Tallinn’s new innovation fund competition to support five new smart city solutions

From the 12 applications that qualified for the smart city solutions competition – Tallinnovation, the city of Tallinn, together with the research and business centre Tehnopol, selected five winners who will make the city’s services and environment more comfortable and modern for both the residents and visitors.

The winning solutions were proposed by the following organizations:

Bikeep – public weatherproof and safe private bicycle garage solution at public transport stops

R8 Technologies – a digital operator for the management of utility systems in commercial buildings, based on 3 key performance indicators: building’s energy efficiency, indoor climate and technical condition.

Teede Tehnokeskus – district-based mini weather stations with the model of predicting road weather forecast

Fusebox – a virtual power plant that analyzes electricity consumption data of urban buildings for more efficient energy consumption

Aiotex – an Internet of things (IoT) based building and public service object maintenance solution that facilitates the exchange of information between the parties involved in the object (such as owners, users, managers, contractors).

The maximum support amount per solution is 15 000€. This year, the size of the first innovation fund competition was 50 000€ in total. In addition, the winners will receive city’s contacts, advice and support from the Tehnopol mentor network. The first projects will be implemented already by the beginning of 2021.

Deputy mayor of Tallinn, Aivar Riisalu said that the aim of Tallinnovation is to support the cooperation between the city and technology companies. Through these cooperations we are able to make our urban environment modern, more sustainable and open. “We are excited to see how the winning solutions that will work and hopefully these will become internationally famous as well. Tallinnovation’s activities must support the implementation of such initiatives,” said Riisalu.

Martin Goroško, Business Development Manager of the Science and Business Campus Tehnopol said the competiton like Tallinnovation is much needed. „We would all love to live in a good environment, where smart solutions make our everyday life more efficient. This competition brought many innovative solutions to us, that will make our city even smarter, “ said Goroško. He added that as the organizer of the competition, Tehnopol has long invested in the services of a smart city with the location, advice and a as a physical testbed.

According to the board member of one of the winning organizations, R8tech, Imre-Gustav Vellamaa winning the Tallinnovation shows that the city of Tallinn together with Tehnopol believes in the commercial real estate management solution offered by his company. „It creates a good cooperation platform between R8tech and the city of Tallinn, so that the software solution R8 Digital Operator, which is developed by us and is unique in the world, can also contribute in Tallinn’s aim to achieve carbon neutrality, reduce energy costs and digitizing buildings and solving health issues thanks to a better indoor climate,” added Vellamaa.

More information about the competition is available here: https://innovatsioonifond.tehnopol.ee/en/ and here https://www.tallinn.ee/eng/tallinnovations/ 

Tallinnovation is Tallinn’s international innovation brand which’s purpose is to introduce and implement new solutions in the city. The project also supports the city’s ambition in becoming the next European Green Capital already in 2022.