According to a study of the Estonian e-Residency program, in Spain there is more appetite for entrepreneurship than in other leading European countries, but to a greater extent, we prefer to do it on our own terms. 25% of those surveyed here are thinking of setting up their own business or have already taken steps to do so, a percentage higher than the 20% in the United Kingdom and 21% in Germany.
Of this 25% of Spanish entrepreneurs, 63% would be willing to Create your company outside of Spain. Among the main reasons for choosing another country to establish your business, they cite, first of all, the reduction of bureaucracy (44%), followed by the decrease in costs associated with the company (42%) and the possibility of teleworking with complete geographical independence (36%).
other reasons to establish a company outside of Spain pointed out by the respondents are the greatest ease to access all the markets of the European Union (29%) and the digital processes to administer and manage the company (22%).
Of the respondents who would not establish their company outside of Spain, half of them points to the foreign language as the main barrier, followed by doubts about whether they would know how to carry out the processes correctly (49%).
Estonian e-Residency management among Spaniards
Released in 2014, Estonian e-Residency is the only program in the world that provides applicants, no matter where they are, a secure digital identity document with which they can access all digital government services in Estonia, including the creation and management of a 100% online company quickly, with high security standards and minimal bureaucracy and costs.
Katrin Vaga, Estonian e-Residency PR Director, explains: “At the beginning of February, Estonia issued the 100,000 e-Residency card and today, there are 101,300 Estonian e-residents worldwide, of which 4,500 are Spanish”.
The survey indicates that one in ten Spaniards already knows e-Residency. In the words of Katrin Vaga: “We are excited to see that a large majority of Spaniards (82%) consider that e-Residency is a positive development for society. Not in vain, Spain It is the country where applications for e-residency and business creation in Estonia are growing the most”.
Spain has become the country whose citizens open the most companies in Estonia. In 2022, Spanish e-residents created 544 Estonian companiesfar surpassing the following countries on the list: Germany, with 421 companies, and Ukraine, with 358. And the trend is increasing: in the first three months of 2023 alone, Spanish citizens have already opened more than 150 companies in Estonia.
In total, since the program was created, Spanish citizens have set up 1,766 companies in that country. It is the case of Ignacio Nieto and Miguel Pinasfounders of Companio, who relate: “We have been entrepreneurs and digital nomads for nine years. For us, opening a company in Spain was unfeasible, so we decided to establish our company in Estonia as e-residents. This has allowed us to grow our business no matter where we are physically. In fact, at Companio we are dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs to open their companies in Estonia and manage them online from anywhere.
