30 Estonian most valuable tech companies ranked
Indrek Uudeküll
Partner, Prudentia Tallinn
Prudentia Tallinn, in cooperation with the Siena Secondary Fund, has for the second time ranked the most valuable technology companies in Estonia. Known as TopTech, the ranking helps to better understand the potential of these companies and their contribution to the local economy. The tech sector continues to grow at an amazing pace as reflected in TopTech which this year includes 30 tech companies created by Estonian founders. To compile the ranking, we calculate a comparable estimate of the value of the company at a specific point in time and with a specific methodology.
This year we decided to extend the TopTech list from 25 to 30 companies in order to provide the readers even more representative comparison of the most valuable tech companies. The tech sector has shown strong growth, and the value of some companies has been growing especially rapidly. It should be noted that there are several companies which did not make it to the list due to the lack of reliable data to assess them.
Although companies in the tech sector have currently seen a global dip in their value, the overall picture of the TopTech ranking does not yet reflect this. In the first 10 months of 2022 alone, Estonian tech companies raised a total of approximately 1.3 billion euros, which is 30% more than in the previous year. According to our methodology, we take the raised capital as the basis for the valuation and if the company has not raised capital, we use the sales multiples of comparable public companies.
The total value of 30 companies exceeds 21 billion euros and the most valuable activity seems to be mobility where 2 companies account for as much as 36% of the total value of the top 30. Ten FinTech companies account for 35% of the total value. The list includes also eight B2B SaaS companies that account for 13% of the total value.
Of course, the ranking includes the “traditional” entries such as Bolt and Wise. In fact, it is easiest to track the value of Wise, which is a listed company. Its share price dropped sharply this year, but has recovered considerably and would take the top spot if the value were calculated on today’s share price.
As the valuation multiples have decreased compared to the last year, companies whose turnover has decreased or failed to show sufficient growth have dropped from the ranking. Such as Synctuation which is a meditation and relaxation app, and Brainbase, a platform of licensing, partnerships and sponsorship agreements.
Almost half of the top 30 are newcomers (13 companies), with the first new name placing at the end of the top ten - Ready Player Me, which specialises in metaverse avatars. Newcomers include companies such as 3Commas (crypto trading automation SaaS platform), Katana (developer of manufacturing ERP), Pactum (category creator of autonomous negotiations) and NFTPort (the NFT application infrastructure provider).
Speaking of NFTs, did you know that the winner of TopTech will be rewarded with Navitrolla's NFT digital painting? This year, the prize is “Salvatore Mundi”, which is nicely in sync with the mission of the TopTech winner, Bolt - that is to build cities for people, not cars
In the coming year, we expect to see several new entries from new tech companies. This year, Estonia already got two new unicorns. This may be one less than last year, but still a remarkable achievement. Compared to a few years ago, there is now also a considerable number of VC funds that are able to invest in startups in increasingly more mature funding rounds, as a result of which a bigger chunk of value growth remains in Estonia, further accelerating the growth of new unicorns.
