His Excellency, Alar Karis, the President of the Republic of Estonia requests the pleasure of your participation in a breakfast & conversation networking event with the Estonian Business Delegation.
Located in Northern Europe, Estonia is one of the most dynamic, business and startup-friendly ecosystems in the world and is the first truly digital-nation, with more than 99% of state services available digitally and online – 24/7.
All of this is facilitated by one of Estonia’s greatest service exports – the system used daily to make all of this possible: the X-Road. The X-road is a smart data system that interconnects public and private databases and manages the connection to make sure that every system only has the data they need to complete a service, but not more – always ensuring the privacy of the individual.
Its efficient too – saving 1407 years of work, annually, removing the need for people to go back and forth tracking down data that the system, or one part of the system, already has. It is an open-source platform and is exported internationally, helping other countries and jurisdictions to build their own digital societies and infrastructures on top of this system. And what is truly exciting is that the more countries that onboard the system, the more there is the potential for true cross-border interoperability where services from one country blend into and become accessible to citizens of another. For example, today, a Finnish citizen can be prescribed medication in Finland, and have the prescription filled in any pharmacy in Estonia – all by using their ID card and digital identity.
Estonia’s robust digital infrastructure was opened to the global community in 2014, with the launch of the world’s first e-Residency program. E-Residency affords a non-resident individual a legally recognized digital identity that is valid throughout the European Union. This means that non-residents of Estonia can transact within the European digital infrastructure seamlessly and remotely; digitally signing documents and contracts, paying taxes, registering a business, etc. – all virtually and without the need for notaries or overnight mail.
With a population of only 1.3m people and a digitally-enabled, can-do mindset, Estonian businesses are “born global” with most entrepreneurs in the country beginning to look towards foreign markets from Day one. And with a robust and collaborative startup ecosystem – sometimes referred to as “Silicon Valley’s best kept secret unicorn hatchery”, a lean and innovative bureaucratic environment, and a competitive tax system designed to enable growth, rather than hamper it… it is no wonder that Estonia is such a hotbed for startups, having become a veritable unicorn factory.
Estonia is ranked #1 in Europe, and #2 globally, in terms of the number of startups per capita, having given rise to globally recognized companies like such as Wise (formerly Transferwise), GrabCAD, Fortumo, Pipedrive, Starship Technologies, Skype, and many, many more – including 10 “unicorn” companies.
