Finnish Startup Community's political goals

The Finnish Startup Community was founded in the autumn of 2021 to advance the interests of Finland as a whole. The community’s founding members felt that Finland needed a new kind of force to drive positive changes in our society.
The goals of the community’s government program have their origins directly in our member companies. We have listened to and asked Finnish startup entrepreneurs at different stages about what we could do better in Finland to support their growth journeys.
We think that startups will become a new pillar for the economy and society. We believe that by the year 2030, the value of exports created by startups has increased from the current 2 billion to 10 billion euros. This is our most conservative estimate, and even it would bring the startup industry to the same ballpark as the forest and metal industries. What we want is that in the future, a major portion of the world’s leading technology companies is from Finland.
In the Finnish Startup Community, we believe that technology and entrepreneurship are at the heart of the next industrial revolution and sustainable development. About half of the world’s largest companies have been established relatively recently.

Over the next 20 years, thousands and thousands of major startups will be built to solve global problems. We should mold Finland into an ideal home for these companies. This way, a large part of the value generated ends up in Finland and boosts our economic growth. And that's the only way to secure the future of our precious welfare society.

Riikka Pakarinen, CEO of the Finnish Startup Community
Riikka Pakarinen

1. Finland is the best target country in the world for labor migration

The competition for skilled folks has become global. “Just good” is not enough anymore. Finland must be the best place in the world to relocate to for work.

A two-week service promise should be provided and secured for foreign talent and their families.

The realization of this should be measured systematically from the moment the applicant submits their application to the system.

This easy and smooth process should include identification, obtaining a work permit, and all other practical steps from opening a bank account to a personal social security code.

In addition, the identification process of a foreign specialist must be developed further and a digital identity project implemented.

Finally, service paths need to be streamlined and English-language school student slots need to be added for families of international talent.

We encourage cities to increase English-language schooling and streamline school placements. In the future, the school student slots must also be available – without any problems –in the middle of the school year. The government should investigate the possibility of creating a statutory obligation for English language studies in primary school alongside Finnish and Swedish languages.

The need for work-related immigration has become increasingly important, especially because the current Finnish labor is not sufficient enough to meet the labor needs of local companies.

2. Startups are a solution to climate crisis and health technology challenges

Startups that solve climate change challenges play an important role in Finland’s positioning as a pioneer in sustainable development. There are many Finnish startups in the areas of plastic recycling and new energy, for example.

We believe that startups and the technologies developed in these companies will play a crucial role in solving the global climate crisis.

Climate technology and green materials technology companies will be the next area of ​​massive growth in the startup scene. Finland already excels in this: our strenghts lie in companies, universities and research institutes, such as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. The field will be significant for Finland, as long as we take effective and concrete steps toward it.

By investing in environmental technology, methods of economic production can be developed so that we do not have to choose between economic growth and environmental sustainability.

Being at the forefront of environmental technology means significant financial gains to those who are the first to develop the best innovations. A significant cluster of top environmental experts is already cumulating in Finland. This development must also be supported more systematically through public investment and international cooperation.

The definition of plastic in the SUP Directive needs to be corrected in line with the views of the scientific community. For sustainable materials that can be recycled mechanically and chemically, PPWD must ensure a recycling path in the same way as traditional plastics.

The development of health technology companies requires innovative procurement and a new kind of collaboration between startups and public healthcare.

A significant group of top environmental experts is already rising in Finland. This development must also be supported more systematically through public investment and international cooperation.

Suvi Haimi, Founder and CEO of Sulapac
Suvi Haimi

3. Tax incentives

Finland needs to study tax incentives to attract international companies and experts.

We do not encourage tax competition. However, Finland needs to look at models that attract companies to establish themselves in our competitor countries. The reality is that unless Finland gets competitive, jobs will be created elsewhere and the Finnish economy gets nothing.

Taxation must be seen as a tool that, among other things:

  • equalize income disparities
  • guarantees the financial position of the public sector and
  • steers economic activity towards sustainable solutions and solving the climate crisis

The Finnish government should review the fiscal policy decisions of rival countries to support the creation of high-productivity jobs. In the startup field, it is important that the domestic market has time to create a critical mass of companies and jobs that work together under the same ecosystem. In order for this critical mass of companies and jobs to be created in the domestic market, fiscal policy decisions are needed to support growth.

Montreal, for example, has managed to grow a significant gaming and machine learning cluster with the help of, among other things, tax incentives. At least similar incentives should be tried more widely in Finland as well.

The Finnish startup and growth company ecosystem is going good – but “good” is not enough in this global competition. We have to be the best in the world because in this game, the best get the best talents.

Ilkka Paananen, co-founder and CEO of Supercell
Ilkka Paananen

4. Flexible share exchange arrangements should also be possible with the EFTA countries and the United States.

In mergers and acquisitions where the purchase price is made in a share transaction with a company located outside the EU, the tax sanction should only take effect when the shares received in return are sold.

Under current Finnish legislation, in tax transactions with a company located in the EU, the tax sanction does not take effect until the shares received are sold.

Finnish tax legislation should be amended so that the regulations applicable to EU regions also apply to the EFTA countries and the United States.

In connection with share arrangements made outside the EU, the current Finnish legislation obliges the owners of the acquired company to pay taxes at the time of the transaction. In practice, this is not possible in most situations and thus the current situation prevents the development of many companies through a share exchange arrangement. In these situations, the company’s development is jeopardized and slowed down, causing tax revenue losses to Finland in the longer term.

In practice, Finnish growth companies are currently unable to take full advantage of the financing opportunities offered by companies established outside the EU.