HEVI Optronics intends to build a second plant in Tabasalu for about EUR 20 million and to open an office for development work in Tartu, Invest in Estonia writes, referring to an interview that the founder and chief executive Kristjan Tiimus gave to Tööstusuudised.
The new plant would make sensors, optics and parts of precision mechanics that the company now buys in part from suppliers. It is meant to start work in early 2029 and to employ about 100 people, although no date for construction has been fixed and the sum is the cost of the building and equipment, not money already agreed with financiers. Until now, we have used certain purchased components, but production volumes of tens of thousands of units require full control of the supply chain,
Tiimus said.
The first factory in Tabasalu is still being built; it will bring under one roof work that is spread over several buildings. The second would stand on neighbouring land that the company owns. The Tartu office is due to open in November and adds to a development office near Tallinn University of Technology.
HEVI supplies its systems to larger defence contractors, which build them into their own products. Its revenue in 2025 was EUR 27.15 million, against EUR 9.94 million in 2024, according to figures of ERR that Invest in Estonia cites. In March the German defence technology company Quantum Systems bought a 60% stake in the firm.
Source: Invest in Estonia, . The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.
What this means for an Estonian entrepreneur
Two things in this story matter to an owner of a growing Estonian company. Growth of this size came together with a foreign investor taking a majority stake, and the founder still runs the firm. And the plan was announced before the financing was agreed, which the source states plainly. An entrepreneur who sells part of a company decides at that moment who controls what afterwards.
When an investor buys a share of an Estonian private limited company, the transfer and the new shareholder are entered in the commercial register; we prepare the transaction and the entry. Change of shareholders and transfer of a share