What does Estonia have that India doesn’t?

Why is everyone from Indian startups to the telecom regulator chairman heading to Estonia?

Estonia's ambitions of becoming one of the most important startup ecosystems is stymied by its talent problem

It is easing its visa norms for startup entrepreneurs to set shop in the country and also for them to hire talent from outside

Indian startups that have found it difficult to set up business in the country are sensing an opportunity in Estonia

Estonia's digital initiatives are drawing interest from some quarters of the Indian government

To the untrained eyes of an outsider, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia doesn’t give away that the city, or even the country, is one of the world’s most digitised of places. Or that it has a teeming startup ecosystem.

Tallinn is home to unicorns like TransferWise, a cross-border payments startup. And Avijit Sarkar, founder of CapOne, a Delhi-based company, is taking competition right to TransferWise. In CapOne, Sarkar wants to set up a cross-border payments company by building his own blockchain infrastructure. Setting up in Tallinn makes it look like Sarkar thought of himself as David searching for the Goliath of cross-border payments.

AUTHOR

Arundhati Ramanathan

Arundhati is Bengaluru-based. She is interested in how people use money in the digital age and how new economies will take shape based on that interaction. She has spent over 10 years reporting and writing on various subjects. Previous stints were at Mint, Outlook Business and Reuters.

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