Test★Market
Estonian technology stories
Smashr – the free and addictive Android game testing how strong you are in smashing your phone became an attention magnet in last weeks Garage48 event in Tartu.
“This is f…ing sick!” Kresten Buch, the Founder of HumanIPO has apparently said to this. Yet, the crazy startup has received a quite a response from social media and Estonian media.
Hundreds of people have downloaded Smashr already! The Founders say they are earning money by giving the users “an option to cheat”!
What I wonder is, can the technology that Smashr is based on, be used in any other, perhaps more practical ways.
Look at the video, where I spoke with Smashr-guys after the Garage48 weekend.
- (2) Comments
- Tags: Garage48, Smashr
Estonian VC Allan Martinson’s newest startup Inner Circle has apparently closed its first seed investment round just few days ago.
Estonian business registry shows that new investors behind the project are Regio (the well-known mapping, mobile positioning and GIS software developer), Estonian Development Fund (Arengufond) and its Chairman of the Supervisory Board, entrepreneur Raivo Vare. Investment sum, as I recall Martinson telling me earlier, was around 200 000 euros.
I wrote a post on Inner Circle few weeks ago. In september the team will go to Silicon Valley to prepare for the launch.
Yet to be officially registered startup Defolio, built over a weekend and developing a collaborative design tool for freelancers and small creative agencies, was the winner of Garage48 event in Tartu.
A group of eight people, among them Ahti Heinla – a founding engineer of Skype, Siim Teller – a well-known blogger and Tõnu Runnel – a famous startupper and Founder of Edicy, came to together for 48 hours (12 hours of sleep – two nights – included) and built a rocking tool for designers, that already has over 234 users worldwide.
The idea came from Tõnu Runnel and Priit Haamer from Edicy. But four days ago they had only one page description of it. User interface, design, coding – everything was done over a weekend.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: Defolio, Edicy, Garage48, Skype
Garage48 organizer Priit Salumaa: More fun, astonishing achievements! (VIDEO)
In: New start-ups|R&D
30 Aug 2010
Yesterday evening at 22, when crowds at Garage48 event in Tartu had already gone off for a well-deserved rest and beer, I spotted exhausted-looking Priit Salumaa, one of the main organizers of the event.
He gave me a video interview, describing his gushy, yet concealed feelings after 48 hours of intensive collaborative startup building, heavy brainwork in other words. Salumaa was amazed by some of the projects and he says it is likely that the next Garage48 event will be in Helsingi this October, but definately in Tallinn next spring.
Crowd of people, all together about 100 persons with different backgrounds gathered in Tartu on Friday, formed 17 groups and started building startups (working beta products) from scratch.
New players, including the Co-Founder of Hansapank entering digital archiving business (VIDEO)
In: New start-ups
27 Aug 2010
Well-known Estonian businessman Rain Lõhmus (pictured), Co-Founder of Hansapank and current Chairman of the Board of LHV Pank is entering into a new business. He already has paper archives in all three Baltic States. But Lõhmus is now going digital as well – he is to be found in a new startup called Baltic Digital Archive (BDA).
BDA will focus on major corporate clients, offering them digital archiving software (that they can use independently), digital archiving as a service (with management and storing) and databases archiving.
It is interesting, when CEO of the new company, Kari Maripuu, talks about how banks, for example, currently archive their documents, loan agreements and everything. Yes, of course they have backups, but those are insufficient in long term. The banks can’t assure that sensitive information is stored securely for decades. This is where BDA wants help them.
Estonian startup Vecly, owned by entrepreneurs Indrek Raig, Yrjö and Rait Ojasaar and Artec Group, aims to benefit from the global digital revolution. They are developing software for Digital TV STBs (set-top boxes) to turn them into multimedia centers and make us use them for many other means than just TV.
Artec’s STB’s with Vecly’s software are currently sold in Estonian electronic stores. But Vecly is now targeting much larger partners such as Renesas, NEC, NXP and Trident-Adecq. The company is also having negotiations with Levira, the main TV and radio broadcast network operator in Estonia.
Vecly’s consideration is following: China, where majority of STBs are obviously produced, is an inexpensive country for electronics production, but Chinese software is far from being perfect. Here’s where Vecly enters into the game.
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- Tags: Artec Group, Vecly
On behalf of the team (myself actually) I would like to thank everyone, who has supported this blog. Thanks for the encouraging words in TestMarket’s fanpage in Facebook and other channels, like Ekspress.ee story.
Who doesn’t know yet – last week I was invited to Ministry of Economic Affairs to pitch my blog in front of small audience and the honorable jury. I showed the promotional video that I prepared for Stanford University audience in summer 2009. I have to admit the video looks a bit funny, because I am saying there that I do not need Facebook and Twitter. That is not true of course.
I explained the jury that for me TestMarket.eu is a one-man-band. And if I would stand by and look at this project, I would consider myself very stupid, yet self-confident. The bottom line is that I consider having a lot ( and I mean A LOT) to learn in this area of tech blogging, but I am still going ahead with the blog bull-headedly.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: TestMarket.eu
Publish your e-book in AppStore for 100$ (VIDEO)
12 Aug 2010
Indilo Wireless, a rockin’ and rollin’ iPhone-iPad-iPod apps developer from Tartu, plans to launch something interesting this autumn.
Marius Arras, the CEO of Indilo talks about a multimedia e-book publishing tool, currently under intensive development, that would enable anyone to publish his or her materials (books, notes) as e-books in a sexy multimedia-rich way and start earning money through purchases from the AppStore.
The „do-it-yourself“ process of publishing e-books via Indilo’s new tool will be simple: enter your manuscript, add videos, audio files or pictures, preview the whole thing, set the price for your e-book and publish it. Of course, at some point you will have to pay Indilo around 100 USD and they will charge a certain percentage from sales.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: Apple, Indilo Wireless
What a pleasant compliment for Estonian tech sector and economy! US tech tiger Seven Networks, one of the leading providers of mobile email and messaging solutions on mass market devices, will establish a considerable R&D unit in Estonia. Current plan is to grow the Estonia office to approximately 50+ employees by the end of this year. There are not too many IT companies that size here.
„Are you ready to help build a technology that has the power to change the way people communicate?“ the company asks in their Estonian job ads. „We are dedicated to building a world-class team to create the next wave of innovative mobile services.“
Isabelle Dumont, Product and Corporate Marketing Director of Seven Networks tells me that the company will open a new office in Tallinn to support its worldwide growth and plans to enter aggressively into new product areas that tackle some of the most challenging problems faced by the telecom industry today. Seven, she says, is a profitable business and continues to expand globally.
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- Tags: Seven Networks
It was in 2006 when Playtech, an online gambling software developing superstar hired a guy from Israel, Boaz Laufer (pictured). He came to work in Estonia, where Playtech has its development units in Tallinn and Tartu.
But now, four years later, there’s a depressing dispute between Laufer and Playtech. Martin Leiger from Playtech Estonia’s public relations refuses to comment what is it about, referring that there’s a trial ongoing in Estonian court. One thing, however, is certain: the issue will not improve Playtech’s reputation.
Boaz argues that he was fired from Playtech unfairly, due to one of his tasks – he was working on a Playtech’s Intranet project, but it failed and according to Laufer, Playtech managers thought he was to blame for this. But he objects having done anything wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
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- Tags: Human Sapiens, Playtech, Tõnu Samuel
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- otsmaa: Absolutely fab! But where do I buy the insurance for my phone? just go for it!!!!!! [...]
- Silver Stoltsen: When you download this app also buy insurance for your phone sense sooner or later it will slip from [...]
- Kristjan: Naiste osas on nüüd olukord parem: Heidi Kakko AFst oli asutajate hulgas ja temale lisandus sel su [...]
- Kristiina: I'm glad that Defolio has decided to continue independently as the whole idea and execution are extr [...]
- Janar Eit: Great inspiring post Toivo! Your reasons for keeping this blog set a good example for everybody [...]
- Smashr – probably the craziest Estonian startup ever! (VIDEO)
- Estonian Development Fund, Regio and Raivo Vare invested into startup Inner Circle
- Garage48 winner Defolio is making buzz – what is it? (VIDEO)
- Garage48 organizer Priit Salumaa: More fun, astonishing achievements! (VIDEO)
- New players, including the Co-Founder of Hansapank entering digital archiving business (VIDEO)
- Vecly knows what will be your home multimedia center in future
- TestMarket.eu is the Estonian winner of „European Enterprise Awards 2010“
- Publish your e-book in AppStore for 100$ (VIDEO)
- US tech tiger establishes R&D unit in Estonia, hires 50+ engineers!
- Former Playtech employee runs his online gambling business and is a heavy spammer?