Tallinn climbed four spots to become the 62nd most innovative startup friendly city globally and 15th in Europe on the StartupBlink ranking of the world’s startup ecosystems.

In response to the results of the index, the Deputy Mayor of Tallinn responsible for innovation and Enterprise Services, Joosep Vimm, said: “Obtaining a yearly increase in StartupBlink’s rankings could be the minimum that the city targets in cooperation with the sector. One of our strengths in recent years, as highlighted in the report, has been the diversification of Tallinn’s startup ecosystem and positive development regarding business ideas, investments and the working environment.”

StartupBlink’s annual Startup Ecosystem Report remarks that even with its small population, Estonia's impressive ecosystem outranks most of its Nordic neighbors (Finland, Denmark, and Norway).

The report highlights as notable success stories that boost the Tallinn ecosystem the two unicorns Veriff, an online identity verification company, and the transportation platform Bolt that provides ridehailing, micro-mobility as well as food and grocery delivery services. 

The Tallinn-based company Montonio that connects payment orchestration and payment initiation into a full-checkout solution for European e-commerce stores is listed as a notable startup.  

The Estonian national e-Residency Program that enables digital entrepreneurs to start and manage an EU-based company online is included in StartupBlink’s global Pantheon list of 230 trailblazing initiatives that impact the growth and legacy of the local ecosystem along with the likes of Google, Facebook, the Linux Foundation, Twitter, Wikipedia and Stanford University. 

One of the most important milestones in the history of the Estonian ecosystem was the success of Skype, an app largely developed in Estonia. Skype’s founders used this exit windfall to support new successful local startups. According to the report, Estonia has proved it can produce successful startups like Wise, Bolt, and Pipedrive. 

There have also been innovative projects and effective marketing efforts by the Estonian public sector, the likes of which have not been seen anywhere else in the world, the report notes. Examples of this include Estonian E-residency, startup and nomad visas, and the full digitization of companies. 

As a place for starting or joining an innovative business, Estonia is attractive to foreigners, with Startup Estonia reporting in 2021 that over 27 per cent of startup employees were from other countries. 

Access the StartupBlink’s Startup Ecosystem Report 2022 in full at https://www.startupblink.com/