About project

Northbound Scaleups helps startups go international

Northbound Scaleups (NBSCALE), a new program aimed at helping startups scale up their business, has launched in the March of 2023. The joint initiative by Turku Science Park (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 first program round’s sprint days are held over the course of 2023 in three cities: Turku (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), and Gävle (Sweden). NBSCALE provides 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 five to seven years. The startups are expected to have already launched their products or services and gained some traction in their home country.

Interested startups can apply for the program during the specified application period, after which the organizing parties will select up to five startups per country 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.

For the first group of scaleup companies, the Northbound Scaleups program consists of eight workshop days, starting in Tallinn and moving on to Turku and later Gävle. Travel and accommodation costs are covered for 1-2 participants per company for these workshop days.

Testimonials

If you look back a year from this moment, we were quite sure of our business model and how we were going to operate. With Northbound Scaleups, we realized that maybe things weren’t as set in stone as we thought they were.
Tommi Wallenius, Hydrohex

We had high expectations for the programme and they have been well met and even exceeded! The organizers and the participating companies have proven to be good partners for ideation. Both the content and the practical arrangements have been of high quality.
Henrik Terävä, Ai2Ai

Survey feedback

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.

Participating scaleups, first call of 2023

Finland

Ai2Ai
eMathStudio
Grail Group
Hydrohex
Mintti Siivous

Estonia

Babash
Cryplect
FoxIoT
LiTech
Marleq

Sweden

Assetbook
Booiq
DevUp
Studio Tabo
Tini