Enterprise Estonia was created by the Estonian government to increase foreign investment into Estonia and to export sales of Estonian companies. It achieves these goals by assisting Estonian companies to export their goods and services, having non-Estonian companies to invest in Estonia, promoting Estonia’s e-services and start-up community, and many more similar activities.
Enterprise Estonia has engaged with the Estonian diaspora in North America to find new markets for Estonian companies and to convince American and Canadian companies to invest in Estonia.
As a clarification, EAS and Kredex were formally merged in early 2022, and the de facto merger of operations continued into 2023, with the formal name of the new merged organization: Estonian Business and Innovation Agency („Ettevõtluse ja Innovatsiooni Sihtasutus“ in Estonian). If you ask, what did Kredex do, the answer is: for companies, they provide loans, venture capital, credit insurance and state-backed guarantees for faster development and safe expansion into foreign markets. For private individuals, they offer state-backed guarantees and grants for purchasing dwellings and improving their energy efficiency.
Enterprise Estonia has commissioned a huge amount of digital information about all aspects of life in Estonia, but I would argue that the following seven homepages are their most popular sites:
Invest in Estonia (Business opportunities in Estonia — Invest in Estonia). Thinking of setting up a factory in Estonia? This is the page to start from.
It’s nice to read how successful Estonia has been in attracting foreign direct investment. In 2022, € 351 million was invested into Estonia, 1,587 jobs were created in Estonia by foreign investment, and 34 people successfully landed investment projects.
Trade with Estonia (tradewithestonia.com) – This field is handled by the Estonian Trade Development Agency. Their homepage states that their most exciting news can be found on LinkedIn. They also offer an e-consulting service for companies looking to trade with Estonian companies.
WorkinEstonia.com – This site has been covered in a previous article of mine in Eesti Elu.
Startup Estonia (startupestonia.com) is a governmental initiative aimed to supercharge the Estonian startup ecosystem, so that it can be the birthplace of many more startup success stories in the future. Estonia is already home to 1,400 start-ups and 10 unicorns (startups valued at one billion USD or more).
If someone would like to visit Estonia as a tourist, then the site to look at is: Official travel guide to Estonia | Visit Estonia. It includes great photos and a description of the many varied things one can do in Estonia. This is how the Estonian Government promotes tourism in Estonia.
e-estonia.com introduces e-Estonia to the world through a thorough presentation and numerous fact sheets. As Estonia’s e-Estonia software was developed by Estonia’s private IT sector, this is an opportunity to export that knowledge and software to other countries.
On a related theme, digiexpo.e-estonia.com is a page introducing Estonian private sector IT companies and commenting on their respective competencies. The idea is to allow these Estonian IT companies to export their expertise to markets outside of Estonia.
As Estonia wishes to take full advantage of the expertise of diaspora Estonians, there is a strong collaboration among Estonian diplomats, local expert hires, and honorary consuls, who affectionately refer to themselves as “Team Estonia”, who assist Estonian companies in coming to Canada or America or help guide American/Canadian companies in investing in Estonia. As the high tech sector is competitive in the world, Estonia and its companies are very grateful for local assistance in America and Canada.
If the good readers of Eesti Elu, a friend, or a Canadian acquaintance would like to buy Estonian goods from Eesti (selling Canadian goods to Eesti is a little bit more complicated – see the Trade with Estonia website mentioned above), or make an investment in Eesti, then there are numerous people in Canada and the US who can help you.
For Canada-specific questions, the best point of contact is Economic Officer Liina Tomlinson at the Estonian Embassy in Ottawa, who, along with Ambassador Margus Rava, is responsible for all aspects of the Estonian-Canadian economic relationship (including export, investment, tourism, etc.). Liina Tomlinson covers all of Canada. Her general phone number is +1 (613) 789 4222 .
Enterprise Estonia (specifically the Estonian Investment Agency) has a person based in the San Francisco Bay Area — Maris Prii, (phone: +1 (415) 990 3996, e-mail: maris.prii@eas.ee). Although her title is Head of Investor Relations in the US, she covers all of North America. If one were to identify one area of particular expertise that Maris has, it is working with startup-oriented investing, directly into startups, as well as into investment funds that subsequently invest into startups.
Before Liina was hired, her responsibilities were one of many hats worn by Embassy staff in Ottawa. However, given the high level of cooperation between “Team Estonia”, Alvar Soosaar from the Embassy in Washington also pitched in. Alvar serves as Director of US investment and trade at the Embassy, and is a familiar face to many Canadian-Estonians, from close family connections, frequent trips to Toronto, and participation in Kotkajärve Metsaülikool. Alvar is not a diplomat but was hired specifically for this role due to his long-term North American and European business experience. He can be reached at Alvar.soosaar@mfa.ee.
Enterprise Estonia recently hired Silve Parviainen to serve as the primary contact for export to the US. She is based in New York City and can be reached at Silve.Parviainen@eas.ee.
As times change, “Team Estonia” no longer only looks for foreign investors for Estonia, but is actively supporting Estonian companies that want to come to the North American market. Some well-known examples are IT company Nortal, Clevon, and Pactum AI.
