How Estonia became 'start-up' capital of the world with its unique innovation ecosystem

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hello and welcome to The Print. We are standing here today with Mr. Olari Puuvee, the head of Accelerate Estonia, which [clears throat] is government institution that is made to help startups work through the public policy and the innovation challenges that comes with building a startup. So, Mr. Puuvee, thank you so much for being with us.

[00:00:22]Let's start by you telling [clears throat] us a little bit about what is Accelerate Estonia, when was it founded? Yeah, well, Accelerate Estonia was founded in 2019 >> [clears throat] >> under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

[00:00:34]So, everything we do must have some kind of economical benefit as well.

[00:00:40]Why it was founded, maybe it's interesting, is that under secretary then Mr. Viljar Lubi had [clears throat] a lot of companies turn to him and asked them, "Can you change some laws or or how how can you do something for them without actually having this Accelerate Estonia before?"

[00:01:00]So, Viljar founded Accelerate Estonia because his table was full of different companies and different problems. And then this thought that, "Okay, I need to make another department which actually handles only these kind of things." So, what Accelerate Estonia does is a very simple. If you have an innovative idea, you have a company, but you have a regulatory obstacle, >> [snorts] >> then you can't access to the market. So, what we do is that we take this idea, we validate it, and it's cross-sectoral. It doesn't matter if it's a AI or a health tech or a defense tech.

[00:01:32]We collaborate with the responsive [clears throat] ministries and then rather than pivoting we tell companies that, "Let's change the regulation." Of course, it must be safe and there's a lot of issues there, but we just keep that kind of mindset that innovation is the most important thing what Estonia can have. Yeah.

[00:01:53]And yeah, if if I continue that like why Estonia has innovation like one of the like top three priorities is that we are small country. We don't have land. We don't have people. We don't have like farming manufacturing. So like a one very innovative person can do but I don't know maybe like 1000 farmers can do in a large scale. That makes sense. [clears throat] Now if you tell us a little bit about since 2019 to now how exactly has accelerate Estonia managed to help the startup companies here. If you were to give us some concrete examples of you know which tech companies have come to you. What are some regulations [clears throat] that you've eased if you could tell us about that. Well the first one we actually helped them now they're on market is a company which wanted to digitalize transportation like trucks and the vehicle transport transportation in European Union.

[00:02:51]Before that everything was on a paper but now the laws in different European Union countries are different.

[00:02:57]But that company [clears throat] wanted to actually create a one system that can fit all and there were like a lot of different regulations which which needed to be changed. But now the company is actually in Europe this year >> [clears throat] >> it's not mandatory yet but the next year it becomes mandatory that every basically truck or a vehicle transportation truck must use that kind of solution that all the data will be digitalized.

[00:03:27]Maybe the second one >> [clears throat] >> is now releasing is those self-service pharmacies.

[00:03:32]Self-service pharmacies is a very simply said in Europe no country and [clears throat] actually most of other countries as well don't have like a pharmacist which exists outside of the buildings or the pharmacy itself. So basically it's a container it's 24/7 you can go in you have a consultation with the doctor through the video and then you can choose out of thousand different articles the medicine you need and also prescription medicine. And and this is again like it sounds very simple and like why didn't we do it before but there were like seven different regulations which need to be changed before it can happen.

[00:04:09]>> Okay, that's perfect. [clears throat] Now we've all seen the numbers. You've seen the amount of unicorns that Estonia has, you know, we often call it the startup capital of EU [clears throat] of the world maybe. But can you tell us what is it that has made Estonia this hub of tech innovation and startups? Is it culture? Is it regulations? Is it a mix of both? Well well you can always say mix of both but >> [clears throat] >> but the mindset is still like I think the main thing.

[00:04:37]First we had Skype and after the Skype like a lot of founders of Skype had money so they invested in a tech.

[00:04:45]And then literally like one of the strongest ecosystems in the world startup ecosystem actually grew out of it.

[00:04:52]Today as well you have unicorn founders here talking with people [clears throat] who haven't even gotten seed funding. So the ecosystem is very strong but what it makes strong also is that because Estonia is so small 1.3 million people.

[00:05:07]So we always build companies you know thought in our minds how we can scale.

[00:05:12]So our market is so small so in bigger countries it's very often that >> [clears throat] >> you might be very innovative but actually you have the biggest fight in your inside your own country. But Estonians is that we don't choose that if we scale to I don't know Germany, UK, US, India, Brazil whatever works. So the markets we can choose actually based on how we can how this product or service sells somewhere. But from the regulation part I can tell you that out of 11 12 unicorns we have five of them needed regulative help. So again I think that the policy makers and innovators go hand by hand and then this makes us like a strong unit in That's perfect. Now, if I were to ask you, other countries across the world, you know, which are getting on this tech bandwagon, which are trying to expand and make their countries, you know, more amenable for tech companies. Say for example, India has been really trying to attract startups and also invest in startups in its own country.

[00:06:18]What would be lessons from Estonia that they can learn?

[00:06:21]Well, [clears throat] the first one is that you need like very strong evangelists, people who are like enthusiastic, they put their own time there, they actually help people. Not only their own countries, but also like sorry, own companies, but also like a foreigner foreign companies. And and Estonia had that. If you have actually, you know, people who are like welcoming foreign companies as well as Estonian companies, then you can actually create, you know, word of mouth already commercial method that we are actually here to help. We are creating something together.

[00:06:55]>> [snorts] >> Most Estonian startups, of course, every unicorn like at least half of the people, well, not at least, but more or less half of the people are actually people who work in those bigger startups are actually foreigners. So, we integrate a lot with that.

[00:07:12]Maybe [clears throat] the other thing is that how to get companies here. It doesn't have to be somehow governmental decision that now we do it.

[00:07:23]You It needs to happen like economically.

[00:07:27]Also, like it takes time, but what I see the most important thing is that those companies who want to relocate or actually, not only companies, but I mean the brightest minds, they want to feel that they are welcome there. So, so is I think the most important thing. That makes sense.

[00:07:44]Thank you so much, Mr. Poovy. This was a great conversation.

[00:07:46]>> Yeah. Thank you.