The president of Estonia has called attention to her nation’s high proportion of unicorns, delighting Twitter users who have insisted on taking her at face value.

Kersti Kaljulaid, the president, tweeted to her 13,000 followers on Friday morning: “Estonia is 1.3million people and we have 4 unicorns. There are no other so small countries in the world with 4 unicorns today.”

#Estonia is 1,3million people and we have 4 unicorns. There are no other so small countries in the world with 4 unicorns today #NorthernLight — Kersti Kaljulaid (@KerstiKaljulaid) June 29, 2018

As her subsequent tweets made clear, Kaljulaid was in fact referring to Estonia’s proliferation of successful tech companies as the European nation pushes itself as a destination for digital entrepreneurs and innovation.

The term “unicorn” was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to refer to a privately owned business valued at over $1bn – but naturally Twitter took the opportunity for the joke.

“You either sell them for trillions, or put them in the Tallinn zoo and tourists will flock to Estonia,” replied one user.

Another simply asked: “Photo?”

Estonia is widely known as the birthplace of Skype, one of its four unicorns, along with gambling software Playtech and the money transfer service TransferWise.

The country’s youngest unicorn, the ride-hailing app Taxify, was born just one month ago when it closed $175m in funding from German giant Daimler.

Taxify, which competes with Uber in Europe and Africa, is the only company of the four to be currently based in Estonia – but Markus Villig, its co-founder and CEO, told ERR News that it was unlikely to be its last unicorn.

“The Estonian tech scene is evolving very rapidly, and we have great companies from many industries, all the way from engineering tools to financial services to transport,” Villig said.

Kalijulaid expanded on her seeming non sequitur on Twitter by saying regulation of humans and algorithms was currently a priority for her government: “We just create legal space for this technology to come and thrive in the country.”



1/3 Globally it’s not yet recognized that tech has made ppl free. Most govs expect citizens to have an address, so that the tax revenue can be collected. In digital societies you need to think differently #NorthernLight — Kersti Kaljulaid (@KerstiKaljulaid) June 29, 2018

2/3 If your people are working everywhere, to whom are they going to pay taxes? Probably for those who offer them a safe harbour of services globally. We need urgently to figure out the new, free social contract between a state and a citizen, #NorthernLight — Kersti Kaljulaid (@KerstiKaljulaid) June 29, 2018

3/3 where the state takes responsibility to continue providing services to their citizens wherever they work & live. The citizens, in exchange, can contribute to the state`s resources according to their income, whichever & wherever its origin. #NorthernLight — Kersti Kaljulaid (@KerstiKaljulaid) June 29, 2018

Estonia’s high proportion of tech startups, a cornerstone of its bid to establish itself as the “digital society” of “e-Estonia”, have been chalked up to its high level of technology penetration and education. Internet access is enshrined as a basic human right in the country, and it has the second-fastest public wifi in the world.



Earlier this year it announced the first official visa for so-called “digital nomads”, entitling them to work in the country for 365 days – an attempt to attract talent from beyond Europe. It will be launched in January 2019.