Amount of investments received by Estonian startups in H1 2024 doubled

Estonian startups received €238.9M in investments in the first six months of 2024, which is twice as much as in 2023 when startups raised €119.3M. The data was published in Startup Estonia, based on open data from Statistics Estonia, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, Dealroom, and other sources.

In H1, there were 35 new investment deals, 17 of which were valued at €1M or more. In the same period of 2023, there were 34 investment deals.

In the first half of 2024, the largest investments went to autonomous delivery vehicle developer Starship Technologies (€90M), renewable energy equipment maker Stargate Hydrogen (€42M), hydrogen technology developer Elcogen (€30M), banking platform Tuum (€25M), cybersecurity startup BotGuard (€12M), IoT sensor developer Bisly (€6.2M), EV charging network developer Eleport (€5M), defence industry startup SensusQ (€3.8M), car subscription company Planet42 (€3M), and deeptech GScan (€3M).

In H1 of 2024, the most popular sectors for investment were energy, fintech, security, and food sectors. 

The report shows that at the end of Q2 2024, Estonian startups employed 13229 people. This is 4% less than in 2023, when startups employed 14,045 people. The largest employers were money transfer service Wise (with 1997 employees), mobility unicorn Bolt (1280), gaming technology company Playtech (677), marketplace for buying and selling refurbished smartphones Swappie (480), and sales management CRM company Pipedrive (369).

According to the report, approximately 37% of employees are women, and 63% are men. 32% of the employees have foreign citizenship, of which 5.3% are EU nationals, and 26.9% are from non-EU countries. 46% of employees are aged between  31 and 40, and 35% are aged between 21 and 30.

A total of €169.4M was paid in labor taxes, which is two percent more than in the first six months of 2023. The largest taxpayers are Bolt (€20.1M), Wise (€18M), Pipedrive (€8.3M), Playtech (€8.1M) and cloud communications company Twilio (€4M).

The average monthly gross salary in Estonian startup-sector companies during H1 of 2024 was €3609. Employees in the age group 41-50 age earn the highest average monthly gross wage (€4462) followed by employees in the age group 31-40, whose average monthly gross salary is €3912. The average gross monthly wage for foreign employees is €3739.

The largest turnovers were generated by Bolt (€618.3M), Pipedrive (€130.8M), online identity verification unicorn Veriff (€59,1M), developer of surveillance and control solutions Defsecintel (€25,7M), and Playtech (€24,3M). In total, Estonian companies in the startup sector recorded a turnover of €1.698Bln, which is 11% more than in the same period in 2023 (€1.530Bln).