Where funding meets passion

We are a diverse team of tech lovers, mentors, experts, and founders ourselves bound together by our passion to support founders on their entrepreneurial journey.

What makes us special you might ask?

Startup Wise Guys has been at the birth of the European startup accelerator scene, we’ve been investing in startups and accelerating them for more than a decade now. In other words – well, we know our s**t, and we aren’t afraid to do the hard work, which is finding high potential startup founders probably even before they themselves know what they are capable of!

The startups that keep listening to their customers are the ones that succeed. We aim to practice the same – constantly evolving, innovating our programs to fit the fast-paced founder journey and embracing the feedback. Over time we have changed our focus from B2C to B2B, and now to various specialized verticals (more to come). However, we keep the human touch in high value too – be it from on-site sessions during accelerator program to our local gatherings with startups, mentors and investors across various continents. Guess our founders calling us “the accelerator with a heart” has a reason.

Building a company from the ground up is no walk in the park – we know that firsthand. That is why we put the founders first and are rooting for them to make their dreams and companies big. Sounds fun, sounds passionate, sounds crazy, we are in!

800+

Founders

48%

Follow-on rate

20+

Exits

71

nationalities

Our story

Once upon a time (2012), in a land far far away (Tallinn, Estonia) a bunch of successful tech-savvy entrepreneurs decided to get together, show other startups how it was done and empower the next generation of tech founders. 

They knew the potential of visionary founders and wanted to give them a leg up in the industry. From that moment on, The Startup Wise Guys was founded and the team hasn’t looked back.

A lot may have changed since 2012, our team has grown from 3 to +60 and we have expanded across Europe and Africa, but we haven’t lost our true north. We are here to find the true diamonds in the rough… startup founders with the biggest passion and best ideas in their early days. We aim to help them grow, succeed and transform thus also creating a positive ripple effect in their home ecosystems. 

We are now a truly global team and a community of committed investors and mentors who really know their stuff. At The Startup Wise Guys we are united by our passion for the founders and building their success is what makes all of our team excited to get out of bed everyday.

We are on a mission to uplift people, economies and global ecosystems through entrepreneurship.

…And we are only just getting started.

This is our approach

Courage

A radical curiosity drives us. We ask questions, test possibilities and catch opportunities to nurture our daring minds and souls. We are willing to build new roads to get where no one else is going yet. 

Integrity

Time has shown- our success is largely based on our authenticity and transparency. We honor each other's time and expectations. We strive to be trustworthy and respectful. There is no secret agenda as we don't have time for that. You get what you see. And we sure are proud of what we see. 

Passionately Ambitious

Our passion manifests itself as an empathy and excitement for our founders, investors and partners. We are constantly looking for their feedback and we are not afraid to get our hands dirty to make our products fit their needs*.  We genuinely want everyone to succeed even if it requires additional effort, mental energy and magic.  

Fun

Call it a coping mechanism in a world that's progressively going mad, but we find that taking ourselves lightly is what keeps us moving and succeeding. We find that being able to laugh and throw jokes is what feeds our daring souls and encourages us to take action. Nurturing our inside gif and meme language, on the other hand, is what keeps our team close and sane. 

Partnerships

Meet our team