Estonian startups showed growth in turnover by 11% to €1.69Bln in the nine months of 2023
Estonian tech companies showed growth in turnover by 11% to €1.69Bln in the first nine months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, when the turnover reached €1.52Bln. Bolt (€904.9M), Veriff (€53.8M), Swappie (€47.8M), Crezu (€24.1M) and Viseven (€23.9M) had the highest turnover.
In the first nine months of 2023, Estonian startups paid €162.5M in employment taxes, compared to €134M in the same period of 2022. The largest employment taxpayers were Bolt (€27.3M), Wise (€26.1M), Veriff (€7.1M), Monese (€4.2M), and Glia (€3.7M).
Estonian startups employed 9,6K people locally at the end of the third quarter of 2023. Last year, this number was higher - 9,8K people. The biggest employers were Wise (1,8K employees) and Bolt (1,2K), Swappie (461), Veriff (307), and Monese (240). In 2023, startups paid nearly a quarter more in labor taxes than last year.
The most active sector in 2023 was business software and HR with 265 startup companies and a turnover of €132,2M. Fintech holds the second position with 201 startups and a turnover of 138,1M. The third-largest sector is consumer products and services with 181 startups and total revenue of €70M. 130 startups belong to deep tech with a total turnover of €117.5M.
This year, Estonian startups have raised €147,3M in investments and signed 45 venture deals. 23 startups received more than €1M. In the same period in 2022, there were 59 venture deals with a total raised investment of €1,2Bln.
The largest amount of investment was raised by Binalyze (€17,7M), Funderbeam (€36M), RangeForce (€17M), Planet42 (€14,1M) and EFENCO (€12,3M).
There were five exits in the first half of 2023. Amazon acquired Estonian-US startup Snackable.ai. It was an exit for Estonian venture funds Tera Ventures, Superangel, and founder of Skype Jaan Tallinn.
Estonian crypto exchange Coinmetro acquired Estonian blockchain-based social fundraising Platform Ignium for €4M. Finnish accelerator Kiuas exited Ignium. Estonian transportation platform Forus International acquired Estonian car-sharing service Autolevi. This was an exit for business angels Kaspar Hanni, (Partner at Estonian fund Specialist VC ) who owned 8.05%, Andrus Valma (14.55%), and Kuido Lepik (14.54%). In 2017, they invested €60K in Autolevi. Also, private investors from the crowdfunding platform Funderbeam exited Autolevi.
Estonian business text messaging service TextMagic acquired Estonian website-building platform Voog. Textmagic bought stake of 16 shareholders - current employees, co-founders of Voog, Tõnu Runnel, Märt Kelder, Priit Haamer, Toivo Annus, and CEO Henn Runnel.
Swiss fund Andromeda Capital Partners acquired 51% of Estonian crypto company Change. Andromeda bought shares of Change founder Kristjan Kangro.
The report was published by Startup Estonia. It is a governmental initiative, that helps develop a startup ecosystem, co-organizing events, educating local investors attracting foreign investors to Estonia, etc. The Startup Estonia program is financed from the resources of the European Regional Development Fund.
