Insights

New Horizon Europe programme, new website! We are very excited to announce the launch of a new website for our digital solution, Spinbase! New content includes a lot of valuable information for the future and current users, such as tutorial videos, frequently asked questions, support materials, and customer stories. The new website offers a good information package for organisations who are looking to improve their internal decision-making and processes regarding the identification of EU funding opportunities, partners, and projects.  

Spinverse founder and Chairman of the board Pekka Koponen shared his thoughts about Finland's recovery and resilience plan. What opportunities does the recovery package offer especially for Finnish industries, and how can board members promote the growth opportunities of their companies from this perspective? Read here Pekka's expert advice to companies and their executives.

A Finnish learning application utilizing 3D technologies is targeting international markets with a successful investment round worth 1.5 M€ and new members in the Board of Directors. As of April 1, 2021, the Chair of the Board Jussi Kajala is the new CEO of 3DBear, whilst Laura Koponen, CEO of the innovation consulting company Spinverse, was appointed the new Chair of the Board. The two new members in the Board of Directors, Fredrik Lucander (VP, Marketing) of home delivery app Wolt and Raghunath Koduvayur (Head of Marketing and Communications) of IQM Quantum Computers, building quantum computers, bring in their strong marketing expertise to accelerate the future growth.

We are very excited to announce our headquarter's move to Keilaniemi, Espoo, where our innovative funding experts will get an inspiring and bespoke working space. The new address is valid from 1st March, 2021 onwards. We also updated our website to correspond to our new visual look.

In an interview with Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti, Pekka and Laura Koponen talk about the present and future of Spinverse. All large companies in Finland know the consulting company founded by Pekka Koponen, even though Spinverse may not ring a bell to the general public. The company is a very well-known collaboration partner to various large and also small and mid-sized companies, as it has helped them gain over 500 M€ in EU-funded money for R&D&I. 

Last year was one of the busiest and most successful years to date for Spinverse. We welcomed many new colleagues, new customers and worked on exciting new projects. We are proud of our skilled colleagues who have worked so hard to help our customers and are delighted to share the latest news about promotions. What is more, warm welcome to our new colleagues in the Spinverse family.

The bi-annual CTO Forum, co-organised by Technology Industries of Finland, Business Finland and Spinverse, was held on 10 November as a virtual event as most of the events at the moment. The overarching theme was "Leading green and digital growth" . The keynotes and workgroups made the online event alive with interesting discussions and insights of the relevant topics in technology industries. The preliminary results of the recent CTO Survey were also covered in the event. What is more, the nomination period for the CTO of the year 2021 was opened! 

The event was kicked off with the opening words from Pekka Koponen from Spinverse, Nina Kopola from Business Finland and Jaakko Hirvola from Technology Industries from Finland. The keynotes were given by CTOs of the Year 2020, Aki Mäkivirta from Genelec and Jani Vilenius from Sandvik. Aki and Jani discussed in concrete examples about the changes the Covid-19 situation brought to their companies and the message was clear - we need to be able to renew and find new ways to work. 

The workgroups discussed and shared their ideas on the following five thematic groups: 

• Increasing investments – How to drive investments and R&D in Finland
• Driving growth – How to succeed in internationalisation and enhancing exports?
• Building cooperation – How to build and operate R&D&I ecosystems?
• Boosting business – How to utilise innovation and investment funding?
• Building competences – How to attract new and needed talents?   

At the end of the event, the nominations of the CTO of the Year 2021 was officially launched open. Do you already have a candidate in mind? If yes, read below how to nominate your candidate! 

Have you worked with an exceptional CTO in Finland? We are now looking for nominations to find the CTO who makes the biggest impact in bringing the best out of their team, is an inspiring leader and adds significant value to the company through technology.

Who is eligible? Anyone who is responsible for their company’s technology in Finland. The selection criteria are very comprehensive and are specified by three categories: the person, the CTO's company and societal impact. The nomination period is open until 8th January 2021.

We are glad to introduce our newest experts to the growing family of Spinverse. Our new colleagues complement our already strong expert teams with their expertise on forestry, bioeconomy, advanced energy sources, forestry, EU policies, and health tech – all very hot sectors in today’s industry landscape. Meet Jyrki, Anna, Sonja, Heli, and Jayden.

The Finnish economic success has been based on high-quality education and research. However, Finnish companies are currently investing significantly less in research and development than ten years ago. In 2010, the Finnish government began to decrease its annual support for cooperation between universities and companies by 250 M€. Read here our summary of an article by Swedish Yle where, among other experts, our managing director Laura Koponen was interviewed.

In today’s rapidly changing world, very few organizations or people can make it alone. At best, orchestrated ecosystems built around companies can be strong drivers for growth and competitiveness but building and leading them can be tricky. A group of Spinverse ecosystem leaders recently rolled up their sleeves with Ulla Koivukoski for an interesting book project. The newly published Ecosystem Handbook offers fresh insights for engaging different people and organizations, to work better together to solve complex problems and grand challenges. The book gives practical help both for ecosystem leaders and all people working in them.