business finlandAs a strategic measure to strengthen the country’s competitiveness and sustainable growth, it allocated a total of €726 million in funding last year, of which a real €416 million was allocated specifically to innovation. This significant investment reflects Finland’s commitment to fostering a thriving environment for breakthrough ideas and technology.
Of the total funding, €599 million was awarded directly to companies, underscoring the country’s focus on fostering innovation in companies.
In addition, €127 million was donated to research initiatives, highlighting the importance of research and development in driving national progress.
Nina Copolla, Director General of Business Finland, emphasized that innovation funding plays an important role in creating Finland’s competitive advantage. “Increasing productivity, a key challenge for our country, comes from businesses commercializing new ventures and innovations. Success comes at the intersection of insightful product and service ideas and growing markets. ” she said.
Copolla said companies that benefit from funding for research, development and innovation tend to invest more of their own capital. From 2021 to 2022, these companies doubled their R&D investment (16.4%) compared to the general growth rate (5.9%). This trend was the same last year.
In an important development, Nokia Solutions and Networks received the largest share of innovation funding last year, totaling €48.9 million. With this funding, a flagship project involving 120 partners has been completed, and the total investment in research and development activities from 2020 to 2023 exceeds 200 million euros.
A notable initiative is the Deep Tech Funding Pilot launched by Business Finland last year. The program will allocate around 7 million euros to his 17 startups and aims to accelerate the commercialization of research results in the field of deep tech. Deep tech startups have the potential to revolutionize entire industries and are critical to addressing societal challenges such as climate change and cybersecurity threats.
Despite difficult global trade conditions, Finnish companies, especially start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are showing resilience in exports. Risto Vuohelainen, Director of Export Promotion Services at Business Finland, reported that up to 2 billion euros of exports have been achieved so far from funded start-ups, especially high-performing companies. Exports by small and medium-sized enterprises are growing steadily, accounting for approximately 25% of total exports. Mr. Vuohelainen also emphasized the importance of expanding into new growth markets, as traditional markets may show signs of decline.
In addition to direct funding, Business Finland’s systematic two-year export promotion project has generated hundreds of millions of euros in new sales and more than two billion euros in business opportunities. These projects, involving 215 Finnish companies, focused on areas such as low-carbon construction in Europe, port investments in the United States, and digitalization of public services in South America. Companies took advantage of a variety of services, including 29 delegation visits to target markets and other Team Finland network services.
Mr. Vuohelainen summarizes this initiative as follows: “Through our global network of 38 offices, we work tirelessly to offer Finnish companies the best conditions for international business growth.”
In 2023, Business Finland awarded the Uusimaa region with a significant amount of innovation funding of 321.9 million euros across 652 different projects. This investment highlights the region’s role as a center of innovation and technological progress in Finland.
HT