Amount of investments received by Estonian startups increased 2.5 times
Estonian startups raised €148,9M in Q1 2024, which is almost 2,5 times more than in Q1 2023. In Q1 2023, Estonian startups raised €62M.
In the first four months of 2024, there were 20 venture deals with an average size of €8M. Nine of them raised investments of more than €1M each. In the same period of 2023, the number of deals was 14, and the average deal size was €5M per deal.
In Q1 2024, the largest amount of investment was received by developer of autonomous delivery vehicles Starship Technologies (€90M), banking platform Tuum (€25M), cybersecurity startup BotGuard (€12M), EV charging network developer Eleport (€5M), car subscription company Planet42 (€3M), and deeptech GScan (€3M).
Estonian startups showed growth in turnover in Q1 of 2024, generated to €817,4M. This is 10% more than in the same period of 2023. The data is based on the quarterly data from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.
The largest turnovers were generated by mobility unicorn Bolt (€289,8M), sales management CRM platform Pipedrive (€46,3M), online identity verification unicorn Veriff (€41,9M), developer of surveillance and control solutions Defsecintel (€19,9M), and unmanned aircraft systems developer Threod Systems (€12,9M).
A total of €82,7M of labor taxes was paid, which is three percent more than in the first quarter of 2023. The largest taxpayers were Bolt with €9,8M, money transfer service Wise with €8,9M, Pipedrive with €3,6M, and gambling company Coolbet with €2M.
At the end of March 2024, Estonian startups employed 13229 people, and the largest employers were Wise (1948 employees), Bolt (1278), marketplace for buying and selling refurbished smartphones Swappie (470), and Pipedrive (387).
At the end of Q1 2024, 1,530 startups were operating in Estonia, according to Startup Estonia. These statistics include startups, which are fast-growing innovative technology companies operating in Estonia that are over ten years old and have reached a sales transaction, and also growth companies over ten years old, which are technology companies with global potential, which employ at least 50 employees in Estonia and which have paid at least €1M in labor taxes in Estonia in the last year.
