Startup ecosystem in Finland

Abstract

The ultimate objective of this thesis is to gain insight and knowledge of the startup ecosystem in Finland. The secondary aim is to clarify the question regarding the entrepreneurial environment and activities of Finnish startups in comparison with their Nordic neighbours. Eventually, the feasible recommendations are drawn for Finnish entrepreneurs and policy makers in order to encourage entrepreneurship and improve the quality of the startup ecosystem in Finland.

In this paper, the research method is qualitative in nature which is a combination of primary and secondary data collection methods in which the material was gathered from academic literature, internet articles, and by interviewing board members of startups and accelerating organisations in Finland. The outcome data was then analysed, synthesized with issue findings, and processed to generate research findings.

The result of the study indicates that Finnish startups’ ecosystem is strongly emerging, particularly in gaming, technology and healthcare sectors. Nonetheless, the startup ecosystem in Finland is quite young and majority of startups are in small scale, struggling to reach global market. Successful stories such as Rovio, Kiosked and Supercell are just the tip of the iceberg. Certainly, in order to keep pace with the Nordic leader Sweden in terms of startup ecosystem, Finland needs to attract more foreign investments, talents and promote the willingness of late growth stage investors to take risks.