Startup Day presented a number of University of Tartu spin-offs

The largest business festival in the Baltics Startup Day was held at the end of August, bringing together 3,000 participants from 67 countries. Among others, also spin-offs of the University of Tartu introduced themselves to the international audience.

During the three days of the festival, the audience could listen to 163 inspiring speakers, and more than 100 business ideas were presented to entrepreneurs and investors. For the third time, the University of Tartu led the “Science to business” technology transfer programme of the festival. In the demo area, the university’s research-intensive spin-offs and business cooperation success stories were introduced.

One of the initiators of the festival Andres Kuusik, Associate Professor in Marketing at the University of Tartu, said that the goal of the festival was to bring together investors and the smart business ideas of the University of Tartu students, researchers and alumni, and to give a chance to the success stories of new unicorns.

To date, seven unicorns, or technology companies worth more than a billion US dollars, have emerged from Estonia: Skype, Playtech, Wise, Bolt, Pipedrive, Zego and ID.me. According to Startup Estonia, this is more per capita than in any other European country, and most of the founders of these companies come from the University of Tartu.

Among others, also spin-offs of the University of Tartu participated in Startup Day, introducing their products and services to potential investors. For example, the company Coronaprot who develops devices for the disinfection of face masks, other items and air. Also Antegenes, who have launched novel gene tests for cancer prevention, participated in the festival. To estimate a person’s risk of cancer, Antegenes uses a high-tech solution combining data from thousands of genetic variants.

Despite the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic, many international speakers were also present. For example, Silicon Valley expert and freelance writer Adam Fisher discussed with Priit Salumaa, CEO of the startup Better Medicine, whether Silicon Valley’s success could be repeated.

The next Startup Day will take place from 26 to 28 January 2022. Tickets are already available.