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Estonian Development Fund moves with it’s new investments into even earlier project phase. Freshest investment has been made to emerging enterprises Sportlyzer and Inner Circle in total up to 3 million EEK (Estonian kroon).

Sportlyzer is developing a internet environment connecting athletic people with training and motivational software for the international market. For now the solution for internet-based has been created. The goal of Sportlyzeri is to create software of training advices and feedback to ensure service for hobby sport-people independent from the hourly fees and working schedules of the advisers. Sportlyzer has passed through the international business incubator of Development Fund, the SeedBooster, where the business plan and realization tactics were polished up to clear goals and milestones. Sportlyzer’s team is led by the establisher of Vomax Tõnis Saag. Also the creator of CV Online and Nagi Jüri Kaljundi is participating. Former CEO of Playtech Rein Lemberpuu acts as co-investor.

Inner Circle presents itself as trashfree Facebook'ina. The ambition of the enterprise is to create and go global with an user-friendly environment for group socialising, which differes from the current Facebook by privacy principles.     The co-establisher of Inner Circle is Allan Martinson and team is led by former head of Estonian Delfi Andrus Raudsalu. Next to Development Fund the private co-investors are AS Regio (CEO Teet Jagomägi) and Live Nature Eesti OÜ (board member Raivo Vare).

The head of investment division of Development Fund Heidi Kakko stated that both Sportlyzer and Inner Circle are investments into seed stage enterprises and the prototype or business model is only in testing.

"The seed stage start-ups have difficulties in finding investments all over the world, so as the developer of local venture capital market we pay more attention to the competent teams and emerging enterprises in very earlier stage.

 In the beginning the amount of investment is small, but new investments will be necessary when the in time with the seizing markets the need for additional capital arises.  For instance an the portfolio enterprise Massi Miliano, which was chosen for investment by Development Fund a year ago, has given results and persuaded current and new investors to increase the investment capital by one million euro,”  said Heidi Kakko.

Estonian Development Fund has been established by Riigikogu (Parliament) for orginising foresight projects and for investing in innovative ambitious  Estonian technology enterprises. For livening the local venture capital market a private investor/s are always included under same conditions as Development Fund’s own investment.  Also in Development Fund the international business incubator SeedBooster is acting for developing ambitious business models to increase their readyness  for investments and market potential.

Additional information:

Learning in the school of 21^st century must be exiting and consider the pupil’s individual interests and abilities better than it does today.  For achieving the result the possibilities offered by the information technology (ICT) must be used to enrich the teaching process with sound, video and other multimedia solutions. The learning will become more effective, interactive and playful. To get the change moving on one hand the leader must be found both in state and in schools and on the other hand the initiatives coming from teachers and pupils must be supported.

The head of the Development Fund Ott Pärna marked that the computers are present in schools, now there is need to start using them properly. “We stand on the brink of the era when the technology is broadening the understanding of traditional lesson, allowing to bond different subjects and problems of everyday life,” said Pärna.

The report on usage of ICT in education, presented today by the Development Fund, presents a roadmap enabling Estonia to reform education system from class-centred into pupil-centred style. The Minister of Education and Science Tõnis Lukas marked on the possibility of drawing together better the worlds of pupils and teachers through the use of ICT.

Of the problems standing before educational system ICT presents solutions to taking into better account the individuality of a pupil, to altering the teaching into more creative and problem-based process and to secure to every pupil the possibility of learning from the best materials and from highly valued teachers.

To achieve the goals presented in the report the vital role is played by the leader, foreperson or organisation, who would attend to the coordination of learning materials, to the elating of school directors and teachers and to the including of the pupils. The forward-looking school directors must be credited and supported. For endorsing the initiative of teachers the Innovation Fund has to be established, to enable the start of pilot projects for testing ITK solutions and spread the experience. Sensible would be to start the introduction of ITK solutions from science classes as the interest of pupils to participate in these is the lowest while the need of the society for future specialist is the highest.

The current report is a follow-up to the report EST_IT@2018

Additional information:

kristjan.rebane[A]arengufond.ee,

Expert of IT Society

Online shopping has taken over most facets of modern retail, but buying clothes via the interwebs is something more of a hard sell. As noticed by BBC and endgadet , Estonian firm Massi Miliano, introduces the Fits.me virtual fitting room with a shape-shifting mannequin that makes that a little easier for men. After three years of research in combining robotics with fashion this portfolio enterprise of Estonian Development Fund came up with robotic torso, comprised of flexible panels that can shift between thousands of different shapes and sizes from small to extra large. A clothing company puts a new shirt on the bot and a camera captures it cycling through a variety of body types like a T-1000 sinking into a pit of molten steel. When you enter your measurements online, the e-tailer looks up the appropriate pics and buyer can see how he will look in that Warwick Tailored semi-cutaway.

As for women - the latest word is that a female model might be ready in October.

Based on BBC and endgadget.

GrabCAD, an open source library for CAD (computer aided design) engineers, has secured 256k of angel funding from the Estonian Development Fund and telecommunication technology company Astrec Baltic (owner of Motors24.ee) with the aim to become “the world's leading web environment for CAD engineers within three years.”
Founded by Hardi Meybaum and Indrek Narusk, GrabCAD, which is set to debut in Beta in early August, lets CAD engineers share 3D models, solving the problem in which they spend too much time designing products or components that already exist elsewhere in the form of drawings. Also it plans to create a CAD engineering marketplace alongside the 3D model library and charge a brokerage fee for services ordered and completed through the site.

 The startup, which is a product of the Estonian Development Fund's international business incubator SeedBooster, has already partly tested this concept by offering its own CAD services, including easy-to-use order description and price calculation forms and functionality.”

Published in TechCrunch Europe

On 30th of June 2010 SmartPOST signed a deal of selling the local network of parcel termninals with the Finnish logistics company Itella Corporation in order to concentrate on expanding to foreign markets.
The Development Fund made it's first investment into SmartPOST OÜ for developing the technology of self-service parcel terminals, for international sales and for the up-building of the network of terminals in Estonia in 2008. By second half of 2009 the launched network had rapidly grabbed significant market share in parcel deliverance for Estonian inhabitant. SmartPOST OÜ positioned itself as technological enterprise for which the parcel terminals network was necessary as level of development, sales reference and for earning circulating capital.
Currently the company has achieved sufficient fame and is advancing in selling the technology in foreign markets, hence the owners of the company agreed to sell the terminal grid operating in Estonia when the appropriate offer was presented.

The sale of logistics unit marks an important milestone in the development of company - the reaching of it'a first goal which was to prove the success of the concept as such. The company will hence forward concentrate on development of parcel terminal soft- and hardware solutions as whole and selling it to other countries.