The Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECCI) is the oldest and largest Estonian representative organization of entrepreneurs and was founded to represent and protect common interests of Estonian merchants, manufacturers, bankers, and ship-owners in the year 1925.

The ECCI Mission is to develop entrepreneurship in Estonia. The ECCI is an active partner to the parliament, government, and ministries in designing the economic policy and climate. Whenever tax policies, corporate law, laws on property and obligations, foreign trade and EU-related issues or professional qualification are discussed, the Chamber speaks actively on behalf of the Estonian business community.

The ECCI Membership today: the ECCI with over 3,300 members appears to be the largest business representation organization in the country. We forward information to our members, if necessary, we intervene and send the opinion of entrepreneurs to the legislators. The Chamber is a partner valued by state authorities, because our positions are reasoned; but we are often a feared partner, because in our positions we always show strength of principle and clearly disagree when an initiative has a negative impact.

The ECCI Services: the ECCI provides many business-related services – consultation (legal, foreign trade, EU-related), business match-making (trade missions, trade fair visits, B2B meetings, presentations), information services (business contacts, co-operation proposals etc.), training and foreign trade documents.

Apart from that, the ECCI hosts the Arbitration Court, which is the only permanent arbitration court in Estonia. We are also members of the BCCA (Baltic Sea Chambers of Commerce Association) and Eurochambres.

The ECCI and the INBETS project: Being a part of INBETS project, the ECCI got the opportunity to get to know better and has become more aware of the SMEs transfers within Estonian business network. 

Success Stories from Estonian Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts

Sorry as Service

Success Story Sorry as Service is an Estonian start-up founded 5 years ago. Four years after the company had been set up, its founders circle shrank from six to three. Thus, those who stayed in charge were willing to sell the company. Since, at that point of time it had a lucrative client base, viable cashflow and offices both in the UK and Estonia, it was a good time to sell it while the cashflow was still positive. In addition to that, there were several investors who had out their money in the company during the first operating days of the start-up. Once the founders agreed on selling the company, they communicated it to all the investors and bought back some of their parts. Eventually, in total’ they held up 76% of the company’s shares.  Then, finding the buyer appeared to be quite a challenging task. The offer was out there, and there were two buyers who got in contact with each other. One of them took up the podcast recording part, done by one of the founders – Indrek. And the other buyer was the UK-based investor.  The process was long and hassle, due to the fact that the company was registered in the UK and the subsidiary was based in Estonia. Therefore, all the documentations and legal proceedings in both countries had to be well prepared and strictly followed.  From the initial agreement on the transaction till the final legal proceeding 1,5 years passed.  According to the contract statement on the transition process, , the founders could be contacted  directly during the first month after buying, since starting from the 2nd and up until the end of the 3rd  month, 8 hours by month are fully charged. There was a transition weekend, at which the founders could deliver the general knowledge and dataset, and some days later they were also contacted several times. Currently the company is functioning and has its regular client base in place. Apart from that, several changes, concerning company’s strategic focus, has been done after the new owner had took up the position.     – Reported by one of the initial founders Indrek Põldvee […]