Recently, Estonia’s e-Residency programme has recorded a near 50% year-on-year jump in UK participation. As of the 1st August 2025, more than 5,200 UK citizens and 6,400 UK residents had joined e-Residency, and to date, British founders have created 2,919 Estonian companies.

This surge in numbers has helped deliver €68 million in direct revenue for Estonia in the first half of 2025, which is double the full-year forecast, and cements the UK as one of e-Residency’s most active markets.

Since Brexit, e-Residency Estonia has become even more attractive for British companies. The programme allows UK companies to create EU-registered companies, whilst providing a secure digital identity and an EU-recognised digital signature, as well as straightforward market access and compliance, enabling entrepreneurs to build and manage an Estonian business from anywhere while continuing to serve UK customers, if they choose. It means that Brexit doesn’t have to be a barrier for UK companies wanting a presence in the EU.

“When conditions at home tighten, British founders don’t scale back – they find better rails,” said Liina Vahtras, Managing Director of e-Residency. “We’re doubling down on the UK so entrepreneurs can stay rooted while competing globally. e-Residency proves that digital infrastructure lowers barriers and opens new paths. And we’re only at the start: with interest building month by month, we expect UK sign-ups to accelerate in the year ahead.”

So, what exactly is e-Residency?

On a press trip to Estonia, I had the opportunity to interview Liina Vahtras and learn more about the programme.

To describe e-Residency to an international audience, Vahtras said: “It’s a government-issued document to foreigners to access Estonia’s digital systems.

“Estonia’s e-Government is 100% digitised … You can create a company remotely, it doesn’t matter where you are. What matters is that you have Internet access, then you can log-in and start a company online. You can do everything online; you can choose a name for your company, you can choose the field of activity, you can assign all of the members of the management board. It can all be done digitally.”

The timeline for becoming an e-Resident and starting an Estonian business is easy and rather short.

• Applicants fill in an application online and wait for approval, which can take anywhere from three to eight weeks. Once the application has been approved and background checks have been undertaken, they pick up an e-Residency kit, which includes their personal digital ID card, from an Estonian embassy in their country
• e-Residents can then register a company 100% online using their secure digital signature – which includes access to business banking, payment solutions, and other services needed
• Running a business is equally straight-forward, as the digital ID allows e-residents to sign documents, file reports, and outsource admin, all online, without the hassle of loads of paperwork

e-Residency’s impact on Estonia

e-Residency has had a massive impact on Estonia. Whilst its monetary impact is impressive, it hasn’t just been this that has made such a massive contribution to Estonia’s startup ecosystem.

Yes, the programme means that taxes and state-fees paid by e-resident companies provide additional revenue for the national budget, but it does so much more. By attracting foreign companies, the programme boosts the competitiveness of Estonia’s business environment, and attracts international talent and investments. This further diversifies the startup ecosystem, bringing new voices and perspectives to the table, encouraging collaboration, as well as healthy competition, within the ecosystem.

Vahtras commented: “Foreign founders and entrepreneurs have diversified the whole startup ecosystem for us. So this is what we are gaining, because either they are doing business with, or partner with, or employ people in Estonia, and they bring their outside knowledge. And that makes us richer in terms of knowledge and experience.”

Estonia is a world leader in unicorns per capita, having produced 10 unicorns from such a small population. The government is eager to cement Estonia’s reputation as a startup hub, and has created laws that reflect fast-growing companies’ needs, from introducing startup visas to getting rid of rules that held founders back, in order to ensure that these unicorns remain in the country. With such a strong ecosystem, foreign founders are drawn to Estonia, and e-Residency is making doing business in the country an easy process.

How will the programme evolve?

e-Residency was started back in 2014, and since then, the main customer journey has remained the same. After all, if it’s working well, then why change?

However, this isn’t stopping e-Residency from developing and becoming even more digital.

Vahtras discussed that e-Residency is currently developing secure remote identity verification solutions to replace the physical ID cards that are currently used. The pilot project for this is planned for the first half of 2026.

The online verification solutions aim to help reduce the waiting time from two months to just two weeks. this means that an e-resident is able to establish and start running their company significantly faster.

Current projections estimate that this evolution of the programme will increase the number of companies created by e-residents by up to 25%.

A current issue with the adoption of e-Residency, especially in the South America region which is a key demographic for the scheme, is that those applying for e-Residency still need to access an Estonian Embassy in order to collect the physical card and verify themselves. Even with the introduction of the cardless scheme, applicants will still need to show themselves at an embassy just once to verify themselves. In this case, the closest embassy to South America is the Estonian Embassy in Washington, USA. Whilst some applicants are willing to travel to receive their e-Residency card, proven by the 1,500 e-Residents already in Brazil, this is definitely a hurdle for people in the region.

However, Vahtras is optimistic about the future of the adoption of e-Residency in these regions. Whilst nothing has been confirmed, she said: “We are currently still requiring people to show themselves once … but once we have the remote verification, we might revisit this requirement. That would actually be awesome if everything could be done via your mobile.

“I’m optimistic [about this potential development]. It’s a joint programme between different ministries, the ministers that are mostly involved are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior Affairs, and then the Ministry of Economic Affairs. These different areas need to come together and jointly decide, based on the technological tools that we have, whether this requirement can be lost altogether or not. So it's not there. But I am optimistic, because I am a tech optimist. I think once we have remote verification, it will prove itself a very useful and very safe tool. Our digital systems are super secure. So I'm hopeful and optimistic.”

e-Residency is an already popular programme, and as proven by recent UK statistics, is continuing to gain popularity. With the introduction of remote verification, and what may lie ahead, the e-Residency programme will continue to solidify Estonia as the place to start a business, whether in the country, or remotely.

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