New billion-euro export-oriented growth engines kicking in
Ecosystems improve companies' ability to innovate, grow and thrive in international competition. Five new growth engine ecosystems, funded by Business Finland, are starting up soon and are now seeking new development partners.
"In order to make it in fierce international competition, Finnish companies need partnerships with other companies and research organizations. At Business Finland, we have combined the services companies need for international growth and building partnerships – such as RDI funding, networking services and export promotion. In the growth engine concept, these elements combine to strengthen Finnish business life and well-being", says Arto Pussinen, Senior Director at Business Finland.
What is a growth engine?
Growth engines is what Business Finland calls the ecosystems that are aiming for new business activities exceeding a billion euro in value. For that purpose, they have received funding from Business Finland.
Growth Engines are implemented through an enterprise-driven partnership model between companies, research organizations and public actors, which strives to find solutions to global market disruption and create new growth sectors in Finland. Currently, there are more than 20 ecosystems that have received growth engine funding, in subordinated loans or orchestration funding, already underway.
"With the orchestration funding for growth engines, we help the ecosystem orchestrator organization to build a network of actors around a common vision and activate joint RDI work in a systematic way. The trick is that the innovation ecosystems that we are facilitating will help Finnish companies to position themselves in favorable value-creating positions in international business ecosystems", says Markku Heimbürger Senior Advisor at Business Finland.
Explore new growth engines
- The Food Data Finland program is coordinated by GS1 Finland. The program brings together the Finnish food value system parties to develop novel data solutions to strengthen the Finnish food and food tech export over the coming years. It promotes, together with primary sector, food industry and retail trade the transparent, two-way data flow throughout the food value chain and, thereby, promotes innovation in high-added-value products and services. The founding members of the project are: Apetit, Atria, Bisnes+, Fazer, HKScan, Kesko, SOK, Valio, GS1 Finland, ETL, PTY and MTK. The project works in collaboration with Business Finland's Food from Finland Export Promotion program, and welcomes all interested parties to join its Growth Engine ecosystem forum.
- The Finnish Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem (FAME), which brings together players in industrial 3D printing. The long-term goal of the ecosystem is to grow the size of the Finnish AM market to several billion euros by 2030, serving other industries in a variety of ways. The ecosystem already includes key equipment manufacturers, material suppliers, design and printing experts, as well as machine builders pivoting their manufacturing technology towards 3D printing. The ecosystem is coordinated by DIMECC. The project is part of Business Finland's Sustainable Manufacturing Finland program.
- The Ecosystem for Autonomous Mobility in Smart Spaces (VAMOS) aims to make Finnish companies into the leading solutions suppliers in the global market for autonomous mobility and smart spaces. The digitalization of transport is set to create a significant global market, of which Finnish companies intend to take the lion's share. The ecosystem, coordinated by DIMECC, is constantly inviting new member companies. The founding members of the ecosystem include Cargotec, Deal Comp, GIM, Huawei, Kempower, Mevea, Murata, Nordic Inertial, Plugit, Posiva, Rightware, Solteq Robotics, Unikie and VTT. The project is attached to Business Finland's Smart Mobility and Batteries from Finland program.
- The Open Creative Ecosystem Hub, operated by Open Creative House, brings together creators and companies and background organizations in creative industries into an open ecosystem. The core objectives of the ecosystem are broad-based innovation work in the creative industries, increasing the value of knowledge and the creative economy, and the internationalization of the people involved. This growth engine project develops operating environments and models that enable modern ways to work and the networking of small players, as well as cross-industry cooperation and innovation work. The first Open Creative Ecosystem Hub will be built in the Port of Music in Keilaniemi, Espoo, and the core of its initial phase will be built around people in the music and AV sectors.
- DDE Digital Defence ecosystem creates significant new business in the defence and security sector by bringing together the technological front runners from both the defence, security, and civil industries and from the research institutes. The DDE is an active participant in the latest EU and NATO initiatives in the defence industry, national locomotive projects and international networking. The founding members of DDE are Patria, Saab Finland, VTT, Reaktor, Bittium, Unikie, Aalto University, GIM Robotics, Elomatic, Solita, University of Tampere, Savox, Millog, Insta, Senop and University of Jyväskylä. The ecosystem is coordinated by XD Solutions.
