Deekit wins Estonian startup competition

Deekit, which offers a shared online whiteboard for designers, won the first prize at the new Estonian early-stage startup competition at Startup Day in Tartu.

The jury of investors picked Deekit ahead of other finalists  Tebo, NAS and SportID.

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Co-founder Kaili Kleemeier (on the picture) said the team has the first 25 paying customers for its premium version which has been just launched, while the free version has around 6,200 monthly active users.

The need for Deekit is obvious – as writers, we can work on the same file in Google Docs and double the speed of writing a home assignment, for example in the university, but if and when visual collaboration is required there is no easy solution for it.

You could use a Skype video-call to share visual ideas, but the options today are really limited. It’s kind of natural that Deekit, who is not alone in trying to solve this challenge, has some ex-Skypers in its team to tackle this opportunity.

Deekit has made the whiteboard accessible via any web browser, with dedicated apps. Visual representation is crucial not only to teams of artists or designers but also for developers who often draw boxes and arrows to explain the logic of some code.

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Separately, Estonian prototyping fund Prototron awarded 7,000 euros grants to Hackmotion and Hairvel; while Covisual and Gelatex got grants of 10,000 euros.

Prototron is the first fund in Europe granting pre-seed money to startups so they could build their first working prototype to test on customers. It was set up by Swedbank, Tallinn Technical University and Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol in 2012.

Among the winners, Hackmotion is building smart clothing for snowboarders, which helps them to slide in best pose; while Hairvel creates biotech-hair conditioners.

Covisual is working on communication tool for engineers and project managers which take construction plans and drawings online; and Gelatex is developing a leather-like product which would enable big fashion and furniture brands to be more ecological.