Leading Lights
Several asset management and corporate fi- nance houses have recently started up their busi- nesses in Tallinn. Estonia-based money managers and advisers mainly specialise in the Baltic and Eastern European markets, acting pri- marily as listed equity, private equity and real estate investors. Valuable experience from Es- tonia’s fast convergence with the European Union, Russian-speaking skills and an under- standing of the former Soviet economies gives the country’s entrepreneurs a competitive edge in operating in the less-developed Eastern bloc. Tallinn has a number of science and technology parks, all providing excellent environments for businesses to take root and flourish. Setting up
Tere are many sectors that are ripe for investment in Tallinn. In recent years, newcomers have found success in everything from shipbuilding to worm farming.
a family office, private bank or advisory firm is easy due to a fast-acting financial-supervision authority as well as high-quality online banking, back office and registry services. The booming biotechnology sector is increas- ingly grabbing headlines in Tallinn. Companies like Celecure, which develops new anti-cancer drugs, have attracted considerable investor in- terest. In 2011, a group of local firms teamed up to establish a state-of-the-art cellular therapy lab at Tallinn’s Tehnopol science park. A broad range of manufacturing enterprises are flourish- ing in Tallinn. The Estonian shipbuilding giant BlrT group, for example, produces 90% of the
08. Old Tallinn. 32 New European Economy
world’s fish farming barges. Newer players are focusing on electronics and precision equip- ment, such as Vertex Estonia, which makes an- tennas for satellite communication, and large-scale employer Ericsson Eesti, which makes 4g mobile devices. Now that the world has discovered the charm of Tallinn’s Old Town, the city has become a pop- ular break destination. More recently, the growth in spa and conference tourism has led to the opening of several new, high-quality hotels in the downtown area. Tallinn has direct air con- nections with most major European cities and the flight time is usually just two or two and a half hours. The city centre is only a ten-minute taxi ride away from the airport. The ferry and train terminals are practically in the city centre itself. Thanks to its small size and compact lay- out, Tallinn is extremely easy to get around. Most downtown offices, hotels, restaurants and major sites are within easy walking distance of one another.
Skype – Four Men in a Room
The original Skype software was developed by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn and Toivo Annus. These four, together with Janus Friis from Denmark and Niklas Zennström from Sweden, comprise the orig- inal Skype team. All six had previously worked together on Kazaa, the file-sharing software that achieved notoriety after the fall of Napster. According to Sten Tamkivi, general man- ager at Skype’s Tallinn office, “the strength of Skype, and perhaps of Estonian IT, is that its hallmark is simple efficiency”. A get-it- done practicality exists in Estonia. Tamkivi credits the country’s small population and limited personnel resource as the main fac- tor behind creating a mindset of ultimate efficiency. Skype went from four guys in a room for
six months to having one million users after its launch in 2003. In 2005, it was acquired by eBay, which then sold it to Microsoft in 2011. The company was incorporated as a divi- sion of Microsoft and Microsoft acquired all of its technologies with the purchase. Earlier this year, Skype announced that it has over 32 million users for the first time ever.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124