We have found out that regarding, the Finnish government funding agency, TEKES' controversial Young Innovative Companies financing - 9 companies have passed the tighter application procedure and secured themselves a good backing from the organisation. TEKES has created the program to substantially increase the pace of growth and internationalisation for these future promises.

The companies in question are 7Signal, Astarte, Footbalance System, Navigil, Nidecon Technologies, RM5 Software, Ubipart, Whatamap.com and Wristop Technologies. These companies have passed on to the first phase, meaning that TEKES will cover certain costs up to €250.000. The best of these will pass on to the second phase where the funding goes up to €750.000.

It's interesting to see that there are no web startups and the companies are mainly from the healthcare and software industries. Then again, this is a safer route as these markets are already existing and annually represent multibillion euro turnovers.

How do you find the list? Is TEKES betting on the wrong horses here?

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Jukka Matikainen, October 16, 2008

Well, there is a quite big web market also, globally, isn’t there? It’s not easy to bet on the right horse no matter what market. But it would be interesting to see just a few more tracks in these domestic races also…

kai October 16, 2008

I am glad to see whatamap in this list! Good job guys. I hope they make it to next level. I find it interesting that there is a company that makes mobile TV stuff.

Kristoffer Lawson October 16, 2008

For non-Finns it might be good to point out that TEKES generally doesn't cover all expenses, but a certain percentage. However, it is a great instrument to use for boosting whatever funding you might have.