Today at 22.05, Estonia’s largest competition for the best business idea Ajujaht (Brain Hunt) will begin airing on ETV, with 40 hopeful teams pursuing their dreams.

Ajujaht is starting another exciting season and local start-ups will be competing for the 300,000-euro prize fund. The season’s finale will air on 8 December. From over one hundred hopefuls to qualify for the competition, the committee of experts chose the 40 enterprises that stood out the most. 20 of them will be presented to viewers this Thursday and the remaining 20 next week.

From both preliminary rounds, half of the contestants will make it to the Ajujaht accelerator programme, where they will fine-tune their business idea by performing various tasks under the supervision of mentors, all the while proving their future potential.

Their performance will be assessed by a 5-member jury including Eve Peeterson (Head of Startup Estonia, which is part of the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency), Mailiis Ploomann (Member of the Management Board at Elisa Estonia), Peeter Koppel (Private Banking Strategist at SEB Estonia), Ivo Remmelg (angel investor and Fund Manager at NestCap) and Tanel Erm (Head of Microsoft Development Center Estonia).

The show is being hosted by Kristo Elias who promises an exciting season thanks to a novel play-off system for selecting the winners, which will create plenty of suspense. The business ideas that make it to the show are from vastly different fields and the background of the contestants is also varied, from students to seasoned professionals.

“Everyone is attempting to address an issue in their specific field,” explained Elias in the press release, adding that “in Ajujaht, you need to prove that your idea is scalable and something that your potential client needs in the first place.”

“You need to make your idea or product earn money,” said Elias.

In cooperation with its supporters and Estonian angel investors, this season’s Ajujaht will award contestants with record-breaking start-up capital of 300,000 euros to implement their ideas. The winner will receive at least 30,000 euros; substantial prizes also await those who are placed second and third.

Ajujaht will air on ETV on Thursdays at 22.05.

The Ajujaht accelerator programme and TV competition is a collaboration between the public and private sectors and was initiated by the joint agency of Enterprise Estonia and KredEx. Over the years, nearly 5,000 business ideas have been submitted to Ajujaht, and several of them have grown into local and international success stories. Among the best-known alumni are Bolt, Bikeep, Click & Grow, GoWorkaBit, FoodDocs, Groveneer and Timbeter, among many others.