Unlocking Cross-Border Opportunities in SecureTech and Dual-Use

Led by Ignite Sweden, Norrköping Science Park, and Tehnopol, the Central Baltic Interreg Programme project ScaleAble supports scaling companies and corporates in forging valuable cross-border collaborations.

The goal of the final event was to explore partnerships in dual-use and securetech, two rapidly growing sectors that are crucial for the region’s future security and resilience.

What makes this specific event outstanding is the theme of the event, which is built around dual-use and security technology,” says Martin Goroško, Business Service Manager at Tehnopol. This theme is a trending topic in this region right now. We see a lot of investments made in these areas. There are many up-and-coming companies, and corporations are also seeking solutions in these areas because they want to enhance their resilience.

Insightful Presentations and Keynote Speeches

The first day of the event set the stage for meaningful discussions on dual-use and securetech.

The event opened with a series of insightful keynotes from experts in the field of dual-use technology and security, such as Dr. Mart Noorma from NATO CCDCOE and Marleen Rootamm, who gave an overview of NATO’s DIANA initiative.

Laura Toodu from DefSecIntel Solutions and Tauri Tuubel of Defendec shared their success stories on defence innovation and startup–state collaboration. Finally, some of the participating corporates had the chance to pitch on stage to the startups on-site.

Real Business Opportunities Through Matchmaking

The second day was dedicated to 75 curated one-on-one meetings between the scaling companies and the corporates, where real opportunities for collaboration were explored.

The matchmaking process is quite extensive. We begin by activating the right partner and person within the corporation. From there, we gather their innovation needs through our assessment process and dive deeper into what they’re seeking in a startup. Next, we scout startups with the right technology and match them with the corporations,” explains Arwin Zendehrokh, Project Manager at Ignite Sweden. “It’s a qualitative process designed to ensure that the match has real business potential.

This is a unique opportunity to meet these corporations and the right people at the right place, says Elin Sandahl, co-founder and Business Developer at the Swedish startup Norgald, which develops a platform, Elvira, that secures cyber-physical systems.

In-person meetings are especially helpful because you discover collaboration opportunities you might not have known about otherwise and gain a better understanding of the actual challenges and needs of the corporations, she adds.

The matchmaking meetings went quite well. We have already agreed on follow-ups, which means they’ve been quite successful, says Andy Viikmaa, CEO of Trackdeep, an Estonian scaling company focused on drone detection systems.

Among participating corporates were Enefit and Elomatic, and they were impressed by the quality of the startups involved.

I personally like face-to-face meetings with new people, especially with startups in their early beginning, as they have so many great ideas to catch up with, says Jukka Turunen, from the Finnish company Elomatic.

Kaisa Einsok, Discovery Manager at the Estonian energy company Enefit, thinks that startups are very good at shaking up the corporate world and understanding customer needs.

They give us a new understanding of what is important currently because the startup community reflects very well the kinds of problems to solve. For example, during the energy crisis, we saw a lot of energy startups rising and making money. Now we see it in the defense industry.

Looking Toward Future Cross-Border Partnerships

As the final ScaleAble matchmaking event concludes, the impact of the cross-border partnerships forged during this time will continue to unfold.

Finland is such a small country and there aren’t many big companies in our area. This Cross Baltic opportunity enables us to communicate with other big companies in the nearby countries as well. So that’s very good, says Eetu Silvennoinen from the Finnish startup Oinride, which manufactures engineered robots for the mining industry.

“The collaboration between Estonia, Finland, and Sweden should be recognized more,” says Klara Ewald, Project Manager at Norrköping Science Park. “It has great value for all these countries in the long run, both for us as partners and organizations and for the ecosystem. It provides a great way to work cross-border because we’re very close to each other.”

“The ScaleAble project doesn’t end here because we definitely want to push these collaborations forward to achieve successful outcomes,” concludes Martin Goroško, Business Service Manager at Tehnopol. “The matchmaking events are primarily about generating initial contact and starting negotiations between corporates and startups. In the next phase of the project, we will focus on supporting these startup collaborations to ensure successful outcomes.”

Watch this video to get a glimpse of the third ScaleAble Matchday’s highlights