The business environment in Estonia is very friendly compared to some other countries. Start-ups and small businesses have a lot of advantages in Estonia. International entrepreneurs can start a business in Estonia as easy as their local counterparts.
First steps for a company in Estonia
You can start a company personally or through a legal representative. The first step for starting a business is choosing the right business form for you. It should depend on your needs, preferences and expectations. You can choose between the following types of business forms: sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, private limited company and public limited company . If you choose to start a private limited company in Estonia, you need to pay the share capital (2500 EUR) and register it in the commercial register. It’s worth noting that Estonia has very low startup costs compared to other countries.
The business environment in Estonia is very friendly compared to some other countries. Start-ups and small businesses have a lot of advantages.
Estonia is a small country with a population of only 1.3 million people, but it has many advantages for startups and small businesses. It is easy to start a business in Estonia and there are low taxes, low bureaucracy, and low costs compared to other countries in Europe. You can open a company quickly and easily if you have an Estonian e-residency card or are resident in Estonia. According to the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ survey, Estonia ranks 8th out of 190 countries worldwide when it comes to ease of doing business (2019). It ranks 2nd out of 28 European countries according to this survey (2018).
Sinan Elver
Start a business in Estonia as easily as an Estonian. You can start a company personally or through a legal representative.
Whether you’re Estonian or not, you can start a company personally or through a legal representative. There are multiple types of companies available to register, and starting a business you also choose between the following: Sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, private limited company and public limited company.
Choose the best business form for you
The first step for starting a business is choosing the right business form. It’s worth looking through all the options and thinking about who you want to involve in your business, what level of involvement each person has, or if you’re on your own, what personal risk you will be taking etc.
The advantages of a sole proprietorship include lower start-up costs and faster formation. However, it’s not as flexible as other forms because ownership is not separated from management duties. If there is more than one owner in this type of structure, they will share profits equally – which may be an issue if you have different ideas about how to run the company! Another disadvantage is that all partners will be jointly responsible for any debts incurred by the company during their tenure (this means that even if someone else took out loans while they were part owners).
Laine Redpath
Register your company
The next step is registering your company with the Estonian Business Registry Centre. This process generally takes about 2 weeks, but it can take longer depending on the time of year (i.e., Christmas holidays). Once you have registered as an entrepreneur, you will receive all necessary documents, such as ID-card numbers for both spouses involved in running business activities together; certified copies of birth certificates for all family members who plan staying permanently in Estonia; a proof showing that there are no pre-existing companies using similar names or trademarks; proof that there aren't any pending lawsuits against them etc.).
Open a bank account
Your business will need a bank account. To open a bank account in Estonia, you will need to provide your personal details and submit required documents. The banks will then evaluate them and inform you if they are approved or not. Different banks have different requirements. First there’s choosing between a traditional bank (based in Estonia) or a challenger bank or a banking provider (usually completely online). Generally the latter tend to be more accessible to new and smaller business owners, involve much less paperwork and much shorter waiting times. There is another alternative with fintech companies such as wamo that provide financial services to their clients. wamo can help you create a business account after you register a business in Estonia.
The advantage of e-Residency
Opening an Estonian business account is not difficult, especially if you have an e-residency card. Estonian institutions offer high security, along with internet financial solutions and other services that make your life easier. The best thing about an e-residency card is that it's free of charge and it takes just a few minutes to get one.
İlayda Birol
If you are an entrepreneur, one of the main challenges you will face is finding a way to manage your business from anywhere in the world. In this era of technology, online solutions are getting more popular every day around the world. Starting a virtual office service makes it easy to manage your business from anywhere in Estonia as long as you have internet access.
How wamo can help
If you have a business in Estonia, getting a business account with wamo can be a good move. You can open a business account without having to go to any physical branch.
Open your account easily with an online application that takes only 10 minutes. Discover the convenience of keeping track of all your finances in one app. Download wamo app from Google Play or App Store today. Why not get going?
