A Nation of Born-Globals
Estonia is an entrepreneurial star in Europe, producing more startups per capita than any other country on the continent.
With a small population - and therefore a limited domestic market - companies with ambitions to grow have to be focused on the global market from day one.
The Estonian technology sector is highly developed. However, the talent pool is very restricted, not only in terms of engineers but also in terms of business development, sales and marketing specialists. Recruiting foreign talent is of great importance, so the government works hard to present Estonia as an attractive environment to live and work in.
Startup Estonia
In 2011, the government defined startups as a top priority. The Startup Estonia program (launched by the Estonian Development Fund) is focused on building a strong startup ecosystem to help bring more great ideas to market and accelerate their development.
The program seeks to supercharge Estonian-bred startups that have the potential to make it in the world, facilitating access to experienced people and companies, investors and money.
Notable Estonian Startups
Estonia is especially strong in terms of financial services and Business-2-Business technologies. It also excels in the field of software development, in particular process enhancement tools.
Financial Technologies
- Transferwise (Crowd-sourced international money transfers)
- Fortumo (Helps online and mobile app and game developers to monetize their users via mobile payments)
- Erply (cloud based POS software for retail, inventory and e-commerce)
- Bondora (borrow and lend between each other)
- Monese (open a UK banking account on your mobile in minutes)
Development Support Tools
- Plumbr (detects java memory leaks)
- Zeroturnaround (JRebel java development tool)
- Testlio (community of mobile testers)
Business-2-Business
- PipeDrive (Pipeline software for deal makers)
- AdCash (advertising trading platform that delivers solutions to online publishers and brand advertisers)
Learn more about entrepreneurship in Estonia
The ArcticStartup guide to Estonia