12 New Startups And 120 Positions Created With Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill
Almost a year ago we reported on a Nokia, Tekes and Technopolis backed venture where startups would be able to reap the ideas and R&D results from Nokia's patent portfolio. Not all patents, but specific ones that Nokia has put aside for the program. At this stage of the program, 12 startups have been formed, with 120 employees together with over 5 million euros in venture financing and angel funding. Tekes is the Finnish development fund for technology and Technopolis is a public company working with growth companies in many different ways.
In the first phase of the program, Nokia and Technopolis have gone through thousands of ideas from which about a hundred made it into the program itself. All three parties have commited quite a bit, to make all this happen. Tekes for example has been able to make financing decisions in a week for the companies involved in a program - something regular entrepreneurs can only dream in their wettest day dreams.
The Finnish Cleantech Market In 2010
Recently, we have seen increasing investor interest in the Finnish cleantech market, which closed a total of €40-50m worth of investments in Q3 including those in companies such as European Batteries, a large scale lithium ion battery manufacturer, Nokia spin-off There Corporation, a sub/smart metering technology provider, and Preseco, a waste-to-energy company. Investments in Finnish clean technologies represented around 50% of cleantech VC investments in the Nordics, which closed a total of €100m worth of investments (source: Cleantech Scandinavia). Examples of Nordic investments are in companies like Danish biomass fuelled engine technology provides Stirling, Swedish nanowire semiconductor LED developer Glo (a link to release), Norwegian solar cell manufacturer Innotech Solar and EV company Think Global.
But will the investments in Finnish clean technologies in 2010 exceed those for 2009? We do not know the final figures for 2009 yet. In 2008, Finnish cleantech companies posted a total of €139.5m in investments, which represented the highest proportion (37%) of total investments (€372m) in all Nordic countries.
ArcticEvening Tampere Tomorrow
Tomorrow we'll be having another ArcticEvening event in Tampere. The event will revolve around some interesting startup pitches and a panel with some very interesting industry heavy weights. Last week we went through our procedure to pick three companies available for pitching at the event and the chosen ones are (in random order): Tagregator, Tribe Flame and There Corporation. On the panel we'll have Jussi Harvela, Otto Chrons and Heikki Halme.
You can read more about the event on its own page. Want to come? Sign up now, there are still some tickets available. The show will kick off around 6pm at Demola.
