On December 6, 2017, Finland celebrated 100 years of independence with its thematic “Together” festivities. Approximately 29 times smaller than the United States, Finland is one of the least populous countries in Europe. With commodity forestry products as its main economic output until World War II, the country has since embraced technology with a fervor.
The Finnish company, Nokia, is emblematic of this transformation. Starting as a paper mill operation in 1865, it made a timely pivot to telecommunications in 1970. Nokia’s early innovations in network equipment and pre-cellular systems paid off when the Nokia 3310 cellphone and Nokia 1100 handset became the best-selling phone units in 2000. At its peak, Nokia accounted for 4% of Finland’s GDP and 70% of Helsinki’s stock exchange market capital until the advent of the iPhone and Android phones.
Nokia’s legacy, however, spawned several technology startups particularly in the gaming sector. Rovio’s Angry Birds became the most downloaded mobile game in July 2015, followed by Supercell’s Clash of Clans. The two experienced explosive growth and created a close-knit community within the gaming industry. On a national scale, there was €383 of Finnish startup investment funding which accounted for 42% growth in 2016, according to the Finnish Venture Capital Association.
Fast forward to December 2017. 17,500 attendees flock to Helsinki in Finland for Slush, a premiere, 3-day startup event packed with match-making networking days, panelist events, and demo days. Slush creates a worldwide community featuring 2,300 startups, 1,100 investors, 600 international journalists, and speakers from prominent tech companies (ie. Trello, Slack, Skype, Spotify). Since its inaugural event in 2008, Slush has been a major factor in helping Helsinki rebrand itself as the next tech hub for entrepreneurial ventures.
To get first-hand knowledge of the technological landscape in Finland, two fellow Finnish entrepreneurs, Santeri (Santtu) Kiviluoto from FIT Biotech and and Jani Ahonala of Noona Healthcare shared some insight on their respective industries and the Finnish startup scene.
Can you provide a little bit of your background and your company?
Santtu: I am the Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of FIT Biotech, a 22-year old gene therapy company in Finland. We are currently in development of an HIV vaccine that utilizes the same, proprietary technology as our DNA-based vaccines. I spent over a decade in cancer research and got my PhD in Belgium. I had early roles in business development to monetize inventions. I spent two years at the Yale School of Medicine doing research on kidney disease before joining FIT Biotech.
Jani: I am the CEO of Noona Healthcare in Helsinki, Finland. I’ve had 15 years of experience in healthcare management consulting and entrepreneurship. The idea for Noona came when I was regularly following up on cancer patients after their dosage treatments and I noticed there were nurses who could not see how the patients were doing and detect fatal issues like high dosage. So, Noona’s solution is a smart cloud-based mobile service for cancer centers to have a better, holistic view of patient care. Patients report symptoms, quality of life, and well-being on any technological device. Our automated questionnaires monitor symptoms, predict disease complications and identify high-risk patients for 15 main cancer types throughout the treatment phases. We partner with Stanford for patients and have about 5,000 patients in 12 clinics.
How would you describe your industry today and what makes it exciting?
Santtu: As the next generation of biological drugs, gene therapy is far more precise and more modern. Before, treatments were small molecular compounds like aspirin that were not prescription-based. Biological drugs are based on inserting genes into cells to inactive mutated genes or code for proteins to create personalized medicines that are far more accurate. In Finland, there has been more big pharmaceutical companies (ie. Orion) lately and smaller gene therapy companies that specialize in different diseases.
Jani: It is a very hot topic, as there is a lot of cancer treatments on the market, but not much data, specifically on toxicity. That’s where we come in. We collect and generate tons of data on cancer treatments from patients and our smart algorithms provide more efficient care and a higher quality of life. We also share the data with pharmaceutical providers. Essentially, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have tremendously improved survival rates by months. PROs dramatically decreased hospitalization and ER visits by providing personalized care.
Can you elaborate on Finland’s startup scene, particularly in its relation to its culture, government, economy, and education?
Santtu: Our society has one of the world’s most socially progressive welfare network that takes care of unemployment, disability and family leave. It is flat in the sense that there use to not be a lot of risk-taking, economically speaking for venture capital. Companies try to get grants or get listed on the exchanges to finance high-risk ventures. They essentially try to go more public. Sometimes countries like China or the United States will pour in a lump sum of money. The 2000 dot.com bubble was an economic downturn for Finland that lead to less grants from the government, so now it’s mostly venture capitalist funding.
Finland though is home to some of most highly educated people. There are nine universities, and some merge technical fields with business schools, the arts, and architecture. Finland is known as the “promiseland of engineers”, as we are rooted in IT, computers, mobile phones, and also industrial management. Sweden is known for apps, retail, and has more pharmaceutical companies (ie. AstraZeneca) compared to Finland. Denmark’s pharmaceuticals is centered mainly around small molecules.
Jani: In the last 5 years, the Finnish government had began investing in companies in the digital health space. There is a $400–500 million government innovation fund and 500 digital health companies that have collaborations with hospitals and care providers. I’ve seen lots of consumer-trending companies as well.
Finland excels in the product and quality of the technology. We are having a better grasp in understanding the international business and how to learn from people with different backgrounds to attract their talent and move to Helsinki. Slush is a prime example of that.
Do you view your Nordic country as the next Silicon Valley? If so, what has contributed to this progressive, entrepreneurial mindset?
Santtu: There is a lot of promise and potential for Finland for becoming a tech hub because it has state-of-the-art technology and a great educational system. However, there is a lack of money to finance startups and we did not initially have an entrepreneurial culture, but that is changing. Finland just needs to be more international. Sweden is a little better, as they have at least 40 IPOs on the stock exchange and are the most active in Europe. So I think it’s just a matter of time.
Jani: There is more and more venture capital funding, but it isn’t ready to be the next Silicon Valley because it’s still in its infancy stage. There is a big cultural change, as becoming an entrepreneur is now more common after working at a big company in Finland.
In your view, what challenges and roadblocks lie ahead in your industry and Finland’s startup scene?
Santtu: Novartis and KitePharma are making headlines with their FDA-approved gene therapy drugs. So, we are in the right place to be, especially for the media. There is not a lack of target diseases and each new drug needs to be customized for the disease, so there is not much competition. The challenge is delivery, delivery, and delivery to the market. The technology is strong, but largely unexplored.
Jani: The digital health industry is strong in Finland for building companies. After Nokia collapsed, senior executives started building their own companies, dispersing a lot of their knowledge. What’s lacking for Finland is the go-to-market strategy on how to build a brand, partner with companies, and understand the highly regulated environment of the United States healthcare industry.
What do you foresee as the future for your respective company in the next 5–10 years?
Santtu: We hope to have 1–2 drugs in the gene therapy market in the next 5 years. Hopefully, 5 in the next 10 years.
Jani: I really love oncology and cancer care. I hope Noona will reach 1 million patients and have a massive amount of data for patients to sit in the driver’s seat. We are helping patients have better access to care with their care providers and pharma companies be more predictive. Our vision is to make patient communication engaging, efficient, and meaningful through PROs.
