Skaala Family Office Skaala Backs Estonian Hacker House

Skaala, the family office of Taavet Hinrikus and Sten Tamkivi, has provided funding to ruum, a Tallinn-based hacker house and early-stage builder programme, as part of a €20,000 funding pool also supported by Startup Estonia and a number of angel investors. The capital supported ruum’s inaugural programme, which centred on a full-day hackathon from which 12 teams were selected from 110 applicants, followed by a two-and-a-half-month programme. The winning team, Bilt.me — a six-person group with an average age of 21 building a mobile app development platform — received a week-long trip to San Francisco. ruum was founded by Helery Pops, a venture capitalist and angel investor, who designed the programme to provide free working space and structured support to early-stage builders. Pops has indicated that ruum may expand its programming in future iterations.

About Skaala: The Hinrikus and Tamkivi family office from Estonia

Skaala is a Tallinn, Estonia-based investment company and family office founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Sten Tamkivi. Taavet Hinrikus joined Skype as its first employee in 2005 and subsequently co-founded Wise — then known as TransferWise — in 2010 alongside Kristo Käärmann. Wise went public in 2021 in what Skaala describes as Europe’s first-ever direct listing and the largest tech IPO in UK history. Sten Tamkivi was a Skype colleague of Hinrikus who later founded Teleport, which was subsequently acquired by Topia. In 2021, Hinrikus and Tamkivi launched a joint investment platform, which operated under the name Taavet+Sten before rebranding as Skaala in late 2024. In 2022, the pair also co-founded Plural, a venture fund for European technology founders, which serves as their primary vehicle for venture capital investments. Skaala’s portfolio spans private equity, real assets, and impact-driven projects across global markets. The firm is led on a day-to-day basis by CEO Kristina Siimar, alongside partners Martin Tälli and Artur Erik Lindmaa.

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Article Source: Tech.eu, 13.04.2026