Northbound Scaleups applications open for spring 2024
Northbound Scaleups, the programme aimed at helping startup companies scale up their business, has progressed to its third round. The joint initiative by Business Turku (Turku, Finland), 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 two calls in 2023 saw thirty companies joining the programme. Over the course of the two programme rounds, 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 coaches, inspiring guest speakers as well as the practical excercises that help entrepreneurs recognize the strong and weak points of their business plans.
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 May 3rd, 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 (plus a Market Discovery Mission to your chosen country). 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 May 3, 2024, at the latest.
What the earlier participants have said
Today has enhanced our understanding of our business and growth bottlenecks immensely.
We were able to visit our expansion market sooner.
[The program] gave a broader perspective and insight into areas we didn’t think about. Also gave us the opportunity to learn from others and build a network of people in the same situation.
New partners, customers, and a strong network of like-minded entrepreneurs.
Increased sales by 63% compared to last year, doubled the team and had a great mentor.
[The most important takeaway was] being able to gather experience and knowledge about entering new markets. We underestimated the need for preparation before entering a new market.
More information
Northbound Scaleups on the Central Baltic Programme portal
Estonia:
Anne-Liisa Elbrecht
Service and Community Manager / Tehnopol Startup Incubator
+ 372 56 652 407
anneliisa.elbrecht@tehnopol.ee
Finland:
Niko Karinen
Growth Advisor / Business Turku
+358 44 7699 704
niko.karinen@businessturku.fi
Sweden:
Jini Nälsén
Project Manager / Movexum
+46 70 272 1467
jini.nalsen@movexum.se
