2. Finnish Companies in the Bay Area
• Total: 51
– 14 established companies
– 28 ICT start-ups (2 gaming companies, 2 other start-ups)
– 5 other companies / organizations
– 4 U.S. companies founded by Finns having operations in Finland
• U.S. start-ups founded by Finns: 12
• Exits of Finnish companies in SF Bay Area: 20+
• VC investments from SV VCs in Finnish companies: 10+
– Note: Only 12 Finnish companies had presence in SF Bay Area in the end of
2010
3. Finnish Established Companies in Bay Area
(Founded before year 2000) – 14
• Biotie Therapies (www.biotie.com/)
• Bitbar (www.bitbar.com/)
• BLSTream (www.blstream.com)
• Conformiq (www.conformiq.com)
• Digia (www.digia.com)
• Elektrobit (www.elektrobit.com)
• F-Secure (www.f-secure.com)
• Idean (www.idean.com)
• Ixonos (www.ixonos.com)
• JOT Automation
(www.jotautomation.com)
• Nokia (www.nokia.com)
• Rapal (www.rapal.fi)
• SSH Communications (www.ssh.com)
• Tieto (www.tieto.com)
5. Other Finnish Companies &
Organizations in the Bay Area - 5
• Finpro (www.finpro.com)
–Internalization consultancy for Finnish companies
• Nexit Ventures (www.nexit.com)
–Finnish-American VC fund
• Tekes (www.tekes.com/en)
–The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation
• Vendep (www.vendep.com)
–Start-up accelerator and seed investor
• VTT (www.vtt.fi)
–Applied research organization
6. Bay Area Companies Founded by Finns
With operations in Finland: 4
• Airstone Labs (www.airstonelabs.com)
– Supercomputing as a service
• AlphaSense (www.alpha-sense.com/) -
also operations in Finland
– Search engine for financial professionals
• Appthetable (www.appthetable.com)
• Beatroot (www.beatroot.co), was Hacklog
(at Matter.VC)
– Analytics for journalists
• BetterDoctor (www.betterdoctor.com) -
also operations in Finland
– Find the right doctor in minutes
• Crowd Valley Inc.
(www.crowdvalley.com/)
• Gc+
• Inbot.com (formerly Linko) - also
operations in Finland
• Lost in Translations
(www.lostintranslations.com) - also
operations in Finland
• MAD-Partners
• Pilot Network services (www.pilot.net) -
listed in NASDAQ
• ShopInbox Inc. (www.shopinbox.io)
• Skydom (www.skydom.io)
– Build rich data services in the cloud
• Trulia (www.trulia.com) - listed in NASDAQ
– being acquired by Zillow
– Real-estate search tool
7. Exits of Finnish Companies in the (Bay Area) U.S.
• Animoi – acquired by Macromedia in 2004
• Applifier / EveryPlay – acquired by Unity in
2014
• Bitboys – acquired by ATI / AMD in 2007
• Bitdeli – acquired by AdRoll in 2013
• Continuent – acquired by Vmware in 2014
• Ditto – acquired by Groupon in 2012
• drawElements – acquired by Google in 2014
• Flowdock – acquired by Rally Software in 2013
• Hantro – acquired by Google in 2010 through
Hantro’s acquisition by On2 Technologies in
2007
• Hybrid Graphics – acquired by Nvidia in 2006
• Innobase – acquired by Oracle in 2005
• Jaiku – acquired by Google in 2007
• Kippt – acquired by Coinbase in 2014
• Mr. Goodliving – acquired by Real Networks in
2005
• MySQL (Swedish company with Finnish co-
founder and Finnish CEO) – acquired by Sun
(now part of Oracle) for $1 billion in 2008
• Protogeo / Moves – acquired by Facebook in
2014
• Pryte – acquired by Facebook in 2014
• RedLynx – acquired by Ubisoft in 2011
• Smartner – acquired by Seven Networks in
2005
• Solid Information Technology – acquired by IBM
in 2007
• Stonesoft – acquired by McAfee (part of Intel)
in 2013
• Sumea – acquired by Digital Chocolate in 2004
• Symbio – acquired by VXI Global Solutions in
2015
8. Silicon Valley VC & Angel Investments
in Finnish Companies
• AppGyver from Initial Capital in 2014
• AudioDraft from 500 Startups in 2013
• BetterDoctor from NEA (New Enterprise Associates) in 2014
• Continuent from Trident Capital in 2005
• G-cluster from Intel Capital (Asia)
• MySQL (Swedish company with Finnish co-founder and Finnish CEO) from
Benchmark Capital in 2003
• Next Games from IDG Ventures and Lowercase Capital in 2014
• Ovelin from True Ventures in 2012
• Rovio Entertainment from Accel Partners & Felicis Ventures in 2011
• SuperCell from Accel Partners & Initial Capital in 2011 and from Index
Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners in 2013
9. Finnish Companies Which at One Point
Have Had Offices in SF Bay Area
• Alcom
• Appington
• Basware (now on East Coast)
• Capslock
• Common Tribes
• Cybelius Software
• Design Power
• Documill
• Ekahau
• FogScreen
• Futuremark (acquired by UL in 2014)
• Gearshift Group
• Hantro
• Helmi
• Inreality
• Innopinion
• LinkoTec
• Luxus (www.luxus.fi)
– US HQ now in Texas
• MadOnion (now Futuremark)
• Mobile Backstage
– Closed, part of IP in Common Tribes
• Modera Point
• Play My Song
• QPR Software
• Sonera (+ SoneraZed & SmartTrust)
• Star-Arcade
• Stonesoft
• Sumo
• Tekla
• Terapixel
• TinkerCAD
– Closed, founders started Airstone Labs
• Vaisala
• VDSL Systems
10. Borderline Cases
• HeiaHeia / H2 Wellbeing – North America representative in Half Moon Bay
• Heptagon – started as Finnish company but no ties to Finland anymore
• Mekitec (www.mekitec.com) – North America office based in Livermore
• Nonstop Games – founded by Finns in Singapore, have office in SF
11. Other Countries
Examples of Country Organizations in SF Bay
Area
• Denmark: ScaleIT – www.scaleit.us
• Enterprise Estonia – www.eas.ee
• German Silicon Valley Accelerator –
www.germanaccelerator.com
• Innovation Norway -
http://www.innovasjonnorge.no/no/english/
• Business Sweden – www.business-sweden.se/en/
• Switzerland: Swissnex – www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org
• Silicon Vikings – www.siliconvikings.com
– Not officially a country organization
• Nordic Innovation House – www.nordicinnovationhouse.com
12. Sources
• Company Web sites
• Direct communication with companies
• Silicon Valley Journey, Tekes
– http://www.tekes.fi/Julkaisut/silicon_valley_journey.pdf
• Updates and corrections can be sent to Hartti Suomela
