The Estonian Startup awards were held on the 21st January 2022, lining up the best in the Estonian startup scene. This year, over 1000 inspiring startups and seven unicorns were in the race that was tighter than ever!
Estonia has 4.7x more startups than the EU average. The total raised during 2021 was nearly € 950 million, driven by a massive round of BOLT, the Estonian mobility company taking the world by storm.
The public nomination round, which ran from the end of November to mid-December 2021, results are backed into a bite-sized shortlist. The final voting took place in January 2022 with the help of the Estonian Founders Society. Last year, over 150 Estonian founders voted in the final round.
Income nomination
Income marketplace was nominated in the “Big Bang 2021” category. This category was reserved for the newcomer “whose loud arrival in 2021 impressed us all. Their product launching skill would make anyone jealous”. The award this year went to Lightyear, an investment app with ”a simple and approachable way to invest your money globally without unnecessary barriers and fees.”. We are proud to have been nominated among other future unicorns in this category.
Foreign Founder 2021 nomination
Our founder and CEO, Kimmo Rytkönen, was also nominated for “Foreign Founder 2021”. This category is reserved for non-Estonian founders, who have built their startup in Estonia and are the hungriest for success when building a startup right here in Estonia. The award this year went to Carlos Paniagua, as the CTO of Glia, who was most proud of doubling their value-driven global team across the US and Europe in 2021. Their trajectory fueled a $78M Series C led by Insight Ventures that kicked off 2021. It was a great honor to be nominated among such great founders!
You can watch the total startup awards from here, and don’t forget to follow us on our socials as we kick off 2022 growth.
