We’re happy to announce that from May EstBAN welcomed a new associate partner Net Group to contribute to the construction of socially useful start-ups with high innovation potential.
Net Group is an internationally operating business and software development company. An Estonian software company with 23 years of experience offers companies and organizations solutions that combine innovative business models with technology. Today, Net Group solutions are used in more than 20 countries – in addition to Europe, for example, in Iraq, Tanzania and Oman
According to Priit Kongo, founder and CEO of Net Group, joining EstBAN is an important milestone. “Net Group has set one of its strategic goals to build scalable start-ups, and becoming a member of EstBAN is a logical step on this journey. EstBAN undoubtedly has the best dealflow, i.e. the flow of start-ups looking for financing in Estonia. Being a partner member gives us access to startups, among which there are certainly those that we could support as a business growth and technology investor. Often start-ups lack technological know-how, but we have the capability. In addition, we are building our investment portfolio of start-up companies in order to share the success of the growth together with the founders and co-investors,” explains Priit Kongo.
According to EstBAN’s CEO Anu Oks, it is important for EstBAN to gather a strong infrastructure around the investor network from those partners and companies that create value both for start-ups and thus also for investors. “Net Group is an ideal partner for EstBAN, which brings new investment opportunities to the network itself, but at the same time helps our members evaluate technology and the waterproofness of intellectual property,” says Oks.
Net Group’s innovation manager Siim Lepisk acknowledges that Net Group can also present its own dealflow to EstBAN’s angel investors. “In addition to Net Group’s own spin-offs, we also help entrepreneurs with strong so-called traditional business experience to build new digital business models as separate spin-off start-ups. Before solving technological challenges, we always look for business growth opportunities with the client. We are a strategic partner to several start-ups, which we have helped to grow both commercially and technically. Now we plan to bring these companies to business angels and offer the opportunity to participate in their growth,” says Lepisk.
According to Priit Kongo, for example, outsourcing the same service instead of hiring a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) helps to save costs. “The salary rally for CTOs has not ended, but a CTO alone is not enough to build a digital solution, developers, designers and other roles in the development team are also needed. On the other hand, without a CTO, investors may no longer provide funding to a born-digital startup at a certain stage. In any case, the role of the CTO is important in both start-ups and traditional companies, because he is the one who, when thinking business-wise, has to make the optimal technological choices that will take the business to a new level. Undoubtedly, it is worth considering, perhaps it is reasonable to hire a CTO service instead, in order to optimize the cash flow,” says Kongo. He adds that there is also another side to the coin – if a start-up shows that it can reduce its costs, it will be more attractive to investors.
We’re looking forward to the collaboration with Net Group being fruitful for not only our teams and investors, but also their porfolio companies!
