Look for growth opportunities in international markets together with other companies

Your group of enterprises has a common interest

• The group of enterprises has identified a significant new international market opportunity which they wish to explore together.
• The market opportunity pursued is so extensive that an individual enterprise cannot meet the entire need.
• The group of enterprises requires background information, contacts, and professional services to exploit the observed business opportunity.

Your group of enterprises aims for internatinoal growth

• The funding promotes the enterprises' international growth and entry to the target market.
• Cooperation within the group of enterprises significantly improves the conditions for successful internationalization.

Your company has its own product or service

• Your company has a product or service which is at least in a pilot phase and your company needs external expertise in taking it to new international markets.
• We cannot fund enterprises engaged in reselling alone.

Your company has a dedicated team

• The funding is conditional on your company employing a dedicated team in which at least one person has a full-time job developing the business, and the team has complementary expertise from members in other areas.
  • At a minimum, the team must be composed of, for example, one full-time employee and two part-time employees working 50% of their full-time hours in Finland. Group Explorer funding cannot be granted to a one-person company.

Developing international readiness

• Planning a joint business model for the international market
• Testing the appeal of an innovation on the market
• Mapping the value network of a product or service
• Mapping possible distribution channels and ways by which to enter the market
  • Investigating potential distributors as well as transport and warehousing providers
• Getting to know new operators, gathering information and discussing the terms of cooperation
• Having model agreements done: the model agreement can be shown to potential partners who can then be asked to suggest changes to the agreement which would enable cooperation
• Networking with important partners and influencers

Making use of external professional services

• The services of an external project manager
• Using consultants in developing a joint business model or readiness for internationalization
• Having market or other studies done in the target market
• Professional services related to organizing events in the target market
• Professional services related to organizing buyer visits to Finland

Please note that the funding may not be used for the following measures

• Professional services not related to creating a readiness for internationalization, such as general business consulting services and professional services related to product development. Buying professional services from the companies of interest is not permitted.
• Measures related to exportation, i.e., overhead charges directly related to export volumes or to the establishment and operations of a distribution network or other export operations.
• Commissioning of a commercial agreement, agreeing on commercial cooperation and commercial cooperation.
• Direct investments and funding related to warehouse buildings, distribution points and logistics centers as well as other distribution operations.
• The training of personnel.

Make sure that the criteria for the funding are met

• Your company is an SME or a midcap or large enterprise registered in Finland, and has the corporate form of either a limited liability company (Oy), limited partnership (Ky), general partnership (Ay), or a cooperative. The funding cannot be granted to a one-person business, a foundation, association, public or non-profit organization, or a business registered in the Åland Islands.
• Your company's line of business is something other than primary agricultural production, fishing and aquaculture, or the further processing and trade engaged in by fisheries.
• Your company is not part of an ongoing Young Innovative Company program funded by Business Finland.

Ensure sufficient self-financing

• Your company has adequate self-financing for the project and for covering the costs of the other business operations. The planning of self-financing should account for the fact that Business Finland's aid is paid in arrears against actualized and paid expenses, unless otherwise stated in the decision.

Get the following financial matters in order

We cannot grant your company funding if:

• Your company has not submitted financial statements to the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, or your company's financial statements have not been audited in accordance with the Auditing Act
• Your company is not in the prepayment register
• Your company's credit rating (Rating Alfa) according to Suomen Asiakastieto is below A
• Your company has tax debts for which a payment plan has not been agreed on with the tax authorities
• Your company has arrears, payment defaults or other outstanding financial obligations related to previous loans granted by Tekes or Business Finland.

Select a project manager for the group of enterprises

• Prior to applying for funding, your group of enterprises must designate a joint project manager from outside the group and have a preliminary agreement on the service provider from which purchased services will be bought. The project manager and/or service provider may be changed during the project if the entire group so wishes and the change is necessary for achieving the objective. This requires a separate application for change from each enterprise and an updated joint project plan.
• The enterprises and the project manager/service provider they select may not have associated interests (read more about associated interests in section 11 of the Funding Terms and Conditions).

Check de minimis funding

Group Explorer funding is de minimis aid, of which your company may not receive more than EUR 200,000 during the current and the previous two tax years. All companies controlled by the same entity or belonging to the same group of companies are deemed a single company when calculating the de minimis accumulation.

At the application stage, your company must find out how much de minimis funding it has received during the aforementioned period considered. Such aid is granted by a range of public organizations, including Finnvera and the ELY Centers.

Read more about de minimis funding

The funding is always discretionary

For example, we cannot grant funding in the following cases:

• Your group of enterprises includes fewer than four independent enterprises eligible for support or fewer than half of the members in your group are SMEs.
• The enterprises in your group do not have an adequate joint interest or synergy, such as a common target market, or your group of enterprises has previously already explored the pursued target market.
• The project is composed of professional services produced separately for individual enterprises; in which case the project is not a genuine group effort.
• The external project manager/producer of purchased services you have selected is not able to produce services for the needs of your group of enterprises in a credible manner.

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

The Funding Terms and Conditions describe the costs for which Business Finland can provide funding, how we monitor your project costs, and how you should report on the progress of your project.

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

Each member of the group of enterprises submits their own application, appendices included, through the online service. All members in the group of enterprises must submit their application within two weeks of the first enterprise having submitted its application to Business Finland.

The parallel applications of a single project must be given the same identifier. Before the submission of the applications, the group of enterprises must inform Business Finland of the Group Explorer identifier (max 100 characters) it intends to use by sending an email to ydinsovellukset (at) businessfinland.fi.

You can also keep track of the processing of your application in the online service.

Go to the online service

Set goals for your project

Define 2–5 concrete and measurable goals for your project in your application. The goals must be linked to concrete outcomes of the project and the development of your business. The project's goals are recorded in the funding decision, and Business Finland will monitor their achievement. The achievement of the defined goals is a significant factor in deciding whether your company can receive possible further funding from Business Finland.

Examples of project goals:

• The group of enterprises has developed a joint range from its products suitable for the target market.
• An enterprise has investigated its product's potential on the market and is in possession of enough knowledge to initiate export activities.
• An enterprise has identified x potential distributors/x potential customers on the market.
• An enterprise has drawn up a strategy for internationalization/the enterprise has a ready plan for positioning itself in the target market.
• An enterprise has investigated the applicability of its product strategy/business model to the joint range of products and services offered by the group of enterprises.
• An enterprise has gained an understanding of the target market's value network and the model according to which it/the group of enterprises may enter the market.

APPENDIX 1: Joint project plan

Draw up a joint project plan which each enterprise then appends to its own application. An individual enterprise need not append, in addition to this, a separate detailed project plan to the application. Instead, the project's enterprise-specific implementation and content is described on the application form

APPENDIX 2: Information about your company's finances

If your company does not have any audited financial statements yet, please submit, along with your application, an income statement that is no more than two months old, and a balance sheet ledger for the current accounting period.

To make the funding decision, we may ask your company for additional information if necessary.

Eligible costs

Agree on the distribution of the costs of the joint project between the enterprises involved.

Costs are accepted starting from the date on which the application was submitted, at earliest. The funding applied for from Business Finland is 50% of the accepted costs for SMEs and 40% of the accepted costs for midcap and large enterprises. The project's direct eligible costs include solely external purchased professional services.

Enter only the proportion of the professional services to be purchased by the applicant concerned on the project's cost estimate in the online service. When necessary, you can add a computed item of other costs (equal to a maximum of 20% of the eligible professional services to be purchased), which may be approved for inclusion in the budget. Do not make separate entries on salaries in money or indirect personnel costs in the cost estimate.

Other costs

Other costs include overheads, travel expenses, interpreter and wage expenses, the costs of materials and supplies, facility rentals, equipment purchases, equipment depreciation costs, and equipment rentals. Business Finland approves these costs to the extent of an amount equal to a maximum of 20% of the purchased services. Other costs do not need to be itemized in the application, nor do they need to be included in the project accounting.

Project changes

Discuss any changes beforehand with your contact person at Business Finland. Examples of changes to projects:

• If your entire group wishes to change the project manager or a consultant, the change may be applied for with an application for change in the online service.
• An individual enterprise may drop out of the project should it wish to do so. If at least four enterprises remain, the group of enterprises may continue to implement the Group Explorer project.