Here are some fresh Estonian start-ups I have discovered this month. Some videos in Estonian are included.

Testonica Lab is a hardcore technology spin-off of Tallinn University of Technology. The company has managed to build symbiotic friendship with Ericsson the giant, hence really taken off with its business.

In a nutshell Testonica develops both hardware and software for Ericsson and other customers, so that they could use it for more efficient quality-check in process of manufacturing microchips or motherboards.

“Our technology is actually suitable for any area of electronics, from telephones to space rockets,” says Artur Jurman, CEO of the company.

Social Fox Media people call the company social media agency, that helps other companies to orient (or perhaps reorient) in increasingly relevant social media sphere, commercial superworld of Facebook, Twitter and others.

It turns out that among Estonian economy superstars only few (for example Baltika, Estonian Air and Estravel) have taken Facebook and Twitter seriously and found ways to earn through these channels. Others still live in 90′s.

To a large extent the team of Social Fox is formed by former team members of United Dogs and Cats, led by Ragnar Sass and his sister Elise Sass.

Cherry Media - Americans have Groupon.com, Estonians have Cherry.ee. Slightly different, but much of the same. Exclusive and fresh „Offers of The Day“ from restaurants, spaas or entertainment companies, discounts up to 60-70 percent, over 11 000 Facebook fans after only about three months of operation. Not mentioning a comfortable and risk-free advertising platform for companies. If Cherry doesn’t find any clients, they are not paid as well. Wonderful!

Ironcurtain Entertainment - start-up with a funny name aims to help laying the foundation of Estonia’s game developing industry. Turns out that the turnover of Estonian game developers is close to zero at the moment. But now there’s a company developing the first strategy game for web browser – Utopia Revolution.

According to the latest from Utopia Revolution’s Facebook page alpha version of the game is already up and running. The official grand launch is set for Autumn 2010.

In this game with minimal graphics teams of up to 25 fight against each other in ancient times. Each team member has his own Province to take care of. Provinces make Kingdoms that battle against each other. One of the authors behind Utopia Revolution, Rait Ojasaar calls it “a modern chess.”

CEO of the company, formerly on Webmedia payroll, Siim Puskai disapproves the current status quo with popular games such as Facebook’s FarmVille. “They have gone too much into sucking money from players. If a game is really good, people are willing to spend money on it naturally,” he says.

CuteFund is a fresh venture from the Founder of Rate.ee and Estonian social media guru Andrei Korobeinik. After selling Rate to EMT, Korobeinik started investing money into stocks. But he quickly realized that entrusting his money to some fund managers from Swedbank is not very wise nor exciting. He established CuteFund, an investment fund without a fund manager, where investments are run by a program and activists (investors) together with Wall Street guys are lined up based on the accuracy of their forecasts. If you are a smart investor and your buy/sell/hold decisions turn out to be wise, you will have a bigger change to influence portfolio decisions than a rookie-investor or just a silly one. 

Already more than 800 people have joined CuteFund, but they will not yet be able to invest their money there, nor influence portfolio decisions. Hopefully soon they can, but not yet.

Korobeinik says that compared to conventional investment funds CuteFund is more transparent and flexible. It is for  those who are not satisfied with the banks or other asset management firms.

HumanIPO is an Estonian start-up established by a Danish businessman Kresten Buch. It is a social media tool in essence, aiming to promote entrepreneurship. HumanIPO helps to get the business going, from ideas and business plan to funding issues. mentoring , communication and vooperation between companies, consultants and investors. Relevant people form teams and work on a business plan online through HumanIPO. 

For Buch it is crystal clear: “We promote business, because it is a source of wealth for the society.”

Which ones from these start-ups you think will fly and why?