How Entrepreneurs from Post-Soviet Countries Are Reshaping European Business

Europe gained something significant in 2020–2025: a wave of highly educated, tech-savvy, internationally-oriented entrepreneurs from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine who moved their businesses and ambitions to Europe.

In five years, founders have registered tens of thousands of companies across the Europe, bringing their teams with them and hiring local talent along the way. At the same time, thousands more set up as self-employed, building independent practices under local frameworks.

The capital they brought, the salaries they paid, the companies they built, it all added up to a measurable contribution to European economies.

Wave 1 — Belarus, 2020

Belarus had quietly built one of Eastern Europe’s most impressive tech ecosystems: over 750 companies in its Hi-Tech Park, generating $2 billion in annual IT exports by 2020. By some estimates, 58% of all Belarusian startup founders had relocated abroad within roughly a year after 2020 taking their companies with them. By 2023, over 9,300 companies with Belarusian shareholders were registered across the EU.

Wave 2 — Ukraine, 2022

Ukrainian founders kept building. An estimated 57,000 IT specialists left Ukraine in 2022, yet despite this, Ukraine’s IT export revenue grew 9.9% in the first ten months of the year, reaching over $6 billion. By 2023, nearly one in ten new businesses registered in Poland was opened by a Ukrainian national, and by 2024 the share had grown further.

Wave 3 — Russia, 2022

Thousands of Russian entrepreneurs (many running software companies, agencies, and SaaS products with international clients) established EU legal entities to preserve access to global payments, banking, and markets. By mid-2024, estimates put the number at around 46,000 companies with substantial Russian beneficial ownership across the EU.

Poland: The Primary Hub for Tech Founders and Business Registration

Why Poland: geographic proximity, cultural familiarity, and a large post-Soviet diaspora made it the natural first stop. Warsaw became the de facto capital of post-Soviet entrepreneurship in Europe.

What Poland offered: the Poland.Business Harbour program provided fast-track business visas and residence permits for IT professionals and founders from Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. English-language company registration and a rapidly growing ecosystem of accountants, lawyers, and bankers fluent in post-Soviet business context did the rest.

Who came: IT founders, agency owners, and self-employed contractors concentrated heavily in software development. 61% of new Belarusian entrepreneur registrations in Poland were in information and communications.

• 4,980 companies with Belarusian capital registered by end of 2022, including 1,733 in 2022 alone
• 7,663 Belarusians became individual entrepreneurs in Poland in 2023 — 19% of all new sole proprietorships that year
• 1 in 10 new businesses in 2024 opened by Ukrainian nationals

United Kingdom: The Fintech Powerhouse for International Market Access

Why the UK: English law, a straightforward LTD structure, and London’s global fintech ecosystem make it the top destination for founders targeting international markets. Despite Brexit, access to global capital remains unmatched.

What the UK offered: the Innovator Founder Visa, introduced in 2023, provides a three-year residence permit with no minimum investment requirement, a path to indefinite leave to remain, and the right to bring dependants. For post-Soviet founders with scalable, innovative businesses, it opened a direct route to the UK market.

Who came: fintech founders, SaaS companies, and trading platform operators. Thousands of companies with Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian beneficial owners are registered at Companies House.

Germany: The Largest Market for B2B Software and Professional Services

Why Germany: the size and purchasing power of the German market is the primary draw. Germany represents the second-largest concentration of post-Soviet-owned companies in Europe after Cyprus, with Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian founders all present across tech, professional services, and manufacturing-adjacent sectors.

What Germany offered: a residence permit for self-employment (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) with no minimum investment threshold, valid for three years and renewable. A 2024 reform to German immigration law further simplified entry for skilled foreign entrepreneurs and their teams.

Who came: established B2B software companies, professional services firms, and founders expanding westward from initial footholds in Poland or the Baltics. The barriers (bureaucracy, language, banking friction) are real, but founders who navigate them access Europe’s largest economy.

Cyprus: The Corporate Gateway for EU Business Structuring

Why Cyprus: EU membership, English-language legal system, and a long history as the preferred structuring jurisdiction for Eastern European business. Post-2022 it became even more central as founders needed compliant EU legal entities fast.

What Cyprus offered: a 12.5% corporate tax rate, the IP Box regime for tech companies and IP-holding structures, and a business visa program for non-EU founders. Cyprus accounts for 17% of all indirect connections between post-Soviet nationals and European businesses.

Who came: founders building international software products, payment companies, and holding structures. An estimated 10,500 companies with Russian and Belarusian beneficial owners are registered on the island.

The Baltic States: A Digital Corridor for Remote-First Tech Companies

Why the Baltics: EU membership, digital infrastructure, and a pragmatic approach to business migration made all three countries natural landing points for post-Soviet founders.

What the Baltics offered: Estonia’s e-Residency program allowed founders to incorporate EU companies entirely online, without relocating. Lithuania issued fintech licenses faster than almost any other EU jurisdiction, positioning Vilnius as a payment infrastructure hub, and attracted around 60–80 Belarusian companies within months of 2020. Latvia offered EU residency through business activity and investment with relatively straightforward procedures.

Who came: remote-first founders and freelancers via e-Residency in Estonia; fintech and payment companies to Lithuania; founders from Russia and Belarus to Latvia seeking EU status with cultural familiarity.

Portugal: The Tax Haven for Nomads

Why Portugal: warm climate, low cost of living relative to Western Europe, and an English-friendly startup ecosystem in Lisbon and Porto.

What Portugal offered: the NHR regime (now updated as IFICI/NHR 2.0) provides a 20% flat tax on qualified income for up to ten years. The Digital Nomad Visa created a formal path to residency for remote founders and contractors without requiring a local employer.

Who came: bootstrapped SaaS founders, independent contractors, and remote-first teams. Lisbon and Porto now host clusters of relocated tech professionals from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

Spain: The Sunny Startup Magnet

Why Spain: Barcelona in particular became a concentration point for post-Soviet founders, combining a strong tech scene with quality of life and cultural accessibility.

What Spain offered: the Startup Law (2023) created a dedicated framework for innovative companies, including fast-track registration and access to public financing. The Beckham Law provides a 24% flat income tax rate for up to six years for qualifying foreign entrepreneurs and executives — a significant advantage over standard Spanish rates.

Who came: e-commerce operators, design and marketing agencies, and AI tool builders, many of them expanding from earlier footholds in Poland or Cyprus.

Netherlands: The Corporate Hub

Why the Netherlands: Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most internationally oriented business cities, with deep fintech infrastructure, a large English-speaking professional community, and proximity to major European markets.

What the Netherlands offered: the Dutch Startup Visa gives non-EU founders a one-year residence permit to launch an innovative business with the support of an accredited facilitator. After year one, founders can transition to a self-employed permit. The Netherlands also offers one of Europe’s most favourable holding and IP structuring environments.

Who came: founders building international software products, payment companies, and holding structures. For post-Soviet entrepreneurs looking to operate at the intersection of European and global markets, Amsterdam offers a credible and well-connected EU base.

Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy: Emerging Tech Hubs

The Czech Republic has a growing Ukrainian business community in Prague, concentrated in B2B services and manufacturing-adjacent sectors. Austria ranks among the top-5 EU jurisdictions for post-Soviet holding structures, widely used for international business architecture due to its extensive treaty networks and stable legal framework.

Italy updated its Startup Visa in 2024 under Law 193/2024, extending innovative startup status to up to nine years and streamlining the process for non-EU founders. Clearance typically takes 30 days. Combined with a 50% income tax exemption for the first five years of residency, Italy is becoming an increasingly visible option for founders looking beyond the traditional Central and Eastern European hubs.

Not All Countries Responded Equally

Europe's response to this entrepreneurial wave has been uneven, and the differences are visible in where the flow went.

Some countries actively improved conditions. Cyprus launched a Business Facilitation Unit in 2022 to accelerate company registration. Germany reformed its immigration law in 2024, simplifying entry for skilled foreign entrepreneurs. Italy updated its Startup Visa the same year. Spain and Portugal introduced Digital Nomad Visas in 2023 under new startup legislation, and while Spain closed its Golden Visa in 2025, residency routes for entrepreneurs and founders remain fully open through the Startup Law and Beckham Law.

Others added friction. The Czech Republic suspended visa and residence permit applications for Russian and Belarusian citizens from 2022 through early 2024. Spain suspended entrepreneur visa applications specifically for Russian nationals in March 2022. The Baltic states, early leaders in attracting post-Soviet tech talent, tightened their fintech licensing frameworks and introduced stricter requirements for permanent residency, including mandatory state language exams and higher income thresholds. In Poland, Belarusian founders reported difficulties opening bank accounts after 2022, as compliance requirements for Russian and Belarusian passport holders increased across the banking sector.

The pattern is consistent: countries that lowered barriers captured more of the flow. Countries that added friction, whether through visa restrictions, banking compliance, or language requirements, saw founders redirect to more welcoming jurisdictions.

The popular image of oligarchs with shell companies in offshore havens describes only a tiny fraction of this population. In reality, post-Soviet entrepreneurs in Europe span the full range from solo contractors to major global companies.

The Global Companies

Some of the most recognizable names in European and global tech have post-Soviet roots, and their presence in Europe has grown significantly since 2022.

From Belarus: Wargaming — creator of World of Tanks, relocated its headquarters to Nicosia, Cyprus in 2011 and after 2022 opened offices in Warsaw and Prague. EPAM Systems expanded its Polish offices and opened a hub in Serbia. PandaDoc relocated teams to Poland and Portugal. ITechArt, the second-largest IT company in Belarus, also moved operations out of the country.

From Russia: Yandex restructured its international business into Nebius, now operating as an AI company headquartered in Amsterdam with engineering teams in the Netherlands and Serbia. JetBrains — the developer tools company behind IntelliJ IDEA and PyCharm, operates offices in Munich and Amsterdam. Miro relocated teams to Germany and the Netherlands after closing its Russian division in 2022. Former Yandex engineers have since launched new AI and fintech startups in Berlin.

From Ukraine: Grammarly ($13 billion valuation) expanded offices to Warsaw and Berlin. GitLab, co-founded in Kyiv, relocated teams to the Netherlands. Ukrainian fintech founders have registered new legal entities across Poland and the EU since 2022.

Relocated Teams

Startups that moved entire operations — founders, CTOs, 5–50 developers — to maintain access to investors and talent markets. Many brought their full engineering teams and rebuilt their go-to-market function inside the EU.

IT Founders

Founders running 10–50 person software or product companies. Most had international clients before the move and needed European legal entities to continue invoicing them. This is the dominant profile: capital-efficient, technically deep, already generating revenue.

Agency Owners

Founders who built design, marketing, or development agencies serving European and international clients. Many came to be closer to their markets and to simplify contracting with Western clients.

Independent Contractors

Senior developers and specialists earning €5K–20K monthly, working for international companies and needing clean EU legal structures for compliance and banking.

Freelancers

Self-employed specialists who registered as sole traders or under local freelance frameworks, without forming a company. In Poland, 7,663 Belarusians registered as individual entrepreneurs in 2023 alone, representing 19% of all new sole proprietorships that year.

In Poland, 61% of new Belarusian entrepreneur registrations were in information and communications, software development above all. This is not low-wage labor migration. It is knowledge economy migration, the kind that European policymakers have been trying to stimulate for decades.

Jobs and Tax Revenue

This migration delivered something European economies genuinely needed: skilled workers who arrived not as employees looking for jobs, but as employers creating them.

In Poland alone, Belarusian-owned IT companies have created tens of thousands of jobs and now play a meaningful role in Polish IT services exports. At least 435 ICT firms with Belarusian roots are registered in Poland — companies that hire Polish developers, rent Polish offices, and pay Polish taxes.

Ukrainian businesses followed the same pattern. As they stabilized and shifted focus to local markets, they became genuine contributors to the economies that hosted them. Deloitte estimated that Ukrainian refugees contributed up to 1.1% of Polish GDP in 2023 alone.

Russian entrepreneurs added a third layer. Estimates suggest between 700,000 and 1.5 million IT specialists left Russia after February 2022. A significant share settled in Europe — working as employees of European companies, running their own businesses, or operating as independent contractors. The 46,000 EU-registered companies with Russian beneficial ownership represent direct employment and tax contributions across multiple jurisdictions.

Local Spending

Beyond payroll and taxes, post-Soviet entrepreneurs consume local services at scale. Accountants, lawyers, notaries, office space, co-working memberships, housing rentals, banking services — every relocated founder and their team generates ongoing demand in the local economy. In cities like Warsaw, Vilnius, Tallinn, and Nicosia, entire professional service ecosystems have developed specifically to serve this community.

Talent Pool

The educational profile of this migration is exceptional across all three waves. An estimated 87% of Belarusian emigrants hold higher education degrees. Ukraine produces around 130,000 engineering graduates annually, more than France or Germany, and roughly 82–87% of Ukrainian IT specialists hold academic degrees. Russia produces more than 30% of its graduates in STEM fields, one of the highest rates in the world. The IT sector that left Belarus alone, home to global companies like PandaDoc, EPAM, and Wargaming, lost more than 22,500 people between 2022 and 2023.

For Europe, which has spent decades trying to grow its tech talent pool, this was an unexpected windfall.

Venture Capital

The migration attracted a new layer of venture capital oriented around post-Soviet founders. Some of this capital came from funds specifically created to back this community: Specialist VC in Tallinn launched a €50 million fund for founders from Ukraine and Belarus; FfVC launched a €50 million fund targeting Ukrainian founders; Geek Ventures launched a $23 million fund for immigrant tech founders at pre-seed and seed stages; Inovo VC closed a €100 million fund with a Ukrainian focus; Flashpoint raised $75 million with a focus on Ukraine.

This capital flows into European-registered companies built by post-Soviet founders, creating a reinforcing loop where the founders, their companies, and the investors backing them all operate within the European ecosystem.

Competition

Post-Soviet founders brought a particular operational profile: companies built without reliable legal systems, without easy access to capital, and without the safety nets that European entrepreneurs take for granted. They are, almost by necessity, capital-efficient, adaptable, and technically sophisticated.

In Warsaw, Prague, Tallinn, and Nicosia, post-Soviet-founded companies are bidding for the same contracts as their local competitors. And often winning them.

While the economic contribution is clear, the operational side of this migration has been far from frictionless. For many founders, setting up a company in Europe turned out to be the easy part. Operating it across borders did not.

Bank account opening became increasingly unpredictable, especially for founders with Russian or Belarusian passports. Even after successful incorporation, companies often faced delays, rejections, or sudden account closures due to evolving compliance requirements.

Payments presented another layer of complexity. Founders working with international clients had to navigate a fragmented system of SWIFT transfers, local payment rails, and alternative solutions, often combining multiple providers just to maintain basic operations.

Contractors added further friction. Paying teams distributed across different jurisdictions meant dealing with varying banking systems, currency conversions, and compliance risks — all within a regulatory environment that continues to shift. What looked like a solution in 2022 is becoming a constraint in 2026.

In practice, many founders ended up building their own patchwork infrastructure: combining banks, payment services, legal entities, and manual processes to keep their businesses running. The result: while the opportunity was real, the operational cost of maintaining that setup remained high.

The first generation of post-Soviet-founded European companies is maturing. Companies that registered EU entities in 2020–2022 now have three to five years of compliance track records, growing client bases, and increasingly local teams. They are becoming acquisition targets sought by European and global buyers, employers of local talent, and investors in the next wave of founders.

Institutional capital is following. Post-Soviet founders are raising from European and global VCs not as exotic bets, but as proven operators with real revenue and real infrastructure. The story that began as a migration is becoming a mainstream part of the European tech economy.

Yet as these companies mature, so does the environment around them. The infrastructure that makes cross-border work possible is no longer keeping up.

For founders who built their workflows in the urgency of 2020-2022, the question is no longer how to set up. It’s whether the setup they chose will hold.