A total of four tenders were received by the deadline for the SmartCap procurement “Services for the creation and development of knowledge-based start-ups and development of the knowledge-based business ecosystem in Estonia”.
With its public procurement conducted within the framework of the programme of Startup Estonia, SmartCap wishes to find up to two partners by means of a procurement in order to develop a high-tech enterprise ecosystem and create a business development programme for companies. The objective of the procurement is to improve cooperation between universities, mentors, and knowledge-based teams operating in the early development stages.
Mari Vavulski, Member of the Management Board of SmartCap, noted that the development of knowledge-based business in Estonia requires a systematic and comprehensive approach. “The ecosystem of Estonian start-ups is generally recognised for its technology enterprises. We are glad to acknowledge that there is sufficient interest and willingness on the market to focus on founding and growing new knowledge-intensive businesses in Estonia. However, in order to accomplish that, new high-tech teams must be supported in the process of reaching their business concept and the knowledge, discoveries and innovation of Estonian scientists must be supported in order to achieve a commercial output,” said Vavulski.
The procurement “Services for the creation and development of knowledge-based start-ups and development of the knowledge-based business ecosystem in Estonia” is being conducted with financing via the European Regional Development Fund from the resources of the structural and investment funds of the European Union within the framework of the Startup Estonia programme in the research accelerator direction, with SmartCap being its implementer. The final results of the procurement will be published in the third quarter of 2021.
SmartCap has been involved in the activities of the Startup Estonia programme since 2016 when a joint procurement for finding a business accelerator fund was conducted. As a result of the business accelerator procurement conducted by SmartCap and Startup Estonia, a contract was entered into in 2017 with Superangel, through whom services have been provided to early development stage start-ups from 2018. Applying for services and the provision of services via Superangel will take place until the end of 2021.
The Startup Estonia programme (project number: EU60971) is financed out of the resources of the European Regional Development Fund.
