Finland, the national business plan competition, announced the winners for the second round of this year’s competition. The award criteria emphasized innovativeness, customer benefits and potential market, and feasibility of the business model.
Numcore from Kuopio won the main award, and got also additional environment and safety prize. The company develops and markets innovative high-tech monitoring and controlling instruments for online use in process industry. With its products complex processes can be monitored and controlled continuously, helping its customers to refine their processes and reduce the environmental impact. Numcore is planning to expand internationally and is looking for venture capital at the moment. The CEO Anssi Lehikoinen states they are now ready to commercialize more than a decade of research, and have invested a lot in their team, which has industry experience and expertise in R&D, sales, and financing.
Other winners and their business concepts:
- Beautiful9 – offering a virtual wardrobe for pregnant women, from which they can rent affordable evening dresses and business outfits.
- BlueFors – commercial fully automated cooling device capable of reaching -273.15 degrees Celsius, just 0.025 degrees away from the absolute zero.
- LaTiDa – skin care products produced without any chemicals and with environmentally-friendly supply chain.
- Sinteri – natural baby food produced locally, innovatively combining production, sales, and community-based service.