Fast Founding. E-Founding in Estonia. Opportunity and Benchmark for German Founders

Estonia’s e-Residency programme and startup ecosystem: how Estonia built a programme that enables to found companies 100% online? In 2014, Estonia was the first country in the world to launch e-Residency, a government issued digital ID card that enables to found and run EU-based companies 100% online. To-date, the programme has attracted 106,000 e-Residents from 180+countries to join the programme, including 6,400 Germans. Within the German context e-Residency is most used by digital nomads, DAO-type businesses with founders living in different countries as well as by startup teams and foreign founders based in Germany. The 1.3 million populated country has also produced a highly collaborative startup ecosystem with 10 (USD 1 billion valued) unicorns growing out of Estonia, including Skype, Wise and Bolt. Last year, Estonia broke the world record in fastest establishment of a company.