Skip to content

KoduLine reached the semi-finals of the Webit Founders Games

Koduline made it to the semi-finals of the Webit Summer Impact Forum, the world’s biggest innovation and sustainability challenge for start-ups.

 

Over 75,000 attendees took part in the four-day hybrid edition of the Webit Impact Forum (www.webit.org) from June 28 to July 1 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event also featured the finals of Webit`s Founders Games, one of the world’s largest growth challenges supporting exponential innovations for a resilient and sustainable future. $2,500,000 was shared between the five finalists.

 

More than 3,300 start-up companies from 140 countries participated in the Webit Founders Games challenge and tried to demonstrate their business models and impact in front of a jury of more than 250 investors from around the globe. Only 55 startups made it to the semi-finals, among them KoduLine.

 

KoduLine got the invitation to participate in the Webit Founders Games challenge in the spring of 2023. The challenge had several rounds, wherein in the first part, participants had to send a description of the business model, based on which the investors picked the strongest ones. In the next round, selected companies could pitch their ideas to investors via video.

 

We were very pleased when we were invited to participate in the fourth round, the semi-finals, to present our business idea at a live event on a big stage for 3 minutes to investors and spectators. Angelika, a member of our team, glowed on the stage as one of the few female performers. Together with Magnus, the questions of the investor jury members were answered, and the forthcoming directions of the company’s growth could also be presented.

Koduline team in Sofia from left Angelika Larkina, Magnus Meldre, Lii Aalik.

We took the participation in the pitching competition very seriously and attended with the whole team to support our performer. Based on my experience, I comprehend that performing on a big stage is always tense, unforeseen things may happen, and the 3-minute timetable is tracked to the second. Equally significant is the 5-minute follow-up question-and-answer round, where experienced investors can ask questions coming from very surprising angles to test out the entrepreneur and the business model."

said Magnus.

Lii: “As tense as on stage, it was to experience all this as a spectator. My heart rate went over one hundred. As soon as the last second of the pitch arrived, I felt proud and immensely happy, because everything went exactly as we intended. Our team is still smallish, but we are doing exceptional things!”

 

Angelika: “Performing on the big stage made me very proud because I could talk about what our team has accomplished in Estonia and what we intend to do in the future. A very awesome experience!”

 

Considering that the majority of the semi-finalists were businesses with a turnover of several million euros, we were proud of our position in the semi-final, because we have been noticed. We made numerous good contacts and gained new friends. We will continue to participate in competitions because our goal of raising money is still present.

The winners were:

  1. CAKE 0 Emission– the Swedish electric bike company aims to contribute to a zero-emission society with technology that has been compared to that of Volvo regarding safety and sustainability. To date, the company has attracted a total of €68 million in investment.
  2. EcoTree is a Danish company that offers a high-quality, certified carbon removal solution that pays for itself and builds biodiversity and sustainable forestry. Today, EcoTree has raised a total of €12 million in investments and doubled its revenue every year since its foundation.
  3. 360VUZ brings an exotic twist coming from the UАЕ. The company owns the largest 360-degree video content library worldwide and is building a hyper-connected product to teleport, empower and entertain its users by capturing and delivering live and on-demand 360° video content and interactive experiences for sporting events, celebrity appearances, concerts, and more. 360VUZ has generated revenue of over $3 million for 2021, which is expected to grow to over $8 million for 2022.
  4. WechselGott is a German FinTech company that offers a platform for the automatic collection of customer insurance and energy contracts and processing through various APIs. They have signed contracts with some of the largest banks in Austria and Germany and express ambitions to expand across Europe, with $6.6 million raised in funding so far.
  5. Alver World is a Swiss company that produces proteins from the Golden, Diamond, and Ruby Chlorella microalgae. Alver has a patent for the most sustainable way to produce protein from algae, which also serves as a binding agent in the production of healthy foods. The company has raised $6 million in investor capital to date and announced the closing of an upcoming round in the next month.

The finals all-star jury was chaired by Tim Draper (venture capitalist and founder of the Draper Venture Network), Gilad Novik (former partner at Lakestar, among the first investors in Facebook and Spotify), Dr. Alexander “Sasha” Galitsky (founder and MP of Almaz Capital), Dr. Risto Siilasmaa, (founder of F-secure and Chairman of Nokia 2012-2020), Ajay Ramachandran (founding partner of ifMagic VC), as well as Dr. Plamen Rusev (www.russev.com) – investor and founder of Webit and WIN (Webit Investment Network). Each of the companies received an investment award of €500,000, with the opportunity to increase the investment up to €1 million per company after the upcoming meeting of the WIN Board of Directors. 

 

“It’s been one of the most competitive of all 12 Founders Games’ years of history. This is because we’re continuously growing our footprint year by year and also part of the announcement of the world’s biggest award of $6 million, which we plan to grow to $10 million in the future,” commented Dr. Plamen Rusev right after the spectacular Founders Games awards ceremony.