In this episode, Julia Bialetska, CEO at S.Lab, together with Erki Ani, the founding partner in the pre-seed cleantech VC fund Sunly Future Ventures, discuss blooming Estonian cleantech startup ecosystem, why governments should support innovative entrepreneurship, what key factors contributed to the growth in investments in technological sector and many more. What needs to be done for the next unicorn to be from the climate tech ecosystem?How to evaluate the potential impact of a startup?How can we bring more women to the tech field?Our guest Erki Ani is one of the founders of the Estonian cleantech startup sector and has helped the Estonian cleantech sector develop since its birth. In 2016 he started in Cleantech Estonia as the CEO, leading the acceleration programmes for startups, he's also the Co-Founder of Little Green Fund and one of the region’s first cleantech specialized accelerators, Beamline, combining a portfolio of 100 cleantech startups. He is the co-founder and was the Executive Director of Cleantech for Baltics, making sure that innovation opportunities and policy walk the same path.

Erki Ani Julia Bialetska S.Lab S.Lab produces green packaging combining only two plant-based components. By harvesting the strength of agricultural waste and the binding power of mycelium [the network of mushroom roots], S.Lab creates strong and reliable material capable of fully replacing foamed plastic. The material has all the same features as polystyrene in terms of thermal insulation and water resistance, but after the usage it will fully biodegrade in the soil without any trace in 30 days. Today S.Lab has developed its proprietary production technology designed explicitly for plant-based packaging, making it possible to adjust production capacity to meet growing demand.