Fundraising Fox
Votemo
Techstars '23Tallinn, EE · Founded 2018 · 7 employees on LinkedIn · 5 known investors
Find your way into Votemo
Sign up to see every warm intro you have to Votemo
- Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Votemo team. We find them for you
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
- Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone
Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.
Votemo is a voting platform custom-designed for film festivals, enabling automatic audience choice award polls with real-time results tracking and enhanced security for managing audience data and feedback.
Also known as Votemo OÜ
Founders & leadership
Votemo was founded in 2018 by Maarit Mäeveer and Tõnis Vassar.
Investors · 5
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · a partner's Signal profile · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Also in the syndicate · 4
Company profile
researched Sep 2026Votemo is a Tallinn, Estonia based media and event technology company that builds audience engagement tools for live, hybrid and online events. Its platform offers digital ballots for audience award voting, Q&A and feedback polls, chat, and other interactive modules that can be scheduled to publish automatically in line with an event programme. For film festivals the product supports audience choice award voting with real-time results tracking for both in-person and online audiences, replacing paper ballot counting.
The product is delivered as an embeddable layer: a JavaScript widget can be added to a website with two lines of code, or the interaction interface can be placed on top of a video stream or inside a partner event platform via iFrame. Votemo also provides sponsor-facing features such as sponsor ads, branded interaction interfaces, customised emojis and branded result overlays, plus data collection and e-commerce add-ons that let organisers gather audience data and leads.
The company originally targeted broadcasters, positioning itself as a bridge between TV and digital by giving TV shows real-time audience interaction and additional advertising inventory. In 2020 it pivoted to the virtual and live event industry and now sells to event agencies, event organisers and event platforms.
Founding story
Votemo was founded in March 2018 by Dagmar Mäe, Maarit Mäeveer and Tõnis Vassar to offer real-time audience engagement for live television, giving TV shows a way to interact with viewers and giving broadcasters additional advertising inventory.
Business model
Votemo sells its engagement modules to event organisers, event agencies, broadcasters and event platforms, which embed the tools into their websites, video streams or platform environments. A significant part of the value proposition is monetisation for the customer: branded interaction interfaces, sponsor ads, result overlays and data/lead collection that organisers can package for sponsors, and, in the broadcast use case, extra advertising inventory that converts TV audiences into digital advertising revenue.
Revenue comes from event organisers, broadcasters and platforms paying for access to Votemo's engagement modules; the company markets the tools partly on the sponsorship and advertising revenue customers can generate through branded interactions, ad placements and audience data collection.
Traction
The company reported working with international agencies such as Ascential and with events and brands including Cannes Lions, World Cleanup Day, Marimekko, Telia, Simple Session, Visit Estonia and X-Factor. In an earlier broadcast-focused phase it reported paying clients in Estonia and first projects signed for Latvia and Poland, and stated that on average 7% of a show's audience interacted through Votemo. Montclair Film has used the platform to move from paper to electronic balloting. The company says it has run hundreds of audience award projects.
Latest developments
The company's site published guidance on running audience award voting at film festivals and analysis of festival audience trends in 2025 and 2026, and features a customer account from Montclair Film on switching to electronic balloting.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Votemo positions itself as an interaction layer that complements, rather than replaces, event and streaming platforms, partnering with several European event platforms instead of competing with them. It cites the global virtual events market as being estimated to reach $505 billion by 2028, implying roughly 24% CAGR from 2021 to 2028.
Votemo emphasises rapid setup and automated publishing of polls timed to an event programme, real-time results, and an integration model that layers interaction on top of existing streams and event platforms. Partners have highlighted its branded result overlays and sponsor branding options as differentiators in the market, alongside chat and banner/interactive schedule features.
Technology
A web-based engagement application delivered either through a configurable JavaScript widget that customers add to their own pages with two lines of code, or through iFrame integration into third-party event platforms and on top of video streams. Each customer receives a dedicated application URL, and widget parameters such as default open state, desktop dimensions and language are configurable. The company has described its engagement tool as AI based and highlights security and precision in handling audience awards, audience data and feedback.
Go-to-market
Direct sales to festivals, event organisers and agencies, combined with a partner channel in which event platforms integrate Votemo's engagement layer for their own clients. Partners listed include talque, Worksup, Brella, MultiCityTV and Icareus. Following its 2022 round the company said it would recruit a larger sales team and increase marketing and sales activity to scale across Europe. The website also publishes guides and market-insight articles aimed at festival organisers.
Film festivals and media events, event organisers and event agencies, conference and hybrid-event platforms, brands and sponsors, and TV broadcasters and channels.
Geography
Headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, with customers and partners across Europe and internationally; investors in its seed round came from Estonia, Finland, Norway and the UK. Early broadcast clients were in Estonia with first projects in Latvia and Poland, and the company has cited expansion plans across several European markets. Customers include the US-based Montclair Film festival.
History
Votemo OÜ was founded in Tallinn in 2018 by Dagmar Mäe, Maarit Mäeveer and Tõnis Vassar to provide engagement solutions for live TV. In 2018 Levira AS invested €150k in the company, and the company also received a start-up grant of up to €15,000 co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. In 2020 Votemo pivoted its product away from broadcast towards the virtual and live event industry. In February 2022 it closed a €250k round and announced plans to expand its sales team and enter additional European markets; at that time the team comprised ten people. The company has since concentrated on film festivals and audience award voting.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsVotemo closed its second investment round, raising €250,000. The round was led by Akim Arhipov of Nordic-Baltic venture studio VNTRS and the newly launched angel community Fund Fellow Founders (FFF), with Jaak Ennuste and Sven Illing as co-lead investors. In total 22 angel investors from Estonia, Finland, Norway and the UK joined the round. Votemo was FFF's first investment. Proceeds were earmarked for a larger sales team, marketing and sales activity, product development and expansion into several European markets.
Votemo announced partnerships with event platforms talque, Worksup, Brella, MultiCityTV and Icareus, allowing their clients to add Votemo's audience engagement layer, branded sponsor solutions, chat and banner modules to virtual and hybrid events.
Votemo pivoted its product in 2020 from broadcast/live-TV engagement to the virtual and live event industry, focusing on event organisers, agencies and platforms.
The project "Votemo Starditoetus / Start-Up Grant" for Tallinn-based media tech startup Votemo OÜ is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, with a total grant of up to €15,000.
Broadcast infrastructure company Levira AS invested €150,000 in Votemo in 2018, during the company's live-TV engagement phase.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Votemovotemo.eu · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Votemo do?
- Estonian audience-engagement platform providing live voting, polls and sponsor-branded interaction tools for film festivals and events.
- Who founded Votemo?
- Votemo was founded by Maarit Mäeveer, Tõnis Vassar in 2018.
- Who are Votemo's investors?
- Votemo's investors include Techstars.
- Where is Votemo headquartered?
- Votemo is headquartered in Tallinn, EE.