Trying to get your game startup off the ground? Move to Estonia!
People move all around the world to find jobs, especially those who are in the exciting but risky business of creating startups. Video game startups are no different, with many people travelling to places like Seattle, New York or San Francisco to find vibrant ecosystems that can help their businesses grow. In Europe, developers can be found in the usual commerce hubs like London and Berlin.
But not very many game developers think of moving to Estonia. In fact, many may not have even heard of the tiny Baltic nation perched on the shoulders of Latvia and Russia, just south of the Gulf of Finland (oh fine, here’s a map). But thanks to funding by Enterprise Estonia, the country has been home to the continent’s first video game startup accelerators, GameFounders.
GameFounders offers startups up to €15,000 (just over $16,000 USD), as well as a 3-month mentoring period, but the accelerator has two conditions. GameFounders takes a 9 percent equity in the company, and the startup has to move to Estonia for the 3-month program. Aside from GameFounders’ program itself, Estonia also offers a region with a high per capita income and widespread access to excellent high speed Internet.
It also looks pretty great.
Image credit: “Hommik Viru rabas” by Abrget47j – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
After successfully launching several game companies since 2012, GameFounders has announced that it will be creating a new accelerator hub in Malaysia to nurture game development in that region, and the group hints at a future U.S. location as well.
“What we see right now is that it would be good to have one hub in Europe, one hub in Asia, and one hub in the U.S. Probably not San Francisco, but another odd place,” co-founder Kadri Ugand told GamesBeat. “That way we can be around all the time and build the best mentor network and the best partner network. But obviously right now our focus is on Asia and getting that running properly.”
Image credit: “Viru väravad 1” by Maigi – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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