Chapter 2021 of the Estonian startup sector
In 2021, the Estonian startup ecosystem witnessed several significant moments. Wise became the first Estonian decacor...
Estonian Centre for Applied Research (CentAR) carried out a mapping regarding Estonian tech companies headquarters with the aim to gather info about factors influencing the decisions around headquarters location. 15 interviews with tech companies’ founders were conducted during November 2021 to share experiences and open up the founders perspective.
Summary based on interviews will help to understand the aspects behind founders decisions and on policy level is used as input in taking next steps towards becoming a scaleup country.
Mapping was conducted in Estonian.
On 16 April, Commissioner Mariya Gabriel had met the group to listen to their experiences as leaders of the innovation ecosystems in the 27 Member States. The group presented to the Commissioner their first ideas of an ‘Action Plan to Make Europe the new Global Powerhouse for Startups’ that aims to increase the number of unicorns (privately owned companies valued at over $1 billion) tenfold in Europe over the next ten years.
The aim of the group is to provide feedback to the European Commission on how it can further support and promote European startup ecosystems and increase employment, innovation and exports across the EU over the next decade. The initiative also represents a strengthening of relations between the startup sector and the European Commission.
The group consists of one representative from each Member State: Constantijn van Oranje (Special Envoy at Techleap.nl), Peter Vesterbacka (FinEst Bay Area), Carlos Mateo (Asociacion Startups), Markus Raunig (AustrianStartups), Charlotte Greant (Startups.be), Dimitar Vasilev (Bulgarian Business Forums), Hajdi Cenan (Croatian AI Association), Stavriana A. Kofteros (Startup Cyprus), Markéta Přenosilová (CzechInvest), Tomas Mathiesen (Danish Startup Group), Matej Rus (Startup:Slovenia), Maarika Truu (Estonia), Eve Peeterson (Startup Estonia), Nicolas Brien (France Digitale), Christian Miele (Deutsche Startups), Panos Zamanis (Hellenic Startup Association), Csongor Biás (Startup Hungary), Martina Fitzgerald (Scale Ireland), Giorgio Ciron (InnovUp), Olga Barreto Goncalves (Latvian Startup Association StartinLV), Roberta Rudokiene (Startup Lithuania), Tomasz Snazyk (Startup Poland), Simon Schaefer (Startup Portugal), Cristian Dascalu (Romanian Tech Startups Association), Michal Kardos (Slovak Alliance for Innovation Economy), Arash Sangari (Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth), Stephen Chetcuti Bonavita (Silicon Valleta), and Elodie Trojanowski (Federation Luxemburgoise des Startups). Jan Bormans is performing the secretariat functions for the group.
The exchange takes place against the backdrop of the new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon Europe), the Innovation Transformation of Higher Education institutions, and the Commission’s recent Digital Decade Communication that calls to double the number of unicorns in Europe by 2030, to around 250. In January, the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the two pillars of EU support to entrepreneurs, signed a Memorandum of understanding to enable innovators, innovative SMEs and startups, higher education institutions and research organisations to receive quality support services to deploy and scale up innovations faster and with greater impact.
The aim of the study was to map the current state of science to commercialisation in Estonia, with particular emphasis on spin-off companies answering the following questions: what kind of spin-off companies exist; in which fields; which universities have succeeded in generating spin-offs the most; what have been the driving aspects. The study looked into different countries and what they have done to support their spin-off landscapes by analysing the best practices and interviewing Estonian public universities and field experts.
Science to Commercialisation in Estonia Research involved all Estonian public universities: Tartu University, TalTech, Tallinn University, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonian Academy of Arts and Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. During the period from September to December, 2019 Technopolis Group conducted the study, which included 4 stages: analysis of literature on spin-off companies and landscapes in the world, analysis of 3 best practices on the governmental, university and spin-off company level, Estonian spin-off landscape mapping with interviews, and generating a list of recommendations for supporting the spin-off companies and landscape.
This survey was conducted in Estonian.
The aim of
the study was to map the satisfaction of relevant parties with the current Estonian
startup ecosystem. The study focused on the satisfaction with the services of
and support from Startup Estonia from the viewpoint of various support
organisations as well as startups.
The target groups of the
study were divided into two main sub-groups: startups and startup ecosystem
support organisations, which included among others incubators, HUBs,
consultancies and public sector support organisations. During the period from September to November Civitta Estonia conducted the study, which included
qualitative and quantitative information collection methods.
This survey was conducted in Estonian, executive summary is available in English.
Between June and November 2018 the Center for Applied Anthropology of Estonia conducted an anthropological research aimed at investigating the "Future Founder" journey.
The wider approach of our study dealt with the questions of how to develop the interest in entrepreneurship and digital competencies among children and adolescents. More specifically, our focus was on the field of cyber security and knowledge, skills, and attitudes that potentially encourage young people to become founders of startups.
This research was conducted in Estonian, executive summary is available in English.