This year’s Latitude59 pitch competition received 101 applications, out of which 10 teams made it to the final on May 25. Fractory – an online manufacturing marketplace – won the Latitude59 Killer Combo Prize which included:
- €10,000 equity-free cash,
- 2-week Startup Embassy trip to Silicon Valley
- Flights by GoTravel
- Legal counselling from Hedman Partners
- Goodies from Valge Klaar
Fractory was also awarded the €170 000 seed investment by the Nordic Angel Program syndicate partners.
13 different topics were discussed on the two main stages of Latitude59, including cyber security and the future of the nation states, building human-centric companies as well as the best practices of startup marketing. Other topics included AI, the future of sustainable food and cryptocurrency.
All in all, 100 speakers from 20 countries took to the stage, including:
- French entrepreneur and data scientist Rand Hindi
- Thomas Metzinger – a neuroethics professor, who focuses on researching the connections between ethics, philosophy of mind and anthropology
- AI entrepreneur and a highly-regarded EU and INTEL-awarded Young Innovation Luminary Kumarjev Chatterjee
- Christoph Janz – one of the most acclaimed European SAAS investors
- Kathryn Myronuk – founding member of the Singularity University
12 founders from Estonia and abroad also shared their sometimes unbelievable stories of founding their businesses, among others were:
- Kaarel Kotkas – the founder of the buzz creating online identity verification solution Veriff
- Taig Khris – a former pro-skater and X games gold medalist, who founded onoff – the first hybrid telecommunications operator.
In addition to the packed conference programme, visitors kept themselves busy at the startup demo area where 50 startups from the region were showcasing their products and services.
The Tehnopol matchmaking area and Karma meeting points had also more than 2000 pre-arranged one-on-one meetings took place. For the first time in Latitude59’s history, we had a special program for children and youth that was powered by Eesti 2.0 and Vivita creativity accelerator for kids.
Latitude59 2019 will take place on May 16-17, 2019. Guest tickets will be available on our website from September 2018.
Photos
View & download best of selection here.
Get Fractory – our pitch competition winner’s photos here.
