Estonia ranks third in Europe
regarding the highest number of startups per capita.
It is a known fact that Estonia is heaven for startups. This is a country where Skype, Transferwise, Pipedrive, Taxify, Planet OS, Fortumo, Starship, Lingvist, Toggl, Testlio and many others were born. With this short blogpost Garage48 would like to introduce you to some of Estonia's successful female founders.
Kristel Kruustuk.Founder and CEO of Testlio.
Kristel is definitely a good example of how hard work and strong will pays off. After living in London, she decided to study software development. During her studies, she fell in love with software testing and she founded a company that tests mobile apps. Development of this company was hard, but years of sleepless nights paid off . In 2016, the The Estonian customer-focused mobile app testing startup, Testlio, closed 6.25 million dollars in series A funding, led by Silicon Valley-based Altos Ventures and Vertex Ventures. Testlio now has an office both in Tallinn and Silicon Valley as well. Half of the employees are women:)
Mari-Liis Lind. Founder of Tech Sisters.
Mari-Liis is a true power-woman in Estonian tech industry. She has worked with several startup organizations, such as Tehnopol, Funderbeam, e-Estonia showroom, etc.
She founded Tech Sisters in 2012. It is non-profit organization with a vision to educate and inspire young women and girls in IT and technology. They usually organize different kind of events and workshops, that helps people to understand technology and technical approaches. The organisation is based in Tallinn and it was nominated as a national winner for the European Enterprise Promotion Awards in 2017.
Kaidi Ruusalep. Founder and CEO of Funderbeam.
Kaidi was the only IT- lawyer in Estonia. She was hired by the Prime Minister's office to take part of creating Estonia's Digital Signatures Act (one of the first in the world). From there she worked as the head of Estonian Central Securities Depository for four years. After leading CSD, she got offered an executive chair at NASDAQ Tallinn. So alltogether, she worked 12 years in trading, clearing and settlement industry before becoming an entrepreneur. Funderbeam,
is a platform where growth companies are founded and traded across borders. They use Blockchain technology. Funderbeam has 7 million dollars in investments from 19 investors worldwide. How cool is that?! Kaidi strongly believes that everything is possible, if you are passionate and determined:
“I think entrepreneurs are born with a passion to make a difference, both in their own lives and within industries that have remained unchanged for years. If you believe in your vision and you know how to execute it, then everything is possible. ”— Kaidi Ruusalepp
Karoli Hindriks. Founder and CEO of Jobbatical.
Karoli founded her first company at the age of 16. She became the youngest inventor in Estonia creating pedestrian reflectors that could be used as a part of clothing and jewelry, and she now holds several patents and international trademarks for her designs. She is also famous for her achievement of becoming a youngest CEO of MTV. Her latest invention, a startup called Jobbatical blends the concept of a job and a sabbatical, matching employers and talent for short-term jobs that might involve sending a software developer from Sweden to Thailand for a three-month ‘jobbatical’. Jobbatical has already raised more than 8 million dollars and is only going stronger.
Anna-Greta Tsahkna. Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Timbeter.
Timbeter is a company which pioneered a solution that measures timber quickly and accurately. Timbeter team came together in a Garage48 Women in Tech Hackathon in Pärnu, Estonia on 2013. Anna-Greta says that she loves finding solutions for different problems.
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