Estonia wants more Indian companies to invest through its e-residency and start-up visa programme

Kolkata, Apr 07: Estonia is keen on investing in India in technology and ICT sector, the areas of its core competency, and invited more Indian companies for investment through its e-residency and start-up visa programme.

Mr Riho Kruuv, Ambassador of Estonia, said while Estonia's e-residency programme allows 100 per cent ownership without local directorship enabling companies to do business from anywhere in the world, its startup visa programme offers 18 months to startups to develop their business ideas.
He was speaking at an interactive session at the Merchants Chambers of Commerce here on Friday.
"The beauty of the startup visa is entrepreneurs can come to Estonia with just enough money to cover their living expenses. They can get mentoring and enjoy a very lively startup ecosystem available in Estonia. In addition to this, we also provide financing platforms to these entrepreneurs."
Mr Ankit Bahl, Advisor Trade & Investments, Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in India, said Estonia’s e-residency programme is a transparent system which can be set up in just one day and there are already 30,000 companies from 154 companies operating in the country from across the world, out of which more than 1200 are from India. 
Mr Kruuv said, any businessman willing to do business under the e-residency programme would need to go to Estonia only once to open a bank account, and after they have identified themselves they can establish their online company and run their operations fully online and do business in that country. UNI