The “Ajujaht” jury selected the 40 best teams that will continue their journey in the next stage. Start-ups from 12 countries aspired to the program, and most of the teams come from the field of information and communication technology. 

The head of Startup Estonia, Eve Peeterson, pointed out that for the second year in a row, instead of ideas, they were looking for already functioning start-ups and teams, which is why the level of participants has increased. “It is not surprising that software-based fields are favorites among Estonian start-ups, and this is also well reflected in this year’s Ajujaht applicants. Despite this, the TOP 40 is quite versatile and we can see both artificial intelligence-based technologies and innovative physical products,” said the head of Startup Estonia. 

The chosen teams will participate in two-day bootcamps this and next weekend, from which the 20 best startups will be selected to continue their journey in the accelerator program. The teams that will get into the Ajujah accelerator this year will be announced at the end of April. 

Great interest in participating in Ajujaht  

This year, Ajujaht received 120 applications from Estonia and abroad, in total of 12 countries. The most applications were received from Tallinn, Harju County and Tartu County. Start-ups from Viljandi County and Raplamaa County also made it to the top 40 teams. Like last season, the most popular fields were information and communication technology and industry and design. Compared to last year, more candidates applied from health and biomedicine field. 

The Ajujaht accelerator programme and TV competition is a collaboration between the public and private sectors. It was initiated by the joint agency of Enterprise Estonia and KredEx. The partner of the program is SEB, and the sponsors are Elisa and Microsoft Estonian Development Center. In addition, the program is supported by law firm TRINITI, T1 mall, Tallinn, Tartu and Pärnu.

Ajujaht is carried out by CIVITTA, Optimist and ERR. 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. The best-known examples include Bolt, Bikeep, Click & Grow, GoWorkaBit, FoodDocs, Groveneer, Timbeter, and many others.