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Ilja Laurs. 40. Lithuania. Entrepreneur & Investor. Nextury Ventures. A consummate serial entrepreneur, Ilja Laurs has established more than 10 successful business projects since 1999, including Lithuania’s largest hotel reservation system lithuanianhotels.com, mobile payment system MicroPay, mobile game studio Midas Games and 3D professional photography portal geoglance.com. In 2002 Laurs set up GetJar, one of the world’s largest independent app stores, which he later sold to the Chinese companies  Sungai Mobile for USD 50 million, and where he remains chairman of the board. In 2014 he founded Nextury Ventures, a venture capital fund that bankrolls early stage startups as well as fast growth and potentially high-value ideas. In 2011 Laurs was named European Manager of the Year by the European Business Press Association, was nominated one of The Wall Street Journal’s 25 European Tech Leaders, and was also dubbed Technology Pioneer 2011 by the World Economic Forum.

Taavi Kotka. 37. Estonia. Creator & CIO. Estonian e-Residency Program. Taavi Kotka is a co-founder of the e-residency concept that has placed tiny Estonia at the epicenter of the global tech community. In 2014, Kotka teamed up with Ruth Annus and Siim Sikkut to propose the goal of 10 million e-residents by 2025 as part of a competition by the Estonian Development Foundation. The rest, as they say, is history and the project took off with the prize money awarded by the Foundation. Just one year into implementation, the ambitious project is already on track to reach 5,000 e-residents, with 7,600 applications pending. Now known as Estonian CIO, Kotka cut his teeth in technology as owner and chief development officer at enterprise software company Webmedia, later Nortal, where he became CEO in 2005 and chairman in 2006 before leaving in 2012 to become Deputy Secretary General at the Economic Affairs and Communications Ministry. In 2011 Kotka was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. He was also voted European CIO of the Year in 2014 and in 2016 he received Estonia’s White Star III Class Order.

Uldis Pīlēns. 59. Latvia. Chairman. UPB Holdings. Uldis Pılens is a prominent architect and entrepreneur who, as founder and chairman of UPB Holdings, grew the company from a small architectural bureau into a major diversified pan-European industrial group in 25 years. During his tenure, Pılens has expanded the company into business areas such as engineering, production, construction and sales. The group now includes subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and employs more than 1,300 employees across 40 enterprises and production units. UPB Holding has been recognized with the Ruban d’Honneur award (in 2015 and 2011) in the European Business Awards. The firm also received the Champion of Exports prize in the annual Latvia’s Export and Innovation Awards in 2013. In 2015 the Latvian Employers’ Confederation named P¯ıle¯ns Entrepreneur of the Year for his contribution to the development of the local business environment.

Sten Tamkivi. 38. Estonia. Founder & CEO. Teleport. An alumnus of the founding team that introduced the game-changing service Skype, Sten Tamkivi has been a tech entrepreneur since 1996. After trying his hand at a few entrepreneurial ventures, he joined Skype as an early executive, ran the original R&D office, and held several global product leadership roles for over eight years. In 2014, Tamkivi turned his hand to entrepreneurship once more, this time co-founding Teleport, a service that supports an increasingly nomadic global tech workforce by helping match talent with startup-friendly cities worldwide. Teleport has so far received USD 2.5 mln in first round investment from nine investors, including Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn. A former adviser to Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Tamkivi has won a number of national awards. In October 2015, Teleport’s remote meeting financial planner Teleport Flock emerged one of the winners of the World Summit Awards in the Culture & Tourism category. In June this year, the startup took home the Global Champion title at the WSA Innovation Congress in Singapore.

Kristo Käärmann & Taavet Hinrikus. 35 & 34. Estonia. Founders. TransferWise. Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann believe that money is meant to flow freely – a radical notion in a world where large financial institutions control currency flows and rates. The disruptive duo teamed up to co-found TransferWise in 2011 – turning a centuries-old industry on its head in the process. The company provides international cash transfers at current exchange rates with no hidden costs. The service is available in 59 countries and more than 500 currencies, and moves nearly USD 600 million monthly, saving more than USD 28 mln in hidden fees. With Hinrikus’ Skype pedigree as the Estonian firm’s first employee, TransferWise has attracted many investors – as of January 2015, it had collected USD 91 mln  in financing and its market valuation is estimated at USD 1.1 bln. In 2015, business news network CNBC ranked the Estonian unicorn at number 8 on its 2015 Disruptor 50 ranking.

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