Skeleton Technologies – the good guys helping us fight climate change

January 2021

by Peeter Vihma

How to save our planet? No, not from COVID-19; we’re talking about the biggest opponent here – climate change. People at Skeleton Technologies represent cleantech, the tiny slice of the start-up sector that might just have what it takes.

Founded by a couple of course mates in a university town Tartu eleven years ago, Skeleton Technologies has grown from bootstrapping into a global cleantech player. With headquarters in Estonia and production lines in Germany, it closed a €41.3 million financing round and bagged the ‘Revenue Hack’ award at the Estonian Startup Awards. It has grown its turnover three times for the second year in a row while the ink is barely drying on contracts for €150 million worth in orders.

A unique solution

Why? For the widespread hope that technological progress will offset the negative impact of increasing population and the desire for economic growth, suitable energy storage constitutes the cornerstone. And Skeleton’s core product – ultracapacitor-based energy storage systems – provides a unique solution in terms of energy charge/discharge speed and the number of cycles.

“The rapid capture and release of energy by our ultracapacitors provides what other storage systems cannot. For example, in our cooperation with Wrightbus their hydrogen buses use fuel cells for longer energy storage and our ultracapacitors for recuperating breaking energy and re-using it for acceleration,” Oliver Ahlberg, co-founder, and chairman of the board, explains.

“This is why Wrightbus hopes to do with fuel cells what Elon Musk did with electric cars. With our help,” he outlines a future perspective.

Not an easy field to play

Compared to the Goliath of purely IT-based startups, the cleantech sector is David. The number of companies founded globally, for example, is on average 52 each year for cleantech and 988 for e-commerce; in total amount of investment it comes second from bottom. Yet, most analyists believe that cleantech investments will become the hottest investment in 2021.

There is a reason for this. Cleantech requires a much longer product development cycle than software development and knowledge transfer from pure science is much more crucial. Also, because energy storage is such an essential service, its safety and reliability are high.

“Our line of work takes patience,” Mr. Ahlberg affirms. “I can bring you an example of reliability testing. As ultracapacitors can run up to a million cycles compared to a couple of thousand for batteries, their use extends to 15-20 years. Of course, we don’t have 20 years for testing, so we rely on a sped-up testing solution. But this still takes 1500 hours. And in the worst case, you run into errors at hour 1450. Luckily, our bigger efforts are behind us,” he adds. “We are now engaged in taking our world-leading ultracapacitors and developing them even further.”

Estonian mindset 

How could such a player sprout in Estonia, a country with considerably modest heavy industry which is often behind such tech-heavy success stories?

“For one, there is a good level of fundamental science done in Estonia. The curved graphene nanomaterial that we use in our products was developed here,” Mr. Ahlberg explains.

“But I think an important factor is a hunger for success,” he adds. “I already mentioned patience. Estonian mindset provides the latter: it took us three years of bootstrapping before we got our first investor. Estonians have a lot of drive.”

Accelerated by the green wave

A proof of the strategic importance of Skeleton’s product lies in the variety of sectors that uses Skeleton’s storage systems: from medical to space technologies, transportation to renewable energy production. This is also one of the reasons why the company has done well over the past year. Another reason is that governments around the globe are supporting and expecting technology change in the energy sector.

“We knew already ten years ago when we started our company that energy storage has a place in the future society. As much as I would like to say we had a crystal ball, I could not predict, of course, the speed of change,” Mr. Ahlberg smiles. “I think in another, darker universe, this change would have taken 20-30 years. The support of governments makes companies more ready to take the risk and go green faster.”

Thus, there seems to be hope that the race between technological remedies and environmental decay might just end with the good guys winning.

Resouce: e-estonia

Meet Iseauto: innovative and greener last mile transportation

January 2021

by Sven Paulus

for life in estonia magazine

Estonian spin-off company Auve Tech and the University of Tartu are developing a hydrogen-powered self-driving vehicle. Iseauto, an autonomous bus for seven passengers, is expected to be completed by mid-2021. Auve Tech CEO Johannes Mossov shared his ideas about how future traffic is going to look with environmentally friendly, self-driving cars.

What are the next generation of self-driving vehicles you are developing and how are they superior to the previous generation?

Our first-generation vehicles were largely prototypes to test the maturity and capabilities of various technologies. In the case of second-generation vehicles, we have placed a great deal of emphasis on ensuring safety and autonomy. We want to reach the level where we bring the safety person out of the vehicle to the control room, so that the vehicle can be controlled remotely. The purpose of our self-driving vehicle is to fill a gap in so-called ‘last mile transport,’ which is not covered by public transport infrastructure or where smaller vehicles are needed for shorter routes

What makes a hydrogen car special and what are its benefits?

The use of a hydrogen fuel cell provides the advantage of very fast charging and also eliminates the need to use additional vehicles at the time of loading, which would increase the cost of the service. At the moment, we have two prototypes: the hydrogen fuel vehicle is developed in cooperation with the University of Tartu. At the same time, we have made a prototype solution for a car using supercapacitors with Skeleton Technologies. The idea is that this vehicle can be driven 24/7 making use of its extra fast charging capability on-the-go at the bus stops. Supercapacitors will allow us to fully charge the shuttle batteries in 11 seconds. It is meant to solve the problem in airports and other service terminals where the need for continued transportation never ends.

A traditional electric-powered vehicle can operate up to 8 hours, but that may not be enough to do a 12-hour shift. It takes up to a few hours to fully charge the traditional battery pack. That pauses the operation or creates a need to run an additional vehicle. Therefore, in some places in the future, a vehicle running on hydrogen and again on a supercapacitor will be better suited for use.

What is needed for self-driving vehicles to become more widely used?

The most important thing is to reach the level of technical capability where there is no need for a safety person in the vehicle. A real economic advantage arises when it is possible to operate several vehicles at the same time from a control room that could be located anywhere.

It is also important to achieve production capacity that will reduce costs. Once in mass production, the unit price would become much cheaper and the end customer could use it profitably without having to hire an operator. In June this year, our self-driving vehicle was recognised by the Road Administration as a street-legal car, and it is now possible to operate it on Estonian and European roads.

Please describe your cooperation with the University of Tartu?

The cooperation with the University of Tartu arose from the desire to find a real application for the unique solutions developed in the laboratory. Together with the University of Tartu, we’ll manufacture a prototype of a self-driving hydrogen vehicle where we combine the hydrogen fuel cells developed and manufactured at the university with a vehicle developed by Auve Tech. For the university, this is a great opportunity for research and we can see whether or not we can get this hydrogen-based system in vehicles on a daily basis. Our hopes are high and things are moving forward at full speed.

And you also cooperate with Tallinn University of Technology?

Auve Tech grew out of a cooperation project with Tallinn University of Technology that started in 2017, within the framework of which the first prototype of a self-driving vehicle was made to celebrate the 100th birthday of the university. Now we are part of a consortium with the University of Technology in the Horizon 2020 FABULOS project. We are in the last phase of this. Our first vehicle operation in Tallinn’s Ülemiste City was a success and our second project in Lamia, Greece is coming to an end before Christmas.

What are the results of tests in Iseauto in Ülemiste City?

We started with test drives in the university’s campus and operating in Ülemiste is a valuable experience that has led us to develop rapidly. It is a very difficult route with constant traffic and a changing environment – complex intersections with heavy traffic, many manoeuvres, many different objects and obstacles to watch for, from scooters and bicycles to cats and dogs.  In the last three months, we have made a technological leap forward while operating there. At the moment, it is important to go through as difficult situations as possible with the vehicle, so that it is possible to step back from there later. Due to the fact that our development team is also located in Tallinn, it has been a very good opportunity for direct communication between the teams in order to continuously improve the process.

Have you found partners elsewhere? And if so, what is the cooperation about?

The main partners are currently from Finland, Germany and the USA. Much of the cooperation is with operating companies, thanks to which it is possible to involve our vehicles in various international pilot projects in countries whose legislation or day-to-day work we do not yet understand so well. For example, our buses started operating in Tampere, Finland, at the beginning of September under the operating company Roboride. We also have technological partnerships with the German company Pylot, which offers us the capabilities needed to control a vehicle remotely.

What kind of feedback have you received for Iseauto so far?

Passenger feedback has been largely positive. However, most uses today are still a one-time exploration, and as this is a very innovative technology that many are experiencing for the first time, the consumer experience is also very entertaining. We are preparing a longer project where the vehicle would become a part of everyday traffic for people.  If a customer uses an Iseauto every day to travel their last mile to get home, for example, from a bus stop to their home or office, then we really need this feedback on the overall service.

Feedback from partners and contacts has also been positive so far. They are very surprised that we have been able to complete such a vehicle in such a short time. We have a network of contacts in almost every part of the world so that we can send vehicles there. But here it must be acknowledged that bigger proofs are yet to come, and we are currently working to ensure that.

What is the top priority for Auve Tech at the moment: R&D, sales and exports or something else?

We are currently going through a transition period, where R&D is still a priority. In addition to the alternative drivetrain solutions, we want to develop a modular platform for the vehicle that could be suited for different applications. This way we could provide solutions for not only passenger transportation but also for example parcel and waste transportation. We are also gradually preparing to start placing more emphasis on sales and export, starting from gathering a real-life experience from different environments around the world. To tackle the ambitious expansion plans of getting sustainable transportation solutions into our everyday life, we have been putting together a global expansion team. The team will be led by ex-Prime Minister of Estonia, Taavi Rõivas, who will join Auve Tech in early 2021.

This is a very research-intensive undertaking. What new knowledge has the whole enterprise provided?

It is difficult to point them out separately, but we are glad that we have been able to cooperate with various universities and several enthusiastic students. At Tallinn University of Technology, many smaller research papers have been developed from this project. The best fruits of this research have still been the people who have joined our team. Thanks to them, we have very good cooperation with universities.

Today, this preliminary research project has grown into Auve Tech and, from there, into a commercially usable solution. This shows that it is possible to do great things in small Estonia, and we will definitely keep an eye on all research activities, including those that have not grown directly from the Iseauto project. Such a bond in R&D shows that, through cooperating with universities, it is possible to make a very research-intensive and innovative physical machine.

Self-driving vehicles are being developed all over the world, but what are your biggest advantages?

Our strongest trump card has been that we started at the right time. Those who started seven or eight years ago have made insane investments in software and sensory systems. We started exactly three years ago, and by that time, technology and software had become much easier and cheaper to access. The size of the initial investment did not have to be so large that it would be difficult to recoup it later.

If we talk about the vehicle then, in terms of its overall size, we have found exactly the golden path. We have competitors who make much larger self-driving vehicles, but their main disadvantage is that a large car that runs autonomously and slowly is much harder to pass and takes up a lot of space on the road. The size of our vehicle has also made it possible to use it on a larger sidewalk or pedestrian area, where it can move slowly and does not disturb the surrounding pedestrians or cyclists.

The Life in Estonia Magazine covers all Estonian walks of life – from business and innovation to culture, design and tourism. The magazine focuses on in-depth coverage rather than short news value and is directed to all readers who want to get a feel of the agile Nordic country. We bring to you all the topics from Life in Estonia, that put the “e” in e-Estonia. 

Resourse: e-estonia

Bad actors beware: inside Estonia’s quest to ward off cyberattacks and identity theft

January 2021

by Justin Petrone

On a fine April day almost 14 years ago, Lauri Almann found himself huddled around a table with Estonia’s top officials debating whether to go public with the cyberattacks that had crippled state and business websites since the government decided to relocate a Soviet-era war memorial. 

The move had sparked days of riots in the nation’s capital, and the country was under significant political pressure from Russia. The cyberattacks though were a first for the country and seemed to showcase Estonia’s digital architecture’s vulnerability, upon which many people were already dependent. The question was whether or not to address them publicly.

“I was one of the members of the crisis committee,” recalls Almann. “And as we were sitting there in the crisis meeting room, a question on the table was if we were going to talk about it, or try to classify the attacks as much as possible.” At the moment of the attacks, it seemed like an embarrassment for Estonia’s e-government, he notes, but the decision was made to go public.

The result was startling. Rather than seeing the country’s experience as a weakness, it became the battle-hardened poster boy for cybersecurity. They had withstood a major attack and learned the lessons entailed. Estonian cybersecurity experts became highly sought after. “In retrospect, I think it was one of the best things that happened to us,” says Almann. The Estonian people’s trust in e-services also spiked, and the use of e-services doubled after that, he notes.

“It’s all about trust, and people will trust you when they know you will tell the truth,” he says.

A thriving ecosystem

Almann is now co-founder and “chief storytelling officer” for CybExer Technologies, a Tallinn-headquartered cybersecurity firm developing products for an increasingly diverse array of clients. The firm offers cybersecurity training sessions, a military-grade cybersecurity CyberRange platform for organizations, a toolkit for managing cybersecurity exercises, and a product called Cyber Hygiene for mitigating human risk behavior.

“CyberRange is for practical training of IT and cybersecurity personnel,” notes Almann. “We emulate organizations and we offer them a practice ground for people who want to be trained, who want to experience cyberattacks as they are in real life, and to defend infrastructures that look very much like their own,” he says. “It’s extremely practical and extremely engaging.”

His move into the private cybersecurity sector mirrors the development of the industry around Estonian e-governance, especially after the 2007 attacks. In 2008, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn significantly scaled its activities. The center acts as a think tank on cybersecurity for participating countries. Along with ongoing developments in cybersecurity from the government side, there is also a thriving ecosystem of private firms that draw upon the Estonian experience to design products for the world.

“The community is quite lively,” acknowledges Liisa Past, head of cybersecurity business development at Cybernetica, a Tallinn and Tartu-based company that has developed multiple products and tools around digital identity and secure data exchange, including X-Road, which forms the backbone of Estonian e-governance. “It’s a small market with a relatively small talent pool,” says Past of the community. “You learn to know the people, and you learn to trust the people.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Janer Gorohhov, co-founder and chief product officer at Veriff, a Tallinn-based firm that has developed an AI-powered platform for verifying digital identity. The offering is available in 36 languages that have been so successful, that the privately held firm may soon become the sixth Estonian startup to surpass a $1 billion market value and attain unicorn status. Even with that breadth of impact, the firm is still embedded in Estonia’s cybersecurity community.

“In Estonia, as you know, everyone is a phone call away,” noted Gorohhov. “If different companies or the public sector have common enemies or a common problem that they are trying to solve, it is quite logical that they start to work together toward the same goal.”

The Estonian brand

Estonia’s resourcefulness, innovative mindset, and success in crafting new cybersecurity solutions for export have won the country some reputation abroad. Gorohhov notes. When he and CEO Kaarel Kotkas traveled to California in 2018 to participate in the Y Combinator accelerator program for startups, they thought they might need to take along a map to explain where Estonia was. Instead, they discovered that Estonia was well-known in Silicon Valley, particularly for its e-Residency program, allowing citizens of other countries to become Estonian e-residents and start their own Estonian companies.

“I love e-Residency, personally, and I think it has helped Veriff as well, because if we think about e-Residency, then it’s just another way to give people an e-identity,” he says. Yet these experiences might also be light years’ beyond the experience of those in other countries, which has made developing solutions for different markets a custom business.

“Estonia has built something wonderful with its digital infrastructure,” says Gorohhov. “It’s like Narnia, but it’s often hard to grasp for other governments.”

CybXer’s Almann agrees. “I think the brand of Estonia is extremely strong, and we can do business as a company because we come from Estonia,” he says. “But we also have to keep in mind that the cultures in Germany or the UK, the US or Japan are very different; we can’t just work with a copy-paste model.”

The lessons of 2020

“It is not a question of taking the Estonian model and copying it, but using technology that is contextualised and appropriate for a particular setting,” says Cybernetica’s Past. Yet, the resources to provide high levels of customisation exist. The company has deep roots in academia, dating back to the establishment of the Estonian Institute of Cybernetics in 1960, and has a deep bench of experts engaged in ongoing research programs. “I think 15 to 20 percent of my colleagues at Cybernetica have PhDs,” Past adds.

That know-how also makes them good at anticipating future threats. If the cyberattacks of 2007 were a wake-up call for the field of cybersecurity, then the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic has only reinforced the need for the kinds of tools and expertise that Estonian firms can offer. With more people from all sectors moving to work online, more organisations than ever are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Yet cybersecurity firms were not completely caught off-guard.

“2020 highlighted an accelerated digital transition,” Past points out. “But the bad actors’ behavior, in terms of IP theft, spycraft, phishing, was similar to what we have seen before,” she notes. “There weren’t a lot of new attack types. They mostly took advantage of the opportunities the pandemic posed.”

According to Past, the move to digital has also highlighted the need for improved cybersecurity for all organizations, big and small. Past is currently in charge of developing Cybernetica’s cybersecurity offerings, including a risk management platform.

To keep users abreast of these ongoing threats and new trends in digital security, Veriff this year, for the first time, published a Fraud Report, which also discussed the impact of the pandemic, as well as a forecast for 2021. “It shouldn’t only be us looking at the trends,” notes Veriff’s Gorohhov. “It should be all of our partners looking at where the world is currently heading.”

Still, Gorohhov, Past, and Almann declined to elaborate on some of the tools in their pipelines, preferring to keep new developments close to the vest given the secretive nature of their field.

“We get paid to be paranoid,” Past says of the industry. “We are professionally paranoid.”

Photo courtesy: NATO CCDCOE

CybExer co-founder Lauri Almann, Veriff CPO Janer Gorohhov, and Cybernetica’s Liisa Past will be taking part in e-Estonia digital discussion on how to keep cyberspace secure on 21 January at 11 AM. Reserve your spot here.

Resource: e-estonia