Some Business Finland finance services ending

Business Finland is pausing and terminating some of its finance services. The finance services being paused or serviced now have been part of Business Finland’s innovation funding.

The termination and pausing of the finance services is because of a “radical reduction in innovation funding in next year’s Government budget”, Business Finland says on its website.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had to make difficult decisions because of the cuts in next year’s budget. We’re going to focus our finance services on R&D, where the effects on Finland’s long-term competitiveness are largest,” says Timo Metsä-Tokila, a director at Business Finland, in a press release.

Harri Jaskari, a Vice President at Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association, says the funding reductions should be reassessed.

“The political decisions to reduce innovation funding are extremely regrettable and need to be re-examined. Studies show that companies’ largest growth potential and by the same token bottleneck is in scaling and commercializing innovation. Now, they want to discontinue finance services in precisely those areas,” Jaskari says.

Business Finland’s call for applications for Tempo finance is being paused for the rest of 2025, with applications not being accepted after midnight on 3 Oct. Tempo finance is aimed at start-up companies that are less than five years old and that have a new product or service idea. The company can use the finance to prepare internation growth by getting feedback from potential clients and charting its product’s demand and functionality on international markets. The resumption of applications for Tempo will be announced at a later date.

The previously closed Talent funding will not be reopened. Instead, the service will be discontinued entirely, Business Finland says.

Applications for the Exhibition Explorer and Market Explorer finance services will close permanently at midnight on 3 Oct.

Exhibition Explorer finance can only be awarded for events scheduled for 2025. Exhibition Explorer finance suits SMEs and midcap companies attending international B2B fairs abroad.

Market Explorer finance is aimed at SMEs and midcaps over five years old which have their own product, service or business model which is at least in the development or pilot stage. Companies have been able to use Market Explorer finance to obtain information about a new international market.

SMEs set sights on world

SMEs have a strong appetite for international expansion, a survey by Suomen Yrittäjät says.

The results of the Suomen Yrittäjät survey show that of companies with at least four employees, 33% export directly, 22% indirectly, and 20% are planning to start exporting.

“Companies show a clear appetite for expanding into international trade. That’s why we need to build a functional export promotion service path from the promises to the world which is also offered to smaller companies,” Vice President Harri Jaskari of Suomen Yrittäjät says.

Of companies that export indirectly, 70% would like to start exporting directly. In addition, 45% of companies exporting directly or indirectly are interested in the Team Finland Academy export training, with 47% interested in export promotion trips.

The survey also found what the most interesting export markets were. In the top positions were EU countries (73%), other Nordic countries (71%), and the US and Canada (28%).

The Suomen Yrittäjät survey was addressed to companies with at least four employees. The survey was answered by over one thousand SME representatives.

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