The title of Best Social Enterprise at Estonia’s largest business idea competition, Ajujaht, was awarded last night to Võõras Sõber, a consultation service designed for employers to prevent and help employees cope with occupational stress and burnout. The team received a special prize of 5000 euros to develop their company further.

CEO of Social Enterprise Network Marge Maidlais happy that this year’s Ajujaht was successful and provided start-up capital to several companies tackling social problems. “Social enterprises won a total of six prizes this season and were awarded a total of 27,000 euros,” says Maidla and adds that the increasing popularity of social enterprises is certainly an indicator that the future belongs to enterprises that have a positive social impact.

Counselling service Võõras Sõber ensures that mental health issues do not lead to reduced work ability and that employees who are already struggling receive support. The solution is made unique by its system that allows employees to receive anonymous counselling with the employer only paying for completed counselling sessions. This solution allows burnouts to be prevented and gives employees the opportunity to help themselves at the right time.

Mentor of Ajujaht and Head of Strategy and Customer Insights at SEB Andra Altoasays that Võõras Sõber fills an important gap in the labour marked next to rapidly developing technological communication. “We have increasingly more technology at our disposal and we like it if we can do our daily chores more quickly and digitally. Võõras Sõber operates in a traditional and seemingly niche business field, but the demand for human communication so intrinsic to us is growing fast. The value offer and brilliant leadership of Võõras Sõber convinces us that it will grow into the next major Ajujaht success story,” Altoa added.

All of the ideas submitted to Ajujaht that offer solutions to social problems competed for the Social Enterprise Special Prize. The prize was given out by SEB Estonia and the Estonian Social Enterprise Network.

The 2019 Ajujaht competition was won by Timey, whose chemical food monitoring indicators were declared the best business idea.

Ajujaht is Estonia’s largest business idea competition. The competition was initiated by Enterprise Estonia, partner SEB and main sponsor Elisa.