursday, March 15th was the last day to apply for Spring round of Prototron and we closed the application with 230+ ideas from Estonia and other countries. Transport, medicine and solutions to improve our everyday life were most common fields.

This round brought many ideas, based on science. Solutions formulated in research and thesis is a sign, that Estonian scientists are taking big steps to commercialise their research work. This is only positive and clearly a mark, how necessary were the changes we made in Prototron to finance ideas of TTU intellectual property.
Several ideas were to improve car engine and gadgets. Modernised energy source, solutions for children and pregnant woman, development of drones, different API and ideas, which use blockchain, and even proposal to start teleportation – this is the pool of the ideas our experts will start access next two weeks.

Established in 2012 by Swedbank, Tehnopol and Tallinn University of Technology, Prototron is nowmarking its sixth year by raising this year’s total support amount to 130 000 euros.
In addition to financial support, Prototron also provides mentorship and valuable contact networks of potential investors as part of the training programme for the applicants. . The winners will be awarded with a six-month free incubation space at Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol and legal assistance from Hedman Partners.
In 5 years Prototron received applications with 29000 different business ideas, including 58 project that were successful in receiving funding of 670 000 in total for creating the prototypes vital for their product development process. Thanks to Prototron, 24 new products have successfully been launched to the market.

Prototyping foundation Prototron’s 19th application round was focused on digitalisation. About 200 ideas were submitted, and the most useful ones for people and industry made it to the final top. Four teams received funding, the total sum was 30 000 EUR.

“All the teams competing for Prototron’s funding come from different areas. Still, they have something very important in common – their ideas and solutions are really surprising. The teams managed to make technology useful for people and industries, solving problems in unexpected areas”, said Prototron CEO Jana Pavlenkova.

FoodDocs team is working on a cloud-based self-check plan for restaurants, cafes and other companies dealing with food. This makes document management easier and gives a better overview. Funding received: 5 000 EUR.

VirtualFX received 10 000 EUR from Prototron, in order to develop a VR-based cognitive rehabilitation solution. This could help patients with brain trauma to experience different situations in virtual reality, instead of going through current situations “in theory”. The solution will raise effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation method.

Eziil team received 5 000 EUR, in order to develop a production intellect – a desktop for industry director, which helps make visual work plans and spread the information to all workers’ smart devices. This artificial intelligence could learn from the user’s previous actions and in the future would automatically suggest the best possible action plans.

Prototron’s sponsoring partner Elering awarded 10 000 EUR to the FuseBox team, so they could test their solution for helping electric networks. From the environmental point of view, producing reneqable energy is becoming more important, but is unstable and overloading the energy networks. A more flexible energy use could be the solution, with temporary switching off systems that use too much energy (e.g. heating or cooling systems). And FuseBox team is now developing this very solution.

Prototyping foundation Prototron has supported teams who develop smart solutions for the 19th time. The awarding took place today at sTARTUp Day in Tartu. So far in total, 56 idea prototypes have been supported in total amount more than 700 000 EUR.

Prototron’s partners are Utilitas, Hedman Partners and Elering.
Applications for the next round can be submitted up to March 15th online at www.prototron.ee/en.

Oktoobrikuust on Prototroni ekspertkogus uus liige – Swedbanki ettevõtete panganduse juht Liisi Himma.

“Eesti on väike ja me ei saa riskida sellega, et mõni andekas idee jääks teostamata üksnes rahaliste vahendite puudumise tõttu. Prototron on suurepärane lahendus kindlustamaks, et iga ettevõtlusgeeniga inimene saaks võimaluse panna oma idee proovile ning näha, kuidas heast ideest paberil sünnib käegakatsutav toode,” räägib Liisi.

Tema sõnul on digitaalne ajastu ümber kujundamas tervet majandussüsteemi – infotehnoloogia ei ole enam pelgalt üks paljudest majandussektoritest, vaid sellest on saamas Eesti majanduse selgroog. “Muidugi on mul ülimalt hea meel, kui mõni järjekordne Eestis asutatud kõrgtehnoloogiline start-up on kaasanud piisavalt investoreid, et murda globaalsele turule. Samas on minu suureks sooviks leida ka võimalus, kuidas tuua digitaalsesse ajastusse kaasa traditsiooniliste valdkondadega tegelevad ettevõtted – olgu selleks nurgapealne pagaritöökoda, naabrimehe ehitusettevõte või kunagise klassiõe õmblusfirma. Õnneks pakub IT lugematul arvul võimalusi, kuidas ka traditsiooniliste ettevõtete tegevust efektiivsemaks, mastaapsemaks ja kasumlikumaks muuta – tarvis on üksnes piisavalt tahet ja head ideed, ning klientuur meie väikeettevõtete näol oleks juba olemas,” lisab ta.

“Olles töötanud 12 aastat pangas ettevõtete finantseerimise valdkonnas ja näinud lugematul arvul erinevaid ärimudeleid – nii töötavaid kui mittetöötavaid – loodan ma väga, et suudan Ekspertkogus aidata välja sõeluda just need kõige suurema potentsiaaliga ideed. Ühtlasi, omades vilunud silma rahavoogude ja eelarvestamise maailmas, juhiksin tähelepanu ka nõrkadele ning tugevatele kohtadele äriplaanis. Minu senine kogemus on ilmekalt näidanud, et ettevõtmised, mis töötavad paberil või Excelis, et pruugi küll päris elus toimida, kuid vastupidi mitte kunagi – need, mis juba paberil või Excelis kokku ei jookse, ei tule reaalse elu konkurentsikeskkonnas kohe kindlasti toime!”

Liisi soovib tulevastele taotlejatele julget pealehakkamist ja elutervet jonnakust – suurim ebaõnnestumine on üldse mitte proovimine ja suurim kaotus käest lastud võimalus! “Kas teadsite, et näiteks Angry Birds loojad tegid enne suurt läbimurret valmis tervenisti 51 mängu ning oleksid seejuures peaaegu pankrotti läinud, kuid otsustasid siiski veel ühe korra proovida?”

Prototron spring round results were announced at Innovation Day

As a result of Prototron spring round, a total sum of 20 000 EUR was awarded to the following ideas: inflatable fixing bandage, effect pedal for electric guitar and a solution for preventing sudden deaths from heart attacks.

Transformative

The biggest funding, 10 000 EUR, was awarded to the Transformative team. They managed to combine artificial intelligence and analysis technologies used in CERN, which allows to detect a heart attack 4 minutes before it should happen.

Airsplint

5000 EUR were granted to Airsplint. This team has designed an inflatable fixing bandage, which could be useful at rescue missions for fixing broken bones and other injuries.

FusionPedal

The FusionPedal team has also received 5000 EUR. Their idea was to create effect pedals for electric guitars with high quality sound. The pedal can be controlled by mobile app.
In total, 298 applications were submitted to Prototron in the spring round, marking a new record. Many ideas were connected with nutrition, sport and entertainment – in other words, making human life more comfortable.
Prototron foundation, established in 2012 by Swedbank, Tehnopol and Tallinn University of Technology, has already supported 50 idea prototypes in total amount of ca 600 000 EUR. Some of them have gained international success: Lingvist, Flydog, coModule, GlobalReader, Sprayprinter and ShipitWise. And we have got new sponsors – Utilitas and Hedman Partners.