According to the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy (TEM) the Nordic Countries have good prerequisites for growth entrepreneurship.
There were 758 growth companies in Finland during the years 2008-2011. This is 100 more than during the previous 3 year period. In total the growth companies employ 87 000 people and generate a revenue of 8 billion euros and 5 billion euros of value add.
TEM published last week Enterprise review 2013 that examines the state of the Finnish enterprises. Report reveals that Finland has managed to develop its entrepreneurial culture and atmosphere in recent years despite the challenging economic situation. Compared with other Nordic Countries, the number of Finnish startup companies grow faster and get bigger than their Nordic counterparts.
As such, Finland’s challenge is not so much the growth of companies, as the small number of startups. To these challenges Finland is answering with a number of accelerator programs that provide support to early-stage and growth-stage companies. These accelerators include the global success story Startup Sauna, TEM’s Vigo program, City of Helsinki’s and Enterprise Helsinki’s joint accelerator service NewCo Factory and Aalto University’s Aalto Startup-up center, to mention few.
At the Startup Sauna's premises the Sauna meeting room is a technology free space. Picture: Startup Sauna
