Three Tehnopol Startup Incubator companies attract considerable investments

In the course of their participation in the Tehnopol Startup Incubator programme, the MySpotit, VITS and Sentinel companies developed very exciting technological solutions and became investor-ready. 

Yesterday, on 26 February, three successful startups graduated from the Tehnopol growth support programme: Sentinel, which identifies videos and other information manipulated by means of deepfake AI, MySpotit, a platform for mediation of information on available meetings spaces, and VITS, an occupational health and safety platform and virtual working environment specialist. The goal of the growth support programme is to enhance investor readiness and export capabilities of technological startups that have developed strong business ideas. Then there are also bonuses in the form of community benefits and an inspiring environment.

Kadri Tammai, Director of the Tehnopol Startup Incubator, mentions that the growth support programme was designed primarily for those startups that seek rapid development and wish to attract investors. “We work with startups from their very beginning,” says Tammai, “which is why at first we help them with finding a scalable business model. As a rule, building up a company does not guarantee a straight route to success. Various obstacles exist and the involvement of experienced mentors results in much easier avoidance of problems as well as development to a level at which faith in your potential expands beyond your family, friends and the incubator staff, with investors starting to take interest in you. Today, we are happy to see three young companies becoming important players in their chosen fields.”

According to Sentinel’s CEO Johannes Tammekänd, information warfare poses an increasing threat to democracy, public order and economic stability. It attempts to destabilise democratic regimes from the inside. In 2019, the global damage sustained due to false information totalled 78 billion dollars. “We created an AI platform that identifies deepfake instances and other types of false information,” says Tammekänd, “and it has already attracted a lot of attention. Several national institutions are interested in cooperating with us for the purpose of extending this platform. It is crystal clear that without the Tehnopol Startup Incubator, it would have taken us much longer to achieve this. The growth support programme has been of great help to us and other startups.”

Hardi Kinnas, co-founder of MySpotit, points out that people spend around one third of their life at work, and up to 30 per cent of that time is dedicated to meetings. “Many think that work meetings are a waste of time,” says Kinnas, “yet no one has invented a better method of staff coordination. MySpotit intends to make a difference. We have created a convenient and fast platform for booking exciting meeting spaces. Holding meetings at diverse locations reduces the negative effect of established routines.” The company is active in Estonia and Latvia and intends to enter other European markets. Kinnas emphasises that this is just the beginning: the company is working on features for meeting preparation, participant invitation, attention boosting and involvement gauging. “The Tehnopol Startup Incubator has been a wonderful growth environment for us,” notes Kinnas, “and the mentor assigned to MySpotit, Raido Pikkar, helped us with developmental activity planning and investor engaging.”

Jaanika Jelistratov, VITS Virtual Working Environment Specialist, reminds readers that all companies must comply with occupational health and safety requirements. On the one hand, this is a bureaucratic and bothersome task. On the other hand, such compliance protects the business from financial penalties and court cases. “Nowadays,” says Jelistratov, “more attention is given to having all the necessary paperwork at the expense of actual working environment improvement efforts. VITS reduces bureaucratic procedure time and ensures availability of the required documentation. Thus, our client companies have more time for examining their working environments and reducing the risks.” “In the near future,” continues Jelistratov, “we intend to expand our system into a full-fledged virtual assistant that will be advising companies on issues of occupational health and safety improvements.” Jelistratov explains the next stage after graduation from the growth support programme, adding that the Tehnopol Startup Incubator offered both intellectual and physical assistance: the mentor focused on what really mattered then and what would matter soon, resulting in time and money savings.

The Tehnopol Startup Incubator provides technology startups with a secure growth environment. Each participating company receives 10,000 euros’ worth of expert advice from the best Estonian and European mentors aimed at attracting initial investments or entering export markets. The Tehnopol Startup Incubator is just one part of a comprehensive support service offered by Science Park Tehnopol, the largest of its kind in the Baltic States. Science Park Tehnopol strives to foster the emergence and advancement in Estonia of globally prominent technology companies, supporting their expansion into foreign markets and providing solutions ranging from commercial real estate to needs-based business services.