Designing investment acquisition service for Finnish deep tech companies
Virolainen, Zheng (2021)
Virolainen, Zheng
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021111820537
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021111820537
Tiivistelmä
The nature of a technology company is international, simply because none of the technology companies is competing alone in the local market. Especially in the fast-changing world, it is critical for technology start-ups to acquire funding and scale up internationally at the right time. Investment from Chinese investors is one source of funding, and such investment can also help Finnish technology companies with Chinese market entry.
Based on primary and secondary research, reflections, and learnings in the design process, this master’s thesis aims to create an investment acquisition service for Zenzi Consulting, where the investment is specifically from Chinese investors and the target customer group is deep tech companies in Finland that are seeking funding. The beneficiary of this thesis is Zenzi Consulting based in southern Finland. An economic and technology overview in both Finland and China, an explanation of deep tech, Chinese investment in Finland, deep tech investment, market size, and challenges Finnish deep tech companies face in fundraising in Finland were introduced as background information to help better understand the service ideation. This background information was gathered through publications, companies’ websites, and news available online. The theoretical framework is built on entrepreneur financing, ways of Chinese market entry, business model innovation, facilitation in a virtual context, service design process, and virtual thinking. The service design process was conducted in the development phase of this thesis. The framework of the Double Diamond model is used as the design guideline throughout the service design process, however, with process innovation applied to this service design process. Data was collected through desktop research. Because it is not an easy task to design the service when the designer is also the business owner, an outsider’s view was introduced in the redefine phase of the thesis via third-party interviews.
As the outcome of this thesis, an investment acquisition service was created for Zenzi Consulting. It is recommended in the discussion and takeaway that the business owner should redefine and revalidate the service idea based on possible changes in the macro-environment and sufficient customer cases in the future, because the design process is reiterative, and the business needs to be innovative and stay competitive in the changing world.
Key words: Deep tech, Entrepreneurial financing, Chinese Market entry, Service design
Based on primary and secondary research, reflections, and learnings in the design process, this master’s thesis aims to create an investment acquisition service for Zenzi Consulting, where the investment is specifically from Chinese investors and the target customer group is deep tech companies in Finland that are seeking funding. The beneficiary of this thesis is Zenzi Consulting based in southern Finland. An economic and technology overview in both Finland and China, an explanation of deep tech, Chinese investment in Finland, deep tech investment, market size, and challenges Finnish deep tech companies face in fundraising in Finland were introduced as background information to help better understand the service ideation. This background information was gathered through publications, companies’ websites, and news available online. The theoretical framework is built on entrepreneur financing, ways of Chinese market entry, business model innovation, facilitation in a virtual context, service design process, and virtual thinking. The service design process was conducted in the development phase of this thesis. The framework of the Double Diamond model is used as the design guideline throughout the service design process, however, with process innovation applied to this service design process. Data was collected through desktop research. Because it is not an easy task to design the service when the designer is also the business owner, an outsider’s view was introduced in the redefine phase of the thesis via third-party interviews.
As the outcome of this thesis, an investment acquisition service was created for Zenzi Consulting. It is recommended in the discussion and takeaway that the business owner should redefine and revalidate the service idea based on possible changes in the macro-environment and sufficient customer cases in the future, because the design process is reiterative, and the business needs to be innovative and stay competitive in the changing world.
Key words: Deep tech, Entrepreneurial financing, Chinese Market entry, Service design