Nortal, a company that ‘built a third of e-Estonia’, has launched in the UK.

The multinational strategic change and technology company rose to prominence with its digital transformation of the Estonian government.

The ‘digital society’ famously offered international businesses the opportunity to apply for e-residency despite not being based in the country.

Now Nortal is bringing its public and private sector offering to customers in the UK for the first time. It has appointed Thomas Hedley as managing director to oversee the UK arm, already home to Nortal’s cyber consulting team. 

“My focus is on bringing the best of what Nortal has built over the last 20+ years, to the UK – from its cutting-edge product and engineering capabilities delivering solutions for big tech in the US, to its mature strategy consulting that has successfully transformed global blue-chip businesses and even entire nations,” said Hedley. 

“Notably, the Nortal team played a pivotal role in the remarkable Estonian digital government story and has made significant contributions to digital health programmes worldwide.”

After another record year of growth for Nortal in 2022, Hedley joins at a key point in the company’s international expansion. With a renewed focus around expansion into new markets, the appointment signifies Nortal’s ambition to strengthen its team of experts and continue on its planned growth trajectory across Europe, North America and the GCC.

London FinTech to invest €200m in European expansion

“Thomas is a strong leader with a breadth of experience in the technology services space and an impressive record of driving year-on-year growth. His leadership qualities and expertise in new business development will lay the groundwork for growth in the UK market,” said Priit Alamäe, CEO of Nortal. 

“Over the past five years, we have achieved remarkable double-digit organic growth and showed strong financial results across all home markets. Irrespective of the economic conditions, our core value proposition remains strong. 

“Our focus now is to enhance our global presence and effectively communicate our stories to engage in more meaningful conversations with future customers.”

The announcement comes as Nortal continues to expand and mark its presence in Europe more widely. It recently participated at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on 21-22 June to join the discussions around Ukraine’s recovery and how to support its accession to the EU.

At the conference, Estonian President Alar Karis highlighted Nortal’s dedication to Ukraine. Last year, shortly after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, Nortal made the rather unprecedented move of acquiring Pwrteams, a world-leader in building cross-border IT and engineering organisations, to bolster its on-the-ground capabilities across the region and beyond.

Silicon Valley Cambridge? What about Silicon Valley UK?