Founders and startup builders led BADideas.fund started operations just five months ago, but the Riga based syndicate already has invested in five startups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine, investing a total €500k.

What started as a couple of dozen startup builders coming together to invest in the most promising Baltic and CEE startups has grown into a community of more than 100 members from 14 countries.

The idea of naming the fund BADideas comes from Paul Graham's – the founder of the world's top startup accelerator Y Combinator – quote: "All unicorns seemed like bad ideas initially”. 

A French vineyard in the Loire valley is a beautiful sight, but the farm has trouble recruiting workers to weed their organically grown grapes. The young generation has moved to the cities leaving urban communities short on workforce. Solution: a fully autonomous tractor, developed by a French-based company Sitia, working tirelessly to weed the narrow rows between the grape vines. After a full month of weeding and hundreds of kilometers covered, Sitia approached the farmer to review the work done, and reimburse 2 grape vines, which were damaged during the month of operation. They were surprised to hear the farmer exclaim, “When I use my manual tractor to get the same job done, I damage at least two vines a day!

Structural change is needed if Europe wants to achieve Wubbo Ockels' life mission, which is to get rid of fossil fuels, meet the Paris climate goals and to break away from unreliable energy partners. With their first mobile airborne wind system (AWES), the Dutch startup Kitepower is the future of energy: their solution is cheaper, more practical, easier to move and less subject to strongly fluctuating winds.

More than 470 investors have joined in and already 70% of the required investment has been raised through crowdfunding. With the gained capital, Kitepower wants to offer short-term power solutions for refugee camps, construction sites and music festivals.

Veridos, a world-leading provider of integrated identity solutions, announces the launch of it’s new VeriCHECK Selfkiosk and M600 document reader at this year’s Future Travel Experience (FTE) Global. The new solutions represent the next generation of products from Veridos’ verification portfolio with the aim to make travel more convenient and secure. 

Today was held a change of command ceremony where CCDCOE previous Director BG Jaak Tarien gave over his duties to the new Director Dr Mart Noorma.

Noorma, a PhD in Science in Technology, will begin her three-year term today. He has been actively engaged in NATO, EU, and international cooperation on innovation and novel technology development. He has been a member of the NATO Advisory Group on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, the NATO STO Applied Vehicle Technology Panel, the EEAS Space Advisory Board, and the IEEE Autonomous Weapon Systems Expert Advisory Committee. Mart Noorma is a voluntary member of the Estonian Defence League.

SoftBank Corp. ("SoftBank"), Japan's leading mobile carrier, completed initial testing of Altaeros' ST-Flex™ autonomous aerostat. Operational and telecom tests were performed at Hokkaido Spaceport, Taiki Town, Hokkaido, Japan. Learn more about ST-Flex: www.altaeros.com.

One of the leading providers of communications headsets, Blue Tiger announced today that it is now shipping the Solare headset, the world’s first solar-powered professional communications headset. Perfect for hands-free driving and home or work use, the powerful Solare headset harvests light from any source, including indoor or outdoor, for continuous use and a virtually unlimited battery life.

The European leading robotics and autonomous systems developer Milrem Robotics will launch a newly developed autonomous Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) unmanned ground system THeMIS Observe that will be showcased during the fourth iMUGS project demonstration in Belgium.

“A UGV based ISR system significantly increases a tactical unit’s reaction speed on targets as well as the stand-off distance from enemy units,” explained Cpt (res) Jüri Pajuste, Defence Research Director at Milrem Robotics. “Thanks to that the capability and survivability of tactical reconnaissance units will increase considerably,” Pajuste said, adding that this type of capability is usually not available on one platform for light infantry units.

Vitestro, a Dutch medical robotics company, today unveiled the world's most advanced autonomous blood drawing device at the annual meeting of the Netherlands Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (NVKC) in Rotterdam. Vitestro's device combines AI-based, ultrasound-guided 3D reconstruction with robotic needle insertion, ensuring accurate and secure blood collection. The venipuncture technology is adaptable to patients of 16 years of age onwards, comorbidities, and puncture difficulty. From 2023, Vitestro will initiate pivotal clinical studies for regulatory approval in Europe. EU-market introduction is anticipated in 2024.

Volta Trucks, the leading and disruptive full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has confirmed the selection of Carrier Transicold as the sole supplier of refrigerated equipment for the full-electric 16-tonne Volta Zero. Carrier Transicold is a part of Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), the leading global provider of healthy, safe, sustainable, and intelligent building and cold chain solutions.