Two New Finnish Startups That Will Change The Way You View Business

Finland is renowned for its innovative business ideas that quickly become global successes.

From Nokia to Angry Birds, Finnish innovators are world-renowned for their innovative ideas that contribute to changing the way we view both education and business.

Two particular newly formed innovations struck me as I was planning a research paper earlier last month as part of my vocational business studies.

Chosen from the top ten startups in Finland list, these innovations will surely spark your inner creativity and get you thinking.

The future potential of these two innovations is massive if the startups successfully market their services at the early stage of their development.

Front AI

FrontAI customer service chatbots were founded in 2019. They are designed to communicate with customers on a 24/7 basis and understand languages and dialects.

This is an amazing initiative as it will enhance the customer service experience and may potentially fix the problem of communication delays.

More importantly, it may help the customers get their questions answered quickly.

This is very effective when it comes to boosting sales and trust.

Overall, it can dramatically improve the customer-business relationship.

iFarm

Ifarm is an initiative that introduces easy access to healthy organic food. It does this by increasing greenhouses and vertical farms, which allows anyone to grow veggies, berries, and herbs for personal and commercial use throughout the year.

iFarm, founded in 2017, has developed an innovative technology to grow natural salads, berries, and vegetables year-round in a fully controlled automated environment. Founded by Russian team Alexander Lystovsky, Maxim Chizhov, and Konstantin Ulyanov, iFarm makes it possible to get urban crop production running quickly via easy-to-use plug-and-play modules.

Referenced from: Topionetworks.com

The startup won a Nordic Startup Award and raised seed funding in early 2019.

This is a transformational initiative as it revolutionizes the way food is grown and consumed.

This might not be a purely new idea, but for the Scandinavian region, this initiative is massive, especially in Finland where the majority of culinary herbs are imported from regions with warmer climates.

This initiative aims to tackle the lack of supply that Finland in regards to the lack of fresh healthy greens and veggies.

Ifarm also aims to allow ordinary clients to use the technology in order to grow their own plants. Soon, families and couples will be given the opportunity to be involved in the light gardening process of planting, harvesting, and consuming their own food. There are endless benefits to this. Participating in the gardening and growing process is a very therapeutic and relaxing activity.

As cities expand and people become more worried about eating healthy organic foods, vertical farms and urban greenhouses will become more common, which not only benefits the people but also the economy.

What We Learn:

When need to bear in mind that we are living in a globally digitalized era, where everything revolves around digital media and communication. This does come with its own pros and cons.

However, as a business owner or potential start-up initiator, when coming up with an innovative business idea we need to first closely examine what the digital market lacks.

1. The example of FrontAi is perfect in this sense, where the owners built their innovative idea based on the lack of the problem that the customer service has, which is the delay in effective communication with potential customers.

2. In the case of iFarm, they saw a lack of greenhouses and access to gardening facilities, since most Finns live in small apartments with no gardening space.

They worked on that lack to build a modernized solution using the power of technology.

The similarity between the two is that they are both providing a modern solution using the power of technology.

Modernisation and technology work hand in hand when it comes to success in the business world.

In most cases, if you are able to pair these two elements along with a powerful idea, you are on your way to success with your startup.

They first examined their chosen market and looked for potential flaws on where they could fill the gap in the market and create an idea that fixes the problem.

In order to follow their steps start by the following:

• Examine your chosen market and think of the current flaws it has
• How can your idea fix the problem and add a modernized digital touch to it with the power of technology?
• Plan your innovative ideas using online tools such as the business model canvas and the pitch planner canvas template. These templates will broaden your perspective and organize your startup using the power of mind mapping and brainstorming.
• Look into what makes a successful pitch so you can sell your idea to investors, clients, and companies. The NABC method is a globally renowned method that allows you to pitch your idea and optimize it using the power of simplicity.

Resources

• Pitch planner canvas template
• Business Model Canvas
• Innovative Business Ideas 2021
• Front AI
• iFarm

About The Author

Noor is a first-year business student at Tredu. She is passionate about marketing and content creation. She runs a holistic wellness blog and recently launched her YouTube channel specializing in holistic healing.