New Index! How Well do the CEE Countries Support the Journey of an Entrepreneur?

StartupBlink, a global startup ecosystem research platform providing data, rankings, and insights on innovation ecosystems, launched the Innovators Business Environment Index (IBEI), a new global framework that evaluates how 125 countries support the journey of an entrepreneur.

“Unlike traditional business or innovation rankings, the IBEI is built specifically around the real-world challenges faced by entrepreneurs,” StartupBlink stated in its release. The index applies a consistent methodology to answer three core questions:

“Can I start easily? Can I operate profitably? Can I trust the system?”

The Index scores best countries for entrepreneurs on a 0–100 scale using over 30 parameters that assess regulatory friction, access to capital, taxation, digital infrastructure and global mobility. While global giants like the United States, Singapore, and the United Kingdom lead the overall rankings, the index highlights Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as a region with high performance across several critical categories.

CEE overall demonstrated strong regional depth, Estonia placed tenth globally, ahead of Bulgaria and Lithuania, with five CEE countries reaching the top 30.

What business environment score did CEE get?

Central and Eastern Europe placed three countries in the global top 25. Estonia leads the region and ranks 10th globally, proving that smaller markets can provide highly competitive conditions for innovators. Bulgaria follows closely at 18th globally, while Lithuania rounds out the regional top three at 22nd. Romania followed in 25th place, and Czechia secured 30th position, bringing five CEE nations into the top 30.

The regional depth extended further. Hungary ranked 34th, Latvia 35th, Slovakia 36th, and Georgia 37th, placing eight CEE countries in the global top 40. Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, and North Macedonia all secured positions within the top 51.

CEE strengths across functional categories

The index organizes its assessment through three main pillars:

1. 1. Ease of Operating a Business measures how simple, fast, and operationally frictionless it is to start, manage, and sustain a business.
   2. Business Incentives evaluates financial attractiveness for entrepreneurs and investors.
   3. Market Perception assesses how countries are viewed globally in terms of governance quality, credibility, transparency, stability, human capital, and international mobility.

Five functional categories provide deeper analytical insight on best countries for entrepreneurs.

Estonia, Georgia, and Lithuania led Central and Eastern Europe in the Regulation and Governance pillar, ranking 17th, 20th, and 39th globally. The pillar measures business registration processes, insolvency resolution, labor law rigidity, government effectiveness, and corruption control.

In Access to Capital and Financial Infrastructure, Estonia placed 20th worldwide, Czechia 27th, and Lithuania 29th. The category evaluates funding availability, credit access, financial openness, and cross-border banking conditions.

Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova emerged as the strongest CEE performers in taxation. Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina both ranked seventh globally in the Taxation functional category, while Moldova secured 13th place. The category covers corporate tax, capital gains tax, dividend tax, and personal income tax levels.

Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia dominated Digital Infrastructure within the region. Estonia ranked fifth globally, Lithuania 17th, and Latvia 19th. The category includes internet freedom and internet speed as core parameters.

And last but not least, in Global mobility & openness category, Croatia ranked in the top three countries globally for international accessibility and ease of cross-border movement. The category assesses English proficiency, cost of living, trade openness, and passport power.

Global leaders and patterns

The United States topped the index with a score of 100.000, followed by Singapore at 99.145 and the United Kingdom at 93.900. Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada completed the top six.

Saudi Arabia ranked ninth globally and first worldwide for friction-reducing policy levers.

Japan placed eighth and ranked first for lending rate and getting credit.

New Zealand, in 11th position, ranked first for starting a business, reflecting low entry barriers.

“Smaller economies such as Estonia (10th), Luxembourg (13th), and New Zealand (11th) all rank within the global top 15, showing that small markets can still offer highly competitive conditions for innovators,” the report noted.

Seventeen of the top 20 countries showed strong results in Access to Capital and Financial Infrastructure. Sixteen demonstrated strength in Regulation and Governance. Fourteen performed strongly in Digital Infrastructure, with shared characteristics of strong internet freedom and internet speed.

Taxation proved a less common strength among top performers. Seventeen of the top 20 countries demonstrated limited performance in this area, with exceptions including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus.

Challenges and opportunities for CEE

In conclusion, the index reveals that Central and Eastern Europe maintains competitive positions across multiple dimensions of business environment quality, with particular strength in digital infrastructure and regulatory frameworks.

The data also points to specific areas where the region faces challenges in creating a world-class business environment. The “work to do” generally falls into these categories: regional inequality, institutional gaps, governance friction, and limited funding.

Also, it is worth noting, there is a stark contrast between the regional leaders and the rest of the CEE countries, and even for the regional leaders, maintaining a high global standing across all pillars remains a challenge. 

Nevertheless, the region’s representation across the top 40 demonstrates depth beyond some of the leading economies. The findings suggest that CEE countries are leveraging their smaller market sizes to offer more flexible and competitive conditions than many larger, more established economies.