Fierce competition in Kaleidoskoop Finals at sTARTUp Day

The 18th edition of one of the biggest student pitching competitions, Kaleidoskoop, took place at the sTARTUp Day. Seven teams chosen from Kaleidoskoop Pre-Selections participated in the finals.

Kaleidoskoop Finals took place on 26 August on the pitching stage of the sTARTUp Day. The teams had three minutes to pitch their idea, followed by two minutes of Q&A with the jury. The jury evaluated the teams according to the criteria such as problem definition, solution development, and market fit. Three teams stood out and were awarded prizes.

The jury comprised Kertu Tombak, Start-up and IT-business Manager at Smart City Tartu, Kristjan Raude, an entrepreneur and angel investor, and Ivo Remmelg, the Founding Partner at NestCap, EstBAN President emeritus and angel investor.

The teams that participated in the finals:

• AudioCat is developing an app where video games become interactive audiobooks for the visually impaired.
• Bankery is a fintech company that brings together loan applicants and banks to enable private individuals to get loans faster, cheaper, and with higher probability.
• Join develops an application that helps users achieve their goals by supporting each other.
• Longevity is a service aimed to help people concerned about their biological age by providing analysis of their DNA and personalized recommendations.
• Shiftsy is a service that automates Estonian healthcare shift planning while taking employees’ preferences into account.
• Urumarja Saunalaager is a sauna centre that promotes Estonian sauna culture.
• Wooden Houses is developing robot-built wooden houses to help people build stylish garden houses easily and quickly in remote locations.

Three prizes were awarded. Bankery took home the Edu&Tegu award: tickets to Slush, one of the biggest business festivals in the world. Join received the monetary award from Tartu City Government. Shiftsy won the tickets to the next sTARTUp Day.

Hasan Abdullayev, the team leader of Join, said that winning the Tartu City award was a complete surprise for him as the quality of the teams was so high. Hasan and his team have made impressive progress with their idea, having built a community of 1,500 people, but they keep working hard to reach their goals. The winner of the Edu & Tegu award Bankery team member Karl Rapur commented on the event: „Our emotion is terrific, the event is awesome and we are ready for Slush!“ Karl also mentioned that their next big goal is to reach investors and get their MVP (minimum viable product) ready.

With the Kaleidoskoop Finals, the STARTER Spring 2022 programme came to an end. The next STARTER programme is starting soon with the Idea Hackathon on 16 September. Come and participate to start your own start-up!

Kaleidoskoop and the STARTER programme are funded by the European Social Fund.

Further information: Kristian Kutsar, Communication and Marketing Specialist, Startup Lab, University of Tartu, kristian.kutsar@ut.ee