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Kasvu Open and its partners take Finnish companies to Silicon Valley – collaboration with Nasdaq becomes stronger

Finland’s largest sparring programme for small and medium-sized companies, Kasvu Open, is about to grant the Kasvu Open Gaselli Award for the first time. The winners of this award, ten Finnish companies with the most promising prospects for growth, will be taken to Silicon Valley for five days in January 2017. During this trip, these companies will receive a tailor-made schedule for their growth plans, opportunities to network with local investors and intensive sparring on top experts.

The winners are selected from the 80 Kasvu Open finalists, who are the elite of growth-oriented participants from different industries and from various parts of Finland and who participated in Kasvu Open this year. Five best companies will receive this trip free of charge and the other five will be offered the same trip at a heavily discounted rate. The winners of the award, which is worth thousands of euros, will be announced at the culmination of the season, the Kasvu Open Carnival in October.

The Kasvu Open Gaselli Award is made possible by Nasdaq, Boardman 2020, Finnair, East Consulting Oy, KPMG, Sherpa and Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. The partners assist companies in, for example, internationalization, securing funding, marketing, legal issues and networking with local players. The companies will also gain visibility on Nasdaq’s video screen on Times Square in New York.

– These companies are invited to make the acquaintance of local investors at business meetings that are tailored to the companies’ needs. I am extremely proud to have Nasdaq’s and Boardman 2020 expertise network’s significant support to bring together contacts, who are ready to invest their time and resources to help Finnish growth-minded companies to make the leap into the international markets, says Matti Härkönen, CEO at Kasvun Roihu Oy.

Collaboration partners support growth stories of the future

Comments by the partners of the Kasvu Open Gaselli Award:

In the recent years, Kasvu Open has become one of the most significant growth events for small and medium-sized businesses in Finland. Nasdaq wants to follow these companies’ growth stories from the very first steps and, at a later stage, offer to list the biggest seekers of growth as an option to provide financial support for growth.Maarit Bystedt, Director of Global Listing Services, Nasdaq Helsinki.

The goal of the Boardman 2020 network is to improve the growth culture and the knowhow of growth in Finland. Our network of growth ventures and entrepreneurs inspires us to build our country into the best possible platform for growth-focused companies. We are excited to be part of Kasvu Open Gaselli Award and help growth ventures with their international growth.Taru Lindeman, CEO at Boardman.

Our role is to enable the internationalisation plans of growth-oriented companies. By being a part of the Kasvu Open Gaselli Award team we want to make sure that any new ideas created in Silicon Valley in January will be refined into international revenue as effortlessly as possible.Jonne Pöyhtäri, Managing Director, East Consulting.

It is wonderful to be a part of the Kasvu Open Gaselli Award. Through our participation, we want to remind companies of the fact that enabling growth is not only about engaging investors in impressive elevator speeches. The earlier companies invest in their brands, stories and messages, the better and faster they will grow.Pauli Waroma, CEO, Sherpa.

In recent years, our experts have been closely involved in the Kasvu Open event. We consider Kasvu Open as an excellent opportunity to meet growing startups and assist them with their questions about issues in auditing, taxation, legal and information services. For us, being involved in the award is a natural way to offer our support to the growth companies of the future.Jani-Pekka Hietala, Sales Manager KPMG Oy Ab.

As a long-term partner of Kasvu Open, we are proud of the extent to which Kasvu Open currently operates in the ecosystem of growth. We have years of experience of working in Silicon Valley so this new award makes it possible for our knowhow to be utilised for years to come.Pekka Jääskö, Business Director, Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences.


More information about the Kasvu Open Gaselli Award:
Matti Härkönen, CEO, Kasvun Roihu Oy, tel. +358 (0)40 578 2688 matti@kasvunroihu.fi
Maarit Bystedt, Director of Global Listing Services, Nasdaq Helsinki, tel. +358 (0)9 6166 7274 maarit.bystedt@nasdaq.com

About Kasvu Open:
Uljas Valkeinen, CEO, Kasvu Open Oy, tel. +358 (0)50 568 8555 uljas.valkeinen@kauppakamari.fi

The Kasvu Open Gaselli Award is produced by Kasvun Roihu Oy. Kasvu Open is organised by the non-profit-distributing Kasvu Open Oy, whose stakeholders are Central Finland Chamber of Commerce, Kasvun Roihu Oy, Jykes Oy and Aava&Bang Oy. The organisation is Finland’s largest company sparring program that supports the growth and internationalisation of small and medium-sized businesses in different industries all over Finland, free of charge. Altogether 349 companies and over 950 Finnish business experts participated this year. The culmination of the season is the Kasvu Open Carnival on October 26th-27th, when the best growth companies in Finland will be selected from the 80 finalists.