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December 1st 2014, a certain Edward Lucas, a well-renowned journalist,
editor and writer became the first person to become an e-resident of
Estonia.
Estonia is a small country of 1.3 million people, but it is also a EU member, uses the Euro as its currency and along with its neighbouring states of Latvia and Lithuania, has embraced technology faster than a Donald Trump Presidential campaign attracts attention. It is a modern and sophisticated European entity, some would say unlike the Republican candidate.
Lucas became the beneficiary of the country’s new policy to attract people to set up companies in the country and to cut through the Red Tape and bureaucracy that branded its former Soviet rulers. He now effectively has a national ID card that allows him to open a company, set up a bank account and do all the things that ‘normal’ Estonians can do.
It’s a clever idea and one that gets attention. Estonia is the place where Skype was born and its young government wants to stop the brain drain of entrepreneurs leaving for the US and to create the oft-mentioned tech system that everybody likens to Silicon Valley.The plan is bearing fruit. TransferWise was set up in Estonia three years before Mr Lucas’s arrival by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann who were bored by the charges they paid to pass money between Tallinn and London, so they came up with a peer-to-peer system that meant they could do so for
free.
Estonia is a small country of 1.3 million people, but it is also a EU member, uses the Euro as its currency and along with its neighbouring states of Latvia and Lithuania, has embraced technology faster than a Donald Trump Presidential campaign attracts attention. It is a modern and sophisticated European entity, some would say unlike the Republican candidate.
Lucas became the beneficiary of the country’s new policy to attract people to set up companies in the country and to cut through the Red Tape and bureaucracy that branded its former Soviet rulers. He now effectively has a national ID card that allows him to open a company, set up a bank account and do all the things that ‘normal’ Estonians can do.
It’s a clever idea and one that gets attention. Estonia is the place where Skype was born and its young government wants to stop the brain drain of entrepreneurs leaving for the US and to create the oft-mentioned tech system that everybody likens to Silicon Valley.The plan is bearing fruit. TransferWise was set up in Estonia three years before Mr Lucas’s arrival by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann who were bored by the charges they paid to pass money between Tallinn and London, so they came up with a peer-to-peer system that meant they could do so for
free.
In March, the company announced
it was close to a $70 million funding round valuing it at more than $1
billion. While both the UK and Estonia claim the company as its own,
this joint national venture has been a huge inspiration to local Baltic
entrepreneurs.
Estonia is not the only Baltic tech country in town. Companies in Lithuania have received more than $100 million in investment over the past 12 months and, like TransferWise, its companies are benefiting from melding its local talent with a Head Office in London.
One such company is TransferGo (a little cheeky with its branding perhaps), but it raised $2.5 million in seed funding at the end of the year and then there’s Vinted, another peer-to-peer offering that works in fashion and recently raised $27 million in C Round funding.
Estonia is not the only Baltic tech country in town. Companies in Lithuania have received more than $100 million in investment over the past 12 months and, like TransferWise, its companies are benefiting from melding its local talent with a Head Office in London.
One such company is TransferGo (a little cheeky with its branding perhaps), but it raised $2.5 million in seed funding at the end of the year and then there’s Vinted, another peer-to-peer offering that works in fashion and recently raised $27 million in C Round funding.
While this all is so far impressive, what every emerging tech hub
needs is a conference to bring everybody together and last month’s TechChill Baltics event held in Riga, the capital of Latvia, was the focus for Baltic entrepreneurs.
Held in one of the city’s biggest nightclubs and now in its fifth year, the event suffered a little from poor acoustics, but the excitement, and the VC interest, was palpable.
One particular company that stood out was Twino, a marketplace and platform for unsecured consumer loans. I must, however, declare a personal interest here, because they gave me an excellent T-shirt after I challenged and lost to them at table football.
Another was the startup winner of TechChill Baltics, an edtech company called Edurio that beat off opposition from its rivals SportID, Upsteem, Furnny and RingBe. It is building a web-based platform for schools and universities where students self-evaluate and graduate.
The chairman and head moderator of the conference was Andris Berzins whose day job is Co-founder and board member of TechHub Riga, an offshoot of the influential and original TechHub near London’s Old Street roundabout.
“Technologically smart, global in outlook and hungry for success. That is how I would summarise the advantages of the three Baltic states in the global startup scene.
“Action sports drones, peer-to-peer money transfer innovations, robotics and more. Startups from the three Baltic states will continue to come up with outsize innovations relative to their small populations and will foist them onto the rest of the world,” he said.
Another company is the gloriously named Funderful, which is somewhat ironically now looking for funds and headed by the chatty and charismatic Raimonds Kulbergs. The company is another peer-2-peer offering, but this time online funding for academia. It’s another neat idea and Mr Kulbergs has the look of a star about him; certainly one Baltic entrepreneur to watch.
While Estonia offers headline-grabbing e-visa opportunities, it is perhaps Lativa and Lithuania that have more startups and latitude to expand their tech hubs.
Estonian entrepreneurs would surely disagree, but there is more than enough talent to attract investors across all three Baltic states. Let friendly battle commence.
Held in one of the city’s biggest nightclubs and now in its fifth year, the event suffered a little from poor acoustics, but the excitement, and the VC interest, was palpable.
One particular company that stood out was Twino, a marketplace and platform for unsecured consumer loans. I must, however, declare a personal interest here, because they gave me an excellent T-shirt after I challenged and lost to them at table football.
Another was the startup winner of TechChill Baltics, an edtech company called Edurio that beat off opposition from its rivals SportID, Upsteem, Furnny and RingBe. It is building a web-based platform for schools and universities where students self-evaluate and graduate.
The chairman and head moderator of the conference was Andris Berzins whose day job is Co-founder and board member of TechHub Riga, an offshoot of the influential and original TechHub near London’s Old Street roundabout.
“Technologically smart, global in outlook and hungry for success. That is how I would summarise the advantages of the three Baltic states in the global startup scene.
“Action sports drones, peer-to-peer money transfer innovations, robotics and more. Startups from the three Baltic states will continue to come up with outsize innovations relative to their small populations and will foist them onto the rest of the world,” he said.
Another company is the gloriously named Funderful, which is somewhat ironically now looking for funds and headed by the chatty and charismatic Raimonds Kulbergs. The company is another peer-2-peer offering, but this time online funding for academia. It’s another neat idea and Mr Kulbergs has the look of a star about him; certainly one Baltic entrepreneur to watch.
While Estonia offers headline-grabbing e-visa opportunities, it is perhaps Lativa and Lithuania that have more startups and latitude to expand their tech hubs.
Estonian entrepreneurs would surely disagree, but there is more than enough talent to attract investors across all three Baltic states. Let friendly battle commence.
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