Since regaining its independence from the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia has quickly developed into a significant technology hub in Europe.

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The tiny nation with a population of around 1.3 million people has the world’s fastest broadband speeds and ranks among the countries with the highest startups per capita in Europe. Skype began in Estonia and one of the earliest peer-to-peer file sharing websites Kazaa was also an Estonian enterprise.

Now, Estonia is at the forefront of another enterprising programme: e-Residency. It enables non-Estonia residents to register their companies in the country and avail the benefits of doing business in the European Union as a result.

And Indian residents have been taken to the programme quite enthusiastically.

“e-Residency has been an important success in India", Arnaud Castaignet, head of International Public Relations, e-Residency said in a statement.

“There are over 2,465 Indian e-residents who have created 336 companies. In the last one year alone, over 1,062 individuals enrolled for the program in India and created around 205 new Estonian companies."

“Among the notable Indian e-Residents is Mr. Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries. Reliance Industries has set up a research centre for Jio in Estonia. The research centre aims at understanding digital society of Estonia and the benefit it can offer to India and Indians”, he added.

Castaignet said that programme has mostly been used by entrepreneurs.

“The programme is mostly useful for company creation. But given that being an e-resident allows to use digital signature, it has also been used to work or invest in Estonian companies. The majority of our e-residents in India are digital entrepreneurs, freelancers and IT specialists.

“Many e-residents are quite pragmatic entrepreneurs and want to be able to focus on their business without any bureaucratic hassle. E-Residency can provide Indian entrepreneurs with the opportunity to open and run a global EU company fully online with no paperwork while being in India and gain access to the European market of 500 million people. Estonia’s business environment is trusted, open and transparent. These values are key for our e-residents who want to control their business and run it pragmatically and in a cost-efficient way," he said.

Castaignet counts Velmenni, Connecting Wings, Renaura, and iluvia Professional as some of the successful startups set up by Indian residents on e-Residency.

Estonia’s e-residents across the globe have organised meet-ups, but Castaignet makes it clear that e-Residency doesn’t grant visa or residence permit in the country.

“The community aspect is also important and many e-residents organize meet-ups and events in various locations such as Istanbul (Turkey), Tokyo (Japan) or Chiang Mai (Thailand). E-residents want to engage with people sharing their interest in Estonia, in the future of work and business and in digital topics. However, being an e-resident doesn’t give any visa or residence permit in Estonia”, he says.

The programme has so far attracted more than 54,000 individuals from 157 countries and the ease of acquiring an e-Residency as well as the manageable costs involved have played a part in its success.

“The entire process of applying for e-Residency to finally getting the e-Residency kit takes approximately two to four weeks. It costs only €100 to become e-resident and 190€ to create a company”, Castaignet concludes.

Disclaimer: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com. Mukesh Ambani is the promoter of RIL.

First Published:Apr 12, 2019 1:06 PM IST