Andrew Thompson
Co Founder, LifeSpeed
Located in the most digitally advanced nation globally, CDL-Estonia offers a Digital Society stream for seed-stage startups working on advancing infrastructures for national security of a modern democracy. This includes social-, economic- and political implications to prevent the escalation of conflicts around the world, creating strategic resilience and deterrence.
Estonia is globally recognized for being the world’s most advanced digital society with pioneering frictionless government services such as e-tax board, e-voting, e-banking, e-healthcare and online school education (long before the COVID-19 pandemic). Filing taxes or registering a new business in Estonia takes minutes. Ambulance and health institutions can access secure personal health data of patients if needed. People can vote during elections without leaving their home or office. In total over 95% of government services can be accessed online. Furthermore, with e-Residency, people outside of Estonia can utilize these services as well.
Estonia is also a startup nation, having the highest ratio of startups per capita with 1700+ startups per million population, and highest ratio of unicorns – defined as pre-exit startups valued at over $1 billion, a key indicator for national startup ecosystem performance – with 7.7 unicorns per million population (5.6 in Israel, 2.4 in Singapore, 1.8 in United States). Estonian unicorns include Skype, Playtech, (Transfer)Wise, Bolt, Pipedrive, Zego, ID.me, Gelato, Veriff and Glia.
CDL-Estonia is located at University of Tartu – a top 1% of the world’s most-cited universities and research institutions. Together with the university’s rich history in research and development, Estonia’s culture of agile execution, and emphasis on global expansion – CDL-Estonia will further accelerate the global commercialization of high-impact technological innovations.
For seed-stage startup founders pursuing commercial opportunities with innovations related to digital and physical resilience, data and AI, cybersecurity, national security, and dual-use technologies.
Contact
Ermo Tikk, Director of CDL-Estonia
cdl-estonia@creativedestructionlab.com
Delta Management School, University of Tartu
