Tag: rahastus

This year’s first round of Prototron, Estonia’s first smart ideas fund, is over. A total of 70,000 euros was shared between five teams in the spring round. Ideas like a new generation alarm button, automated road surface marking robot and solar park analytics solution were judged worthy of funding.

According to Jana Budkovskaja, CEO of Prototron, innovation is an important keyword in the ideas that received funding in this round. “This is precisely in the point that people are often so used to existing solutions and as if in a comfort zone that they don’t know what better to want. In most cases, however, innovation will most likely be better, faster or more efficient, and if we don’t think about it before, we definitely will after personal contact or need, ” she explained, adding that with Prototron ‘s support, the teams are now starting to develop solutions that break many existing patterns of action.

The beneficiaries of Prototron’s 2020 spring round funding are:

– The 10Lines team received 25,000 euros and is starting to develop a robot that can mark and paint pavements at the same time. Til this day, it has been a process that requires significant human and time resources that a robot can easily substitute and perform.

– With a 10,000 euro funding, the Abbuco team will set out to develop a solar park analytics solution that collects and analyzes information from parks set up by different manufacturers to maximize its benefits.

– LifePatch is a new generation marine alarm button based on NB-IoT (narrow band internet of things) that sends an SOS call to the cloud system. This helps to find the person in distress at sea much faster and better, because the positioning of the alarm signal with the help of the cloud system is much more accurate than before. The team received funding of 10,000 euros.

– A Funding of € 20,000 euros was provided to the Magnalysis team, which is developing a solution to make magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cheaper and more user-friendly. The solution helps to bring the information of MRI examinations into cloud technology, so that it would be available to doctors everywhere, and artificial intelligence would be able to analyze the results of the examinations and assist in preliminary diagnosis. All in all, the solution would make the work of doctors much easier.

– The Milo Appliances team received 5,000 euros to develop a so-called smart kitchen surface with a magnetic motor. Instead of having several separate appliances in each kitchen, such as a blender, food processor, mixer, etc., there is one smart countertop and compatible containers.

The most successful of the campaigns carried out on the co-financing platform Fundwise was AG Vibez, who is developing sound choreography clothing that helps, for example, the deaf to perceive music through the vibrations of sound. The team raised 905 euros with the campaign, a total of 29 teams raised 7,423 euros.

Prototron was founded in 2012 by Swedbank, TalTech and Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol, in 2020 the University of Tartu became another major partner and the fund expanded to Latvia. By now, Prototron has financed 79 smart ideas with a total of nearly 965,000 euros, and the teams have raised more than 28 million euros in follow-on investments.

In addition to the founders, the city of Tallinn, BuildIt Latvia, Samsung, Hedman Lift, Fundwise, Veebimajutus.ee, LMT, Amazon Web Services and BASIS ID offer mentoring and support services to the teams.

This years second round will start in November. Applications can be submitted until November 15th at www.prototron.ee.

Samsung Electronics expands the geography of Samsung Startup Membership (SSM) program. For this purpose, the company has entered into a partnership agreement with the Prototron Foundation specializing in financing prototype solutions from various fields, commercializing inventions and launching innovative businesses.

Technology-related ideas

In October 2019, the Prototron will organize an autumn round – a contest of ideas. The best ideas will receive funding from the partners of the program to create a prototype, access to the
educational base of partners in the chosen direction of development and consulting support. For each round, Samsung will allocate 10,000 euros for technology-related ideas, and will assist startups in finding customers, investors, and testing opportunities. The winners of the round will become participants of the Samsung Startup Membership program.

Ideas for participation in the autumn round of Prototron 2019 are accepted till October 15, 2019 inclusive. Both individuals and companies from different fields can participate in the selection. The winners of the round will be announced on December 1.

Great potential

“We are pleased to become partners of a reputable and successful foundation and support promising ideas of entrepreneurs from Estonia. By expanding the geography of the Samsung Startup Membership program, we are contributing to the further development of the global digital economy,” – said Jin Wook Lee, vice president of Samsung Electronics and CEO of Samsung Research Russia.

“We are very glad that such a large international company as Samsung sees great potential in Estonian technological talents and is ready to share its experience and competence. Samsung’s appreciation will be an important quality mark for the teams and ideas that this corporation will support,” – said Jana Pavlenkova, CEO of Prototron.

The Prototron Foundation was established 2012 by Swedbank, Tallinn science Park Tehnopol and Tallinn University of Technology to  support startups in entering the world market.

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.

Gelatex is selected as one of 10 startups to join The Heritage Group Accelerator Powered by Techstars. Its a new US-based startup accelerator focused on reinventing traditional industries. Prototron spotted Gelatex potentiality already in 2017, when we supported the team with 10 000 euros.

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.

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.

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.

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?”