Northbound Scaleups, the programme aimed at helping startups scale up their business, has progressed to its second round. The joint initiative by Turku Science Park, Movexum (Gävle, Sweden), and Tehnopol (Tallinn, Estonia) offers international workshops and mentoring sessions, free of charge, to help participating startups gain valuable knowledge of new target markets and learn new skills from top-notch internationalisation experts.
The earlier call in March 2023 saw fifteen companies joining the programme. Over the course of this year, they have been busy optimizing their processes and determining new possibilities for international growth. The feedback has been extremely positive: participants have appreciated the knowledgeable mentors, inspiring guest speakers as well as the practical excercises that help entrepreneurs recognize the strong and weak points of their business plans. More stories to come later, as the startups progress on their journey!
The program’s future sprint days will be held in three cities: Turku (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), and Gävle (Sweden). We’ll cover the travel expenses for company representatives. The workshops provide hands-on support modules for developing the most essential skills for scaling up a business, including adopting a growth mindset and knowing relevant processes, learning strategies for entering foreign target markets, planning for future investment rounds, data gathering and market analysis, and much more.
Northbound Scaleups offers personal growth mentoring for each startup. The startups can also expect discovery missions focused on relevant target markets, and getting into meetings with potential clients, investors, and other relevant players in the target ecosystems.
Scaling up great ideas
The program is open to Finnish, Estonian, and Swedish startups that have been operating for under seven years. The startups are expected to have already launched their products or services and gained some traction in their home country.
The application period is open until September 7th, after which the organizing parties will conduct interviews and select the startups to join the program. The selected participants will show a true interest in scaling their company’s business and in investing time for pursuing the program and the development process.
The Northbound Scaleups program consists of eight workshop days in Turku, Tallinn and Gävle. Travel and accommodation costs are covered for 1-2 participants per company for these workshop days. To apply for the program, interested startups can send in their application by September 7, 2023, at the latest.
More information
Northbound Scaleups on the Central Baltic Programme portal
Johanna Puhtila
Growth Advisor, Project Lead
+358 400 247 023
johanna.puhtila@turkubusinessregion.com
For Finnish startups interested in applying:
Niko Karinen
Growth Advisor
+358 44 7699 704
niko.karinen@turkubusinessregion.com