28/05/2026
From breakfast to pubs – apparently some of the most valuable conversations at Latitude59 side events happen somewhere between coffee and beer.
After a full day across biotech, circular economy and deep-tech discussions in Tallinn, a few things became very clear:
🍄 Food biotech in the New Nordics is accelerating fast.
What used to feel like a niche sustainability topic is increasingly becoming a serious industrial opportunity, especially around local feedstocks, alternative production models and reducing dependency on imported inputs.
⚡ Circular economy is no longer just about waste reduction.
It is increasingly tied to resilience and energy sovereignty. Encouraging to see strong alignment between policymakers and the deep-tech community on these topics.
🚀 Deep-tech spin-outs need a stronger Nordic-Baltic ex*****on model.
The discussion around Aalto University’s recent spin-out development model was especially interesting – particularly the reported 80% baseline sustainability rate for deep-tech spin-outs. That is the kind of benchmark Estonia and the wider Baltic region should study carefully.
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As Kent Langel reflected, the New Nordics have a real opportunity to connect biotech, food innovation, circular industry, energy resilience and deep-tech commercialization into one coherent industrial strategy.
The ingredients are increasingly visible: strong research capabilities, growing policy alignment, ambitious founders, active investors, and a broader understanding that deep-tech ecosystems require long-term design — not isolated projects.
Now the real question is how quickly this momentum can be transformed into scalable companies, regional value chains and internationally competitive platforms.
