May 24-26, 2023 in Tallinn Estonia
On May 24-26, 2023, Estonia’s flagship startup and tech event brought together more than 3,000 investors, founders, and startups from 65+ of countries, while also featuring an impressive selection of speakers, field experts, and panelists. What made this edition stand out? A complete rebranding to take on the global expansion of L59. The regionally unprecedented €1.25M prize fund for the L59 Pitch Competition. The launch of highly popular Late Afternoon Show format on the Founder Stage. Rolling our the Media Dinner on Day 0 (which brought in more foreign media than ever). A record number of official foreign delegations, introdusing their startups and government initiatives, from 20+ countries. Plus, we took steps and prioritized sustainability, diversity, and impact more than ever. It was a good year!
In 2023, the event closed with the L59 Pitch Competition finals, where 6 startup teams — narrowed down from almost 400 applicants from 60+ countries — competed for the €1,25 million prize pool funded by TeraVentures and EstBAN. In the end, the judges split the prize pool between three different companies, awarding Flowstep €600,000, Cino €500,000, and ÄIO Tech €150,000. This was the largest investment of its kind ever issued in Scandinavia or the Baltics, serving as a fitting capstone as Latitude59 grows bolder, more impactful and more international.
In 2023, resilience and impact were the main keywords for our stage program, reflecting the need for both personal and collective strength, as well as the importance of making choices with a lasting and positive effect. 126 speakers stepped up on 3 stages and 2 workshop areas, 62% of them coming from abroad.
The conversation between Staffan and Markus was a great introduction into theme of the year: Resilience and Impact. You can watch it here.
Staffan is a General Partner ad Creandum, a company that just celebrated their 20-year anniversary. For over 2 decades, Staffan has been focusing on the big picture – what is a crisis, and are we in a crisis. Markus Villig, the CEO of Bolt, is the youngest unicorn founder in Europe and “poster boy” for resilience.
The Nigerian VC, musician and engineer Mr. Eazi certainly believes so. On the stage of Latitude59 2023, while chatting with the Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Mr. Eazi challenged the international IT community to look for ways to connect with the African region in order to grow and mutually benefit from each other.
The Late Afternoon Show debuted as a new format at Latitude59 2023, and it proved to be a tremendous success. This talk show, hosted by Matt C Smith, combines education, entertainment, and captivating stories from superstar founders and investors.
DefenceTech and inlocking the potential for defence sector was one of the topics in focus at Latitude59 2023. Estonia is in a great position to lead this conversations – just prior to Latitude59 2023 NATO announced that their DIANA accelerator program is going to be headquartered in Estonia and in general. As the political situation is Europe and around it is shifting, we need to ask – how can startups and technology live up to their potential to help and make the world a better, safer place. Watch the talk here.
Bobbi Kurshan is an education entrepreneur and an expert on how innovation and technology are transforming teaching and learning. She has spent more than 30 years working in, and researching, the education marketplace. Today, she is focused on crossing the bridge between education and technology.
Be the first one to know anything Latitude59
