While the autumn winds are chilling, the Belarussian tech scene is definitely heating up. We are used to high standards of our own tech scene in Finland, but still we were blown away by the potential and tech level of the local ICT companies on our September visit to Minsk.
We see a natural benefit for Finland in attracting these highly skilled companies to attach themselves to and enrich our world-class ICT ecosystem, as well as for them to use us as an effective platform to enter the EU markets, access the highest R&D opportunities and utilizing our skilled talent base.
This story began a few years ago, when a few wise men – Juha Hämäläinen (Chairman of the board of Finnish Belarusian Chamber of Commerce) and Alexander Ostrovsky (Ambassador of Belarus in Finland) – introduced us to the potential in the country. These connections finally led us to meet also Alexander Martinkevich, the Deputy Director Marketing and Business Development of the Belarus HighTechPark and their resident companies.
The event on business opportunities in Finland arranged in Minsk by Invest In Finland, Helsinki Business Hub, Business Oulu and HighTechPark on September 12th attracted over 15 companies, which also presented their solutions to expert team from Finland.
Next stop – November Slush in Helsinki
Residents of HighTechPark really impressed us and thus we invited some of them to join us this year for Slush, one of the Europe’s biggest startup conferences in Helsinki.
The companies booking a trip to Helsinki in November are R-Nox, an environmental monitoring IOT startup; Tix , a public transport payment solutions developer; Exto, providing blockchain-based loyalty systems and Tap2Pay, a mobile payments company.
In the words of our colleague Maria Melnikova from BusinessOulu:
“I was very impressed by the high level and quality of the startups & residents of the Hi-Tech Park and see a great potential in the future cooperation with them in case they will decide to pursue new business opportunities in Finland“.
We are all here to help make that happen. First let’s have a great Slush, but then let’s keep this ICT love affair flourishing and successful.
