On December 8, the sTARTUp Day international business festival in Tartu took place. On its four stages business ideas were presented and teams competed, including STARTER finalists. The event brought together a total of 2600 visitors.
On IdeaLab stage, 62 teams from Estonia and other countries presented their business ideas. Each had 2-3 minutes to explain their business idea to the audience, point out its novelty, users of the product and the amount of money needed by the team to develop the idea further. Seven competitions took place – Kaleidoskoop finals, the final round of STARTER programme, Prototron TOP 10, EstLat-Accelerate, Cocoon, Est-Fin Pitch Match Startup Wise Guys TOP 10 and sTARTUp Pitching.
Four teams previously selected in Tallinn and two selected on the same day in Tartu made it to the final round of STARTER, which also culminated in presentation of awards. The international jury decided that the best STARTER team was Decomer Technology, who got an opportunity to pitch on sTARTUp Day main stage with five best teams, and tickets to the Arctic15 business festival. Decomer Technology develops bioprotein-based bioplastics, which they currently use for packaging honey. Bioplastic dissolves in hot tea water and is not harmful to health, therefore it is an eco-friendly and convenient alternative to sugar.
“Before sTARTUp Day we were very excited and although we were quite confident, it was impossible to predict the jury’s decision in such a tough competition, so we held our breath until the announcement. Emotions were running high after winning the first prize, the possibility to participate in the EIA programme in Portugal is awesome and gives a great boost to our startup. The further victory and tickets to Arctic 15, as well as the opportunity to pitch on the main stage added to our enthusiasm and it was nice that our idea was successful with so many people,” said Mart Salumäe, co-founder of Decomer Technology
.
All finalists and their ideas:
STARTERcreative :
HOMIE (Gad Keter, Laura Sarapuu, Daniel Kimron, Daniel Elkayam, Saniya Vardak)- is an online marketplace designed for international students looking for a safe and good priced deals of their new home overseas.
FlyMusician (Mari-Liis Urb, Mihkel Kallip) – sells certificates to musicians who thereby receive guarantee that their instrument case will be treated as a carry-on item on planes.
STARTERtech:
ArtiSun (Tatsiana Zaretsjaya, Martin Pajuväli) – is working on creating an innovative artificial lighting system technology to help grow plants efficiently in simulated conditions. Our innovation solves the problem of high electricity consumption and cost by using a smart system of pulse light of a particular spectrum to optimize plant growth.
Easy CNC (Mihkel Tomson, Andry Aasamäe, Oluwafemi Ayanfeoluwa) – make using CNC technology faster and more convenient by eliminating the use of CAD for simpler designs.
STARTERlab:
Decomer Technology (Mart Salumäe, Kelly Kangur) – develops bioprotein-based bioplastics, which they currently use for packaging honey.
Espuro ( M Zaif Nawaz Khan, Kadir Aktaş, Kerim Yiğit Özsoy, Darya Lapitskaya, Rahul Puniani) – air purifier that is connected with smart device. Humidity can be changed with device.
Watch more photos by Andres Tennus here