Enterprise Estonia Pumped Millions Into Short-Lived Companies
In the last decade, Enterprise Estonia has pumped money into a startlingly large number of businesses which by now have shut down.
The agency, however, does not find the figures diconcerting, Eesti Ekspress reported.
In 2002, Enterprise Estonia handed 120 startups grants totaling at around 576,000 euros. In 2012, 66 of these enterprises have been stricken off the business register, dissolved or declared bankrupt.
Another example was drawn from 2006, when the foundation distributed 1.2 million euros of grant money among 161 companies, of which a quarter are now dormant or struggling in debt. A similar pattern continues in more recent years as well.
To Dmitri Burnashev, head of the business startups division at Enterprise Estonia, the figures are surprising, yet in a positive sense. "World practice has shown that only one-third of businesses manage to live longer than 10 years. [In Estonia] the share is 45 percent," said Burnashev.
Ingrid Teesalu