Just imagine: one startup to almost 1000 Estonians. That is the remarkable
statistic about the wave of startup activity in Estonia in the 10th
anniversary year of Skype. Their company names cover the full alphabet from A-Z.
All these companies are located at the TechnoPol IT park in Tallinn. The Technopol
IT park is a cooperation of the Estonian business community, the government and
the university. The park is almost symbolically situated next to the
international airport. The startups can and do fly out at short notice.
The success of the intensive business started in 2000 when
the Estonian government began working on an e-government. But it the e-gov
innovation did not take place in just a void. Estonia had already a fine IT
infrastructure. The e-Cabinet was eventually shaped by four independent IT
companies. But also businesswise IT was doing well. In fact Estonia became the
cradle of Skype. When this company was sold to eBay in 2005 for 1.9 billion
euro, part of the money was ploughed back in the country, creating a wave of
startups. Skype, in the meantime part of Microsoft, has still a substantial
subsidiary of 400 people in Estonia (see photograph).
One of the winners of the World Summit Award 2013 is
GoSwift. This is an application for truckers who want to cross the border from
Estonia to Russia. This used to be a problem with long waiting times, lots of
waste and garbage as well as selling tickets to the highest bidder. By setting
up a queu management system waiting times have been cut down, waste and garbage
reduced and corruption cut out.
Healthcare is an area of attention. The care sector has
formed the eHealth Foundation, which develops health care solutions for in the
hospital with tablets, but also mobile solutions, while on-the- go, for example
in an ambulance.
The range of applications and systems is very wide. The firm
Defendec has set apart the company IoT (Internet of Things), which creates
machine-to-machine solutions, solving smart streetlight plans.
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