Garage48 celebrated its 15th anniversary
In November, Garage48 celebrated its 15th anniversary by returning to its roots: an old-school, open-format hackathon at TalTech. More than 400 people applied, 100 joined, and over one weekend the community came together to test ideas, build prototypes and reconnect with the spirit that started it all.
The room brought together founders, engineers, students, product people, and investors, many of them familiar and some fresh new faces from the ecosystem. The vibes were friendly and supportive, with people genuinely interested in helping each other move their ideas forward. Events like this make it easier to meet potential teammates, get advice, and take the next practical steps with an idea.
A total of 29 ideas were pitched, and 18 teams formed naturally around the best ideas on Friday evening. By Sunday afternoon, every team had presented its very first prototype.
Winners:
- 1st place: Closaria – the family’s personal AI shopping assistant. It learns each family member’s sizes, budget and style preferences, then selects the three best clothing options so you don’t get stuck endlessly scrolling. Closaria integrates with many brands and stores to deliver the best picks in one place.
- 2nd place: Onkoloogika – a matchmaking app connecting people based on their diagnosis, life situation, interests and demographic parameters, making peer-to-peer support meaningful and accessible.
- 3rd place: Supercomms.io – one unified inbox that focuses only on what matters most right now.Special awards:
- Favorite of the Audience: Loockit- door lock status sensor with app
- Palo Alto Special Award: Solved Closet– a sustainability-oriented clothing store aggregator for purchasing full outfits. Like combining Pinterest with sustainable shopping.
- Best Pitch: Wekor Systems– a construction safety system
- Best Execution: Open Coach– an app that analyses your private notes and goals and nudges you with meaningful reflections to help you grow without disrupting your journaling flow
- Do it in the Nature: BioCap Data– tool that helps financial institutions assess biodiversity risks in their portfolios and helps businesses understand the biodiversity value of their assets.
- Screw It, Let’s Do It : CertifyShare– a web app that verifies users’ certifications and connects them with relevant job listings. After validation, they can apply and message companies directly.
Other teams in the hackathon:
- RawCommerce– AI image creator.
- Avail– an application that makes planning hangouts with friends frictionless through focusing on free times instead of busy calendars and suggesting personalised activities through an AI recommendation engine.
- Intiimacare– a pain tracking and smart reporting app for women to diagnose endometriosis faster and with higher accuracy
- Digital CFO– a cash-flow radar for small businesses to help them manage company cashflow in 90 days ahead.
- Aligned Edtech– AI tool that analyzes a curriculum and automatically suggests the most suitable edtech solutions, reducing manual selection and speeding up decision-making.
- Helping Doctors– a platform for physicians to automate document filings based on natural language input
- LaSearch– fully local ultra-fast semantic search.
- OnTimeDing– smart Employee Experience for SME’s
- Juggl Panic– gamified business automations – build your business easy
Garage48 was founded in April 2010 by six visionary Estonian founders behind Pipedrive, Fortumo, Weekdone, Mooncascade, and Bolt to show that the initial step of building a startup doesn’t have to be difficult and that the first idea can be validated and turned into a prototype in just 48 hours.
Check out the full photo galleries:
Photos by Maido Parv
Photos by Rasmus Kooskora
Photos by Cesar Zeppini
