Latitude59’s pitching contest win surpassing giants like Slush

The victory of the pitching competition of Latitude59, the Estonian flagship startup and technology conference, this time was shared between three startups – Flowstep earned the most significant investment of 600,000 euros, Cino 500,000, and ÄIO Tech 150,000. In total, Tera Ventures and Estonian Business Angels Network EstBAN issued a 1,25 million euro investment, which is the largest of its kind in the Nordic countries and the Baltics.

The eleventh Latitude59, attended by 3,000 people, was themed “Be Bold”. Almost 400 startups from 61 countries applied for Latitude59’s traditional pitch competition. Both early-stage and more mature technology companies were invited to the competition.

According to Martin Goroško, Lead Investor of EstBAN, the ideas of entrepreneurs at different stages were equally good. “Since this time we put the investment together with a VC fund, we consciously chose companies to top 10 with both, already strong turnover as well as early stage companies, because the goal was to identify especially forward-looking solutions in times of challenges. That’s how the three startups were selected, two of which are already strong in the market and one who is about to enter,” explained Goroško.

According to Tera Ventures partner Andrus Oks, this year’s competition is characterized by the strong level and ambition of the candidates. “Latitude59 is a mature technology conference, this is clearly shown by the profile of those who applied for the pitching contest – there were plenty of startups that have already proven themselves on the market. So the choice was not an easy one,” said Oks.

In the startup world, it is not very common for business angels and VCs to launch a joint syndicate. “This is indeed a special case. It´s also exceptional that EstBAN and Tera VC increased the amount of investment in the process – the initial planned 1 million became 1.25 million. So, in addition to the largest number of applicants so far and the representation of countries, this year’s competition has been special for us in many ways,” recognized Triin Ilves, Head of Startup Relations at Latitude59.

Latitude59 was sold out again this year. There were 3,000 ticket holders, including more than 800 start-up representatives, and 600 investors. With over 120 speakers and more than 80 journalists attending, it makes Latitude59 Estonia’s most international tech and startup event.

Tickets for the next Latitude59, which will take place on May 22-24 in Tallinn, are available latitude59.ee