President awards international success stories

The awards are presented annually by the President of Finland, currently Sauli Niinistö, to recognise Finnish companies succeeding internationally and the communities supporting them.

This year’s Growth Company Award went to M-Files, while Icare Finland was deemed Best Newcomer and non-profit Kasvu Open took home the Community Award.

“The Finnish economy is growing on the basis of new ideas and innovations,” said Pekka Soini, director general and CEO at Business Finland, in a press release. “Results are generated by perseverance and a strong vision of the business goals an enterprise is striving for.”

Growth Company Award-recipient M-Files provides data management solutions and has achieved around 40 per cent annual growth over the last five years. Its solutions are used in more than 100 countries, and it holds offices in the US, Canada and around Europe, where it was granted a 27 million-euro loan from the EU this summer.

Local desire for growth

This year’s best newcomer, Icare Finland, develops tonometers for measuring intraocular pressure inside the eye. The Finnish company’s products are also used the world over, and more than 95 per cent of its sales are generated outside Finland.

The winner of the Community Award, Kasvu Open, is Finland’s largest programme for spurring the growth and internationalisation of SMEs. More than 400 companies benefit from its competition every year, in which enterprises have the opportunity to present their growth plan and receive feedback from around 1 500 industry experts free of charge.

“The award-winning companies Icare Finland, M-Files and Kasvu Open are prime examples of the Finnish desire for growth,” Soini said. “They have the ability to build fruitful collaboration and inspire domestic and international experts to get involved.”

Last year, Ponsse, iLOQ, Framery and FiBAN were put on the pedestal by the President.

Good News from Finland

is published by Finnfacts, which is part of Business Finland.