Finnish growth companies meet with international venture capitalists at Enterprise Finland Venture Forum

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Finnish Industry Investment, Tekes and Finnvera, in co-operation with Technopolis, are organizing an international venture capital day today in Espoo, Finland. Enterprise Finland Venture Forum brings together the most promising Finnish technology companies with venture capital companies from Finland and beyond. The day starts with keynote speeches and continues with company pitches, after which companies and investors will have pre-scheduled one-to-one meetings. Enterprise Finland Venture Forum is now organized for the second time following the positive feedback received last year.

”International venture capitalists have become more and more active in the Finnish market during the past few years. Enterprise Finland Venture Forum aims to support and strengthen this trend by offering an effective day for the investors and companies to meet,” says Henri Grundstén, Director at Finnish Industry Investment and Chairman of the event organizing committee.

The event attracted international venture capitalists from many countries. One of them is Life Science Partners (LSP) from the Netherlands. “We are attracted to the Finnish market since we feel that the quality of research, science and technology in Finland is high. There is an interesting trend on-going using expertise and experience gained in the electronics industry in innovative medical devices. The real challenge lies in translating this quality into commercially successful companies. Having an interesting technology is not sufficient by itself, it has to be supported by an experienced team and a solid business model and business plan,” says Anne Portwich, Partner at LSP. LSP is one of the world’s largest specialized healthcare and biotechnology investment firms.

Minister for Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies will give the opening remarks at the event. Other key-note speakers include individual multicontributor and business angel Anssi Vanjoki as well as Kristian Ranta from Mendor Oy, who was awarded for having the best investor pitch at last year’s event. Later in spring 2011, Mendor raised 8,1 million euros of equity from an international investor syndicate.

Enterprise Finland Venture Forum is part of the Enterprise Finland service concept. There are 30 Finnish companies attending the event, and 32 venture capitalists, of which 14 are foreign. For more information (incl. the list of the presenting companies), please visit www.efvf.fi.

 

For further information, please contact:

Henri Grundstén, Finnish Industry Investment Ltd, tel: +358 50 431 0840, e-mail: henri.grundsten(a)industryinvestment.com

 

Finnish Industry Investment Ltd is a government-owned investment company that promotes Finnish business, employment and economic growth through venture capital and private equity investments. The investments of Finnish Industry Investment amount to 660 million euros. www.industryinvestment.com

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation is the most important public funding organisation for research, development and innovation in Finland. Tekes invests annually around EUR 600 million towards innovative projects aimed at growth, internationalisation, generating new know-how and new kinds of products, processes and service or business concepts. www.tekes.fi

Finnvera provides financing for the start, growth and internationalisation of enterprise operations and for hedging against export risks. We strengthen the operating potential and competitiveness of Finnish enterprises by offering loans, domestic guarantees, venture capital investments and export credit guarantees. Risks included in financing are shared between Finnvera and other providers of financing. Finnvera is a specialised financing company owned by the State of Finland and it has an official Export Credit Agency (ECA) status. www.finnvera.fi

Technopolis Plc provides business environments and services for knowledge-intensive companies and organizations. The service portfolio ranges from comprehensive business and development services to modern premises. Currently, close to 1,300 companies with 19,000 employees operate in the Technopolis centers located in Espoo, Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lappeenranta, Oulu, Tampere and Vantaa in Finland, St. Petersburg in Russia and Tallinn in Estonia. Technopolis Plc is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. www.technopolis.com