Top 10 investments to Estonia in 2020: bringing in global brands; large-scale developments in IT and industry
Last year, the Estonian Investment Agency facilitated 160 million euros worth of foreign investments in Estonia and helped investors create more than 800 jobs. 66% of the investments went into the IT and 25% into the industrial sector.
Top 10 foreign investments in Estonia in 2020, based on investment amount were: MCF Group Estonia, Van Oord, Ensto Ensek AS, JB Foods, AFS IT Services Estonia (Arvato), birkle IT, 3D Designs and Solutions Ltd, Volkswagen, Siemens, and CGI Eesti.
In addition, Invest Estonia has been contributing to attracting venture capital to Estonia for some time. “We have been actively involved in introducing our success stories, startup environment and Estonia’s advantages to both private equity investors and corporate hedge funds,” Director of the Estonian Investment Agency, Kaspar Kork said.
“Some of the bigger names where we see our role in helping the deals become a reality are Nordic Ninja VC and ITOCHU investments in Estonian startups.”
Why tax declaration is a favourite sport for Estonians? How much time would your company save on tax compliance if it paid taxes in Estonia?
Filing income tax declarations has become one of the favourite national sports for Estonians. Each year, new records are broken as Estonia has the world’s best tax system: simple and online, quick and enabling fast payouts of returns. Both, personal and corporate income tax can be declared more quickly than almost anywhere else in the world.
President of Estonia (2006-2016) Toomas Hendrik Ilves explains how Estonia got to the point where it has an e-tax system that can be considered world’s coolest and simplest: “Estonia’s success comes in two parts. Estonia was the first post-commie country to adopt a flat rate income tax in 1994, adopted later by a number of countries as well. A simplified tax system led to a major boost in compliance even with a paper-based system. The second step was to offer digital filing of income tax, which turned filing into 3-5-minute operation, since all taxable income as well as deductions were pre-filled,” says Ilves. “Today 98+% do their taxes online and actually have since the early 2000s.”
Estonia’s Fintech unicorn TransferWise became Wise
Estonia’s fintech unicorn TransferWise changed its name to Wise and aims at building an entirely new cross-border payments network that they hope will one day power money without borders for everyone, everywhere.
How Estonian defence company Milrem became a leading robotics developer in Europe
Estonian company Milrem Robotics has become a leading robotics and autonomous systems developer in Europe as its THeMIS is the most sold vehicle in its size category. Milrem is represented in nine countries, seven of which are NATO members and company plans to enter two more countries this year. Milrem’s main clients are the Netherlands, Norway and the US.
Estonian-founded Eurora takes care of worldwide customs’ regulations for e-commerce players
From July, the way goods move in and out of Europe will change entirely as new regulations go into effect. What does this mean for consumers? A lot more delays and higher taxes. What about e-commerce and logistics companies? Tons of paperwork and returned goods from dissatisfied customers… unless they start using Eurora.
Eurora, an Estonian company that offers AI-based automated services that deal with customs regulations on the borders, helps marketplaces and logistic companies move goods through customs and deal with regulations that different countries have.
Want to do business in Estonia? Just book a meeting with our advisor via e-Consulting and get started!
