Estonian e-resident to try to break world record in speed of starting business

TALLINN - An Estonian e-resident is set to make an attempt immediately after the opening ceremony of London Tech Week on Monday to break the world record in the speed of starting a company -- the company will be established in Estonia using Estonian e-services.

The previous record of 18 minutes will be challenged by Dominik Panosch, an Estonian e-resident from Austria, at 11:30 a.m. Estonian time. His goal is to register a new company in 15 minutes. The previous record dates back to 2009 and was also set using Estonian e-services.

Estonia continues to be unique in the world in that it only takes minutes to start a business here. While also in Canada, for example, a business can be started within hours, in the rest of the world it takes at least a couple of days, in some cases several months.

In a press release, Estonia's Minister of Entrepreneurship Andres Sutt described Estonia's e-residency as an opportunity for entrepreneurs from all over the world who are looking for a stable and secure digital gateway to the European Union.

"Although these are extremely challenging times in Europe, we remain open to enthusiastic and entrepreneurial people and invite them to join our community of e-residents," Sutt said.

Since 2014, more than 92,000 e-residents from 179 countries have joined the Estonian e-Residency program. As a result, more than 21,000 businesses have been established in Estonia to date with a total revenue in excess of 10 billion euros. The new record sought at London Tech Week will further cement Estonia's reputation as a gateway of digital entrepreneurship for both experienced entrepreneurs and startups, the press release said.

The record challenge event is organized by the Estonian e-Residency program, Invest Estonia, Startup Estonia, Work in Estonia and the Estonian Center for Registers and Information Systems. Speakers at the event will include Bolt co-founder Martin Villig, Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus and the Estonian ambassador to the UK, Viljar Lubi.