Entrepreneurs can now establish Estonian companies using only Smart-ID; so far, establishing a company digitally required using an Estonian digital ID-card or mobile-ID.
The service of establishing a company via Smart-ID is possible through a new self-service portal, provided by Unicount, an Estonian company serving the country’s e-residents.
“Unicount connects directly to the Estonian Business Register through an API, while offering additional tools, services and guidance to make the process of creating a company more user-friendly,” the company said in a statement.
Smart-ID is a mobile app launched in 2016 by SK ID Solutions for online verification and digital signing. It’s already compatible with a wide range of services in Estonia, including banking and tax filing, and is particularly popular with e-residents who are unable to use mobile-ID.
Accessible to anyone with Estonian identification code
“The Smart-ID account needs to be registered on or after 8 November 2018 to be used for company creation through Unicount as this was the date when new Smart-ID accounts gained Qualified Electronic Signature status equal to Estonian mobile-ID and ID-card,” the company added.
Unicount started serving e-residents in the autumn of 2019, enabling easy Estonian company formation for one-person businesses through a self-service online portal. As of 9 March, this service is accessible to anyone with Estonian personal identification code and capable of signing with Smart-ID, ID-card or mobile-ID.
SK ID Solutions is the partner of the Estonian state in issuing certificates for national identity documents. The company introduced Smart-ID in Baltics 2017. The first 18 months saw a million Smart-ID user accounts registered; three years later, the company has over 2.6 million users doing over 50 million transactions every month in more than 200 e-services.
Cover: Man at the Estonian seaside using a mobile phone. The image is illustrative. Photo by Renee Altrov.
