Northbound Scaleups helped startups go international

Northbound Scaleups (NBSCALE), program aimed at helping startups scale up their business, was active from March 2023 to February 2025. The joint initiative by Business Turku (Finland), Movexum (Gävle, Sweden), and Tehnopol (Tallinn, Estonia) offered 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 program was open to Finnish, Estonian, and Swedish startups that have been operating for under five to seven years. The startups were expected to have already launched their products or services and gained some traction in their home country.

See the results here.

Interested startups applied for the program during the specified application period, after which the organizing parties selected up to five startups per country to join the program. The selected participants were expected to show a true interest in scaling their company’s business and in investing time for pursuing the program and the development process.

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.