Baltic, Business, Economics, Estonia, Financial Services, Good for Business

According to Startup Estonia CEO Mari Vavulski it is clear that Estonian economy benefits greatly from startups as they create high paying jobs, generate tax revenue, attract foreign investments and increase investor’s interest in the country. „Startups also contribute to introducing our small country on a global level and convey a clear message about Estonians’ can-do attitude and innovativity entrepreneurship. Local startups  have a drive to develop products and services that are able to compete on a global level. In addition, it is important to note, that 80 % of specialists employed by local startups live and work in Estonia,“ Vavulski said.

Taking into account the size of the population, the number of Estonian startups that have succeeded on local and global level is remarkable according to Vavulski. „Today we have 404 startups in total, among them both early-stage startups that are yet to find investors and establish themselves, but also growth-phase startups ready to be launched in the world and conquer global markets. Working daily with these young entrepreneurs, we see potential for more, but we have also identified that startups thrive if provided with right guidance, tools and environment – this is what we aim to provide,“ Vavulski added.

Since 2014 Startup Estonia, the support unit for local startups, has been managed by Estonian Development Fund with a main goal to identify the weak spots of local startup ecosystem and provide solutions to create a supporting environment for startups. „During the first year Startup Estonia launched a number of successful programs that help startups to validate business ideas and achieve investment readiness, in addition two seed funding programs were introduced.  We also helped to expand local investor network and introduce Estonian startup ecosystem in foreign countries,“ Vavulski added .

In total, 98 startups participated in eight programs initiated by Startup Estonia and 71 graduated successfully. In addition, 20 % of the 71 startups that graduated participated in two or more Startup Estonia programs.  In total, 1.9 mln. euros of growth capital was raised. From the local programs provided by Startup Estonia, 4 startups moved on to participate in international accelerators: Sorry as a Service, Deltabid, Results on Air and Deekit.

Startup Estonia is actively engaged in growing and developing competences in order to provide support for startups that operate in specific niches. „Within a year we managed to put the Estonian cleantech startups on the map on an international level – Estonian startup came third in ClimateLaunchpad, the biggest competition for cleantech startups. Another local startup landed in top15. In addition, we were able to make way for local cleantech startups in Europe, to apply for European grants, accelerators and various scholarship programs,“ Vavulski added.

Local startup scene is in a good place, but we see that lack of smart capital and globally competitive projects might become the main obstacles in the near future, Vavulski emphasized. „The cause for both obstacles is our young startup ecosystem. This means that we don’t have a generation of entrepreneurs who possess a long-term comprehensive experience in startup business and would be willing to re-invest their experience and capital into new startups. The next major goal for Startup Estonia is to unclog these bottlenecks by investing into knowledge-intensive and high-tech Estonian enterprises in early stage and provide them with management consulting services needed to step up the game and bring the start-up to a new level,“ Vavulski said.

Startup Estonia is the support unit of Estonian startups operating at Estonian Development Fund. Startup Estonia aims to make sure that Estonia would become European leading startup center by year 2020 and could prove startups with whole and operative environment for development. Startup Estonia is financed from European Regional Fund.