Estonian startups showed growth in turnover by 17% to €1Bln in the first half of 2023

Estonian young tech companies showed growth in turnover by 17% to €1Bln in the first six months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022. Bolt (€592M), Veriff (€38M), Swappie (€32,4M), Viseven (€16,5M) and Crezu (€15,8M) had the highest turnover. The turnover of Bolt, Crezu, and Viseven in the first six months of 2023 increased almost twice compared to Q1 2023. 

In the first six months of 2023, Estonian startups have raised €113,2M in investments. 22 deals have been signed with an average size of €5,1M. Fifteen startups have raised more than €1M. The largest investments have been raised by Funderbeam (€36M), RangeForce (€17M), Planet42 (€14,1M), EFENCO (€12,3M) and Roofit.solar (€6,45M).

There have been four exits in the first half of 2023. E-commerce platform Amazon acquired Estonian-US startup Snackable.ai, and Estonian crypto exchange  Coinmetro acquired Estonian blockchain-based social fundraising Platform Ignium for 4M. Estonian transportation platform Forus International acquired Estonian car-sharing service Autolevi, and Estonian business text messaging service TextMagic acquired 100% of Estonian website building platform Voog for €1,1M.

Earlier this year, Swedish SEB bank conducted a Baltic Business Outlook survey. It showed that 23% of Estonian startups (which participated in the survey) expected their turnover to grow by more than 15% in 2023. 

According to Startup Estonia, startups focus more on increasing efficiency and ensuring profitability, rather than on rapid global growth. Investors expect the same from them.

The turnover report is based on data published quarterly by the Tax and Customs Board based on VAT returns submitted by a VAT payer.

Startup Estonia is a governmental initiative that works with different Estonian ministries and stakeholders. It helps to develop a startup ecosystem, co-organizing events, educating the local investors and attracting foreign investors to Estonia, etc.