Join us for a celebration of entrepreneurship, founders and startups.

Read more: http://foundersweek.fi/

(AppCampus) - AppCampus, a unique pre-seed funding program that was announced on March 26th and created by Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University, today opens its gates for grant applications. The program is open for both teams and individuals from any field of expertise. AppCampus is a global program from the very start: it will fund projects based on merit, irrespective of their geographical location. The program is looking to fund unique, innovative and high impact mobile applications that utilize Windows Phone and Nokia platforms. To enable these fresh ideas to materialize, Microsoft and Nokia will invest up to €18 million over the next three years into the AppCampus program.

“It is fascinating to see that less than 2 months since its initial announcement, AppCampus has already attracted the interest of over 4000 individuals and a great number of service providers and system integrators from 31 countries”, says Pekka Sivonen, Head of AppCampus at Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship.

Read more: http://www.appcampus.fi/

– The target of the memorandum of understanding concerning cooperation is to increase science and technology cooperation between Finland and China and to reinforce commercial relations. We want to establish a new Chinese science and technology park in Finland and expand FinChi Innovation Center operations to Beijing, explains Kari Häyrinen, President and CEO of Finpro.

– Finland”s internationally recognized ability for innovation, good business environment and strong government support are the most important reasons for the cooperation. Finland”s geographical location makes it a gateway for companies entering the Nordic, Russian and even the whole European market. The aim is to support both Chinese and Finnish companies in entering markets, technology cooperation and R&D, says Fang Zhou Chairperson of Zhongguancun ZPark Software Park.

– This is just what the ministry wants – closer cooperation with China. Finland needs internationalization, and this represents an important step in that direction. Finland also needs investments, well-being, jobs, and export to safeguard our economy, states Erkki Virtanen, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.

– The ZPark Software Park planned for Otaniemi in Espoo would help Chinese companies start business and research cooperation in Finland and make it easier for them to establish research and development units in Finland and hire Finnish experts, says Marko Vänskä, CEO of China-Finland Golden Bridge.

The ZPark technology park being established in Finland with the help of Golden Bridge represents the entire Zhongguancun Software Park Development Company and includes ICT and other technology sectors.

New innovations from China’s Silicon Valley

The aim is to expand the activities of the FinChi Innovation Center managed by Finpro to Beijing”s ZPark Software Park, which is one of the 10 science and technology parks in the Zhongguancun region. Known as the Silicon Valley of China, this area is home to more than 20,000 international and Chinese companies that produce nearly 25% of the gross national product in the Beijing region.

– The expansion of FinChi’s activities to Beijing and initiation of cooperation with China”s leading science and technology park is aimed at allowing Finnish companies to better and more rapidly utilize the opportunities for commercial and technology cooperation that exist in the Beijing region, explains Häyrinen.

The FinChi Innovation Center operates already in Shanghai and Shenzen and supports Finnish companies as they invest in China and develop their business in the region. FinChi functions as a channel for commercializing Finnish technology in China and helps companies network with Chinese players.

For further information: www.finpro.fi

(http://www.vision-systems.com) - Digital CCD/CMOS camera and systems developer JAI (San Jose, CA, USA) has acquired TVI Vision (Helsinki, Finland), a company which has developed and manufactured color linescan cameras for industrial machine vision applications since 1993.

TVI Vision Oy, which has a strong, longstanding presence, especially in the European color line scan market, will contribute to the JAI business with a complete product portfolio, a customer base, the TVI Vision Oy technology base and, last but not least, highly qualified employees.

TVI Vision Oy will continue to operate as an independent entity under the umbrella of JAI with its own sales channel and production based in Helsinki, Finland.

With the acquisition, JAI strengthens its position as one of the world’s leading developers and manufacturers of prism-based line scan cameras.

Read more:  / http://www.tvivision.com/news/

Nine Finnish companies have made it to the prestigious Red Herring Top 100 Europe Winners- list. Earlier this year the Red Herring team announced the finalists for the Award and that list included 23 companies from Finland.

The Greater Helsinki based companies included in t he top 100 list are Epicrystals (optoelectronics), HyperIn (software as a service), Kiosked (computers/software/technology), Modz (Life sciences), Relaxbirths (Life sciences) Senseq (computers/software/technology) and ThingLink (social network/media). The two other Finnish companies are Miradore (computers/sofwater/technology) and Uniqoteq (computers/software/technology).

For the complete list of top 100 companies, see: http://www.redherring.com/red-herring-europe/europe-2012-top-100/

(JAL-Japan Airlines) -  Japan Airlines-JAL (Tokyo) is planning to start a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner route linking the Tokyo (Narita) hub and Helsinki in March 2013.

JAL will open its first new service between Japan and Europe in 20 years, when it begins to operate four weekly flights from March 2013, using the 787-8 Dreamliner connecting Narita and Helsinki.

Its geographical location and the extensive network of nonstop flights from its airport make Helsinki one of the most effective gateways for customers traveling between Japan and Europe. It is also the major hub airport for JAL’s oneworld alliance partner Finnair, with whom JAL plans to strengthen its relationship. Helsinki Airport’s compact and well-designed terminal allows for minimum connection time as short as 35 to 40 minutes, and offers customers smooth connections to and from 54 cities within Europe. With ample signage in English and Japanese throughout the facility (and with Japanese-speaking staff at the airport), Helsinki is one of the most ideal transit points for a stress-free, speedy connection between Japan and Europe for Japanese and non-Japanese customers alike.

Read the press release: Japan Airlines

In February 2011, the Finnish gaming industry was surprised to learn that a tiny, eight month-old company was already releasing its first game. The shocks kept coming: not only was the game a hit, but three months later the company received a significant $12 million investment.

Supercell is a young company, but it is not run by novices. Each member of their core team has over ten years of experience in the industry, and combined they have shipped more than 165 games on 12 different platforms. They quickly got the company running and developed their first game, Gunshine, and hit the ground running.  

“2011 was a great year for Supercell,” says CEO Ilkka Paananen. “It was the year we built the basic foundation of the business, both in terms of the people and the core technology. We started the year with 6 founders wedged into a small office in Espoo, and eventually moved into our current offices in the High Tech Center in Ruoholahti, where our team is now 45 people.” 

Major investors

Much of Supercell’s expansion is due to a major round of funding, with $12 million invested by Accel Partners, London Venture Partners and Klaas Kersting, the founder of the German gaming company Gameforge. Accel Partners, whose past investments include Rovio, Facebook and Groupon, led the round. Kevin Comolli, one of the partners in the London office of Accel, joined the Supercell board of directors.  

“We are thrilled to be investors in Supercell and to be working with this incredibly talented and experienced team,” Comolli said. “We enthusiastically share their conviction regarding the opportunity to develop a new category of online games.” 

Paananen is pleased about Supercell’s investors, which also include Initial Capital, Cerval Investments and Lifeline Ventures. 

“The investors we have on-board bring in an incredible amount of value, in terms of their expertise, contact network and other things,” he says. “They all have fantastic international track-records in their field of expertise. Increasingly, companies are competing in a global marketplace, and having strong international investors help us tremendously. We are very proud of the investors we have in Supercell, and have enjoyed working with them.” 

With this firm financial footing, Supercell began developing three more games during the summer of 2011. Yet they still had ambitious plans for expansion. 

“Later in the year, we started preparing to open up an office in the US,” continues Paananen. “This process was completed early this year when we hired Greg Harper, a game industry veteran, to head our office there. Now, we have a small group working from our office in San Francisco, which has been terrific.” 

Tablet games

One of the most intriguing aspects of Supercell’s plans include aiming at tablet computers as a gaming platform.  

“We believe the tablet is the ultimate platform for games, and like any platform, the best experiences will always be designed from the ground up to support it,” explains Paananen. “Our first focus is still to make sure the core gameplay experience is fun and can stand on its own before we layer on all the other trimmings that make up a final game. Once we feel good about the core gameplay, we turn our sights on the unique qualities of the tablet platform – its amazing display capabilities, larger screen, and touch user interface.”  

Paananen points out that people expect an even higher level of quality for almost anything they do on a tablet, so Supercell invests heavily in polishing the graphics and final experience with the goal of exceeding those expectations. 

“Tablets allow you to go even further with some of the core features available on smartphones, such as the wonderful touch user interface,” he says. “Now, with a larger screen, you can create different controls and actions with not just a single touch but two, three, and four finger swiping gestures that open up a range of fun, new ways you can interact with a game.”

Battle Buddies

The next eagerly-awaited news from Supercell is its new game, Battle Buddies, which will be available early this year on touch devices like the iPad and iPhone.

“It is a wacky tactical combat game you can play against other players,” Paananen says. “You control five quirky characters and position them against your opponent’s team. For this game, we developed a line drawing interface, meaning that you move your characters by drawing on the screen, which is something we do not believe has been done in this game genre before. The game has some really fun strategic challenges to it with a very original look and feel. I think players will be laughing and shouting when they try Battle Buddies, and will have a lot of fun playing that against other people.”

Paananen’s enthusiasm for his work is evident: not only is he excited about what the company has already achieved, he also has high praise for the team.

“I’ve been in the games industry for a long time and have worked with lots of different folks, but this is hands down the best group of people I’ve ever worked with,” he says. “They are very experienced, very smart, very creative, but above all else, they are just fun, cool, super nice people.

“And what’s most exciting of all, it is still very early days for Supercell. I just saw a study by Gartner which predicted 665 million tablets by 2016. Given most of these users will want to play games on them, the opportunity for companies who are focused on the tablet platform is just massive. I cannot wait to see everything that we will be able to achieve together with the team that we’ve put together!”

Text: David J. Cord, Helsinki Times

Did you know?

Founded: June 2010

Founders: Niko Derome, Visa Forsten, Mikko Kodisoja, Lassi Leppinen, Ilkka Paananen and Petri Styrman

Described as: “A small elite task force, with plans and ambitions that outstrip their size, but not their abilities.”

Big hit: Gunshine

Funding: seed undisclosed, $12 million in Series A in 2011 

Staff: 45

Headquarters: Helsinki

Website: www.supercell.net

2012 BIOMEDevice Conference – Learn How World Class Innovators Design and Develop Medical Devices from Concept to Production

Hear industry leaders present how to foster innovation within compliant, efficient processes. BIOMEDevice is New England’s only conference program to focus solely on the design and development of a medical device through a sequentially structured series of interactive case studies, technology sessions, panel discussions and keynote presentations.

More information: http://www.canontradeshows.com/expo/bioboston12/#

Meet: Micah Gland and Indrek Tammeaid from GHP at the event