Estonia an attractive destination for start-ups, says envoy

For many Indian businesses, Estonia might not be an attractive destination. But for IT professionals and the world of internet, its contribution to Skype, cyber security and e-services should be quite familiar.

This European nation which shares borders with Russia and Finland and has a population 1,000 times less than India, is rapidly emerging as an e-State. At present, its 99 per cent of government services are available online and the elections are also held through online voting.

To take its e-State features on a global level, the nation is establishing five Data Embassies which will replace physical embassies in selected countries. “The first of them is coming up in Luxembourg. Few humans and intensively data-driven will be the flavour. We will have huge servers there”, says Riho Kruuv, Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia in India, Myanmar and Singapore.

India-Estonia ties

In a conversation with BusinessLine on a visit here, the Ambassador said Estonia’s relationship with India is changing. In 2017, India emerged amongst the top three countries to pitch for locating its start-up when Estonia launched the ‘Start-up Visa’ policy.

“There were 250 ideas registered globally. Estonia provides 18-month stay, mentorship, access to foreign capital and venture capital (VC) funding from Scandinavian countries to the foreign founders of the start-up,” he said.

Another initiative that’s drawing Indian businessmen to Estonia is the e-Residency programme for foreigners started in 2013. “There are 45,000 e-Residents from 160 countries, of whom 1600 are from India,” Riho Kruuv said.

“The only requirement for the businessman is to visit Estonia to open a bank account for the venture. Thereafter, the business can be run from anywhere. Application is online, there are lots of incentives, and an e-Card will be provided giving access to many services,” he said.

Areas of cooperation

Riho Kruuv led a team to Hyderabad for discussions with the IT& Industries Minister of Telangana, KT Rama Rao, and visited the T-Hub and representatives of select industries.

An MoU was signed with Telangana Government for cooperation in digital healthcare, Internet of Things (IoT) and Start-ups. “I met the Minister in the morning and the draft MoU was sent to my email box in the afternoon. I was surprised and satisfied at the swiftness of receiving a draft MoU,” Riho said.

“But MoU is one thing, and turning the intent into concrete collaboration is another and the most important. The Ambassador sounded positive with the T-Hub, start-up ecosystem, the hectic development activity in Hyderabad, that joint projects will flow.”

Estonia-India trade

Riho said Estonia was ready to offer the Blockchain technology (Estonia is a pioneer) and smart city solutions that will improve citizens lives, e-Governance initiatives, artificial intelligence, robotics, cyber security and ICT to attract joint initiatives.

Having established an embassy in India in 2013 after 27 years of diplomatic relation, the bilateral trade is just about €200 million. “I see big prospects of growth in the future. India has a joint Ambassador to Estonia and Finland located in Helsinki at present,” he added.

Riho said the country started digitisation and tapping the potential of internet in the early 1990s. As the country fell victim to a cyber attack in 2007, we were pushed to develop protective technologies. This led to the Blockchain technology in a way. By 2008, NATO established its Cyber Security Centre of Excellence, in Estonia.

“If one is active in digitisation and using the web, one has to be strong in cyber security,” the Ambassador said. Estonia also hosts the EU Agency for Big Data. It’s home to four of the top Unicorns including Taxify , a rival to Über.

Funderbeam is another trend-setter setting up an online exchange for start-ups to help digitise shares, list and trade.

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