2. Finnish Companies in the Bay Area
• Total: 66 (of which ~50 are actively present at least with one person all year
round in SF Bay Area)
– 19 larger (mid-size & large) companies
– 42 startups (most of them ICT companies)
– 4 other companies / organizations
– 1 U.S. companies founded by Finns having operations in Finland
• U.S. tech startups founded by Finns located in SF Bay Area: 11+ (including
ones acquired, but excluding startups from Finland)
• Exits of Finnish companies in SF Bay Area: 34+
• Investments from Silicon Valley VCs and Angels in Finnish companies: 45+
– Note: Only 12 Finnish companies had presence in SF Bay Area at the end of 2010
– Our definition: Startup is in the Bay Area if the company has address in U.S. and has a
person in LinkedIn with location set for SF Bay Area
3. Larger Finnish Companies in Bay Area - 19
• CargoTec (www.cargotec.com)
• Conformiq (www.conformiq.com)
• Digia (www.digia.com)
• Ekahau (www.ekahau.com)
• F-Secure (www.f-secure.com)
• Firstbeat (www.firstbeat.com)
• Ixonos (www.ixonos.com)
• Kone (www.kone.com)
• Marimekko (www.marimekko.com) -
store in Palo Alto
• Nokia (www.nokia.com)
• OpusCapita (www.opuscapita.com)
• Rapal (www.rapal.fi)
• Rovio (www.rovio.com)
• Salcomp (www.salcomp.com)
• SSH Communications (www.ssh.com)
• SuperCell (www.supercell.com)
• Tieto (www.tieto.com)
• Vaadin (www.vaadin.com)
• Vincit (www.vincit.com)
5. Other Finnish Companies &
Organizations in the Bay Area - 4
• Finpro (http://www.finpro.fi/)
–Internalization consultancy for Finnish companies
• Nexit Ventures (www.nexitventures.com)
–Finnish-American VC fund
• Tekes (www.tekes.com/en)
–The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation
• Wave Ventures (http://wave.ventures)
6. Bay Area Companies Founded by Finns
With operations in Finland: 1
• Airstone Labs (www.airstonelabs.com)
– Supercomputing as a service
• AteljeeSF (www.ateljee.com)
• Beatroot (www.beatroot.co), was Hacklog
(at Matter.VC)
– Analytics for journalists
• BetterDoctor (www.betterdoctor.com)
• Crowd Valley Inc.
(www.crowdvalley.com/)
• FibroGen Inc. (www.fibrogen.com) - listed
in NASDAQ
• Fiksu
• Gc+
• Inbot.io (formerly Linko)
• Lost in Translations
(www.lostintranslations.com) - also
operations in Finland
• MAD-Partners
(https://www.facebook.com/madpartners
siliconvalley)
• MindJump LLC (http://mindjumpllc.com/)
• Pilot Network services (www.pilot.net) -
listed in NASDAQ
• Sift / ShopInbox Inc. (www.shopinbox.io)
• Skydom (www.skydom.io)
– Build rich data services in the cloud
• Sudden Coffee (www.suddencoffee.com)
• Trulia (www.trulia.com) - listed in NASDAQ
– acquired by Zillow
– Real-estate search tool
7. Exits of Finnish Companies in the (Bay Area) U.S.
• Accanto Systems partially by Silver Lake Technology
Management in 2012
• Aldata by Symphony Technology Group in 2012
• Animoi – acquired by Macromedia in 2004
• Applifier / EveryPlay – acquired by Unity in 2014
• Axiom by Cisco in 2011
• Bitboys – acquired by ATI / AMD in 2007
• Bitdeli – acquired by AdRoll in 2013
• Codenomicon – acquired by Synopsys in 2015
• Continuent – acquired by Vmware in 2014
• Ditto – acquired by Groupon in 2012
• drawElements – acquired by Google in 2014
• Fincitec – acquired by National Semiconductor in 2002
• Fifth Element – acquired by Trimble in 2015
• 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
• Indoor.io (WhataMap) – acquired by Apple in 2015
• Innobase – acquired by Oracle in 2005
• Jaiku – acquired by Google in 2007
• Kippt – acquired by Coinbase in 2014
• Laika Mobile Connectivity by Boku in 2010
• 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
– Now part of Forcepoint
• Sumea – acquired by Digital Chocolate in 2004
• SVS Innovations by Trimble in 2014
• Symbio – acquired by VXI Global Solutions in 2015
• Tekla by Trimble in 2011
• The All-Seeing Eye by Yahoo in 2004
8. Silicon Valley VC & Angel Investments
in Finnish Startups
• AlphaSense from Triangle Peak Partners in 2016
• Ambronite from Jawed Karim in 2015
• AppGyver from Initial Capital in 2014
• Applifier from MHS Capital in 2011 & 2012
• AudioDraft from 500 Startups in 2013 (and Bootstrap Labs in ??)
• BetterDoctor from NEA (New Enterprise Associates) in 2014
• Bitbar from Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 2013
• Callstats.io from True Ventures in 2016
• Chat Republic Games from Start Fund in ??
• Claned from Cross Border Angels in 2016
• Coinmotion from Boost.VC in 2014
• Combinostics from Integral Capital Partners in 2014
• Comeks from Accel in 2007
• Continuent from Trident Capital in 2005
• Digia from both Intel Capital and Cisco Systems in 2000
• Encorium Group by Enable Capital Management and Heights Capital
Management in 2007
• Enevo from Paul Bragiel, Draper Associates in 2014
• Enevo from ZenStone Venture Capital in 2015
• Everywear Games from True Ventures in 2015
• Fifth Corner / You App from 500 Startups in 2015
• Flowdock from CrunchFund, IDG Ventures and from SF Bay Area
angels in 2011
• Fluido from Salesforce Ventures in 2016
• Futurefly from Arielle Zuckerberg in 2015
• G-cluster from Intel Capital (Asia)
• Grand Cru from Signia Venture Partners in 2012
• GuideOptics / Silecs from Kleiner Perkins in 2006
• Iceye from Founder.org and True Ventures in 2015
• Immersal from Presence Capital in 2016
• IndoorAtlas from Plug and Play Ventures in 2015
• Iobox from Robertson Stephens in 1999
• MariaDB from Intel Capital in 2013
• MeeDoc from RISE in 2015
• Metorex International from Vision Cap in 2004
• 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
• (Okmetic from JDS Uniphase, now Viavi Solutions in 2001)
• Ovelin (now Yousician) from True Ventures in 2012
• Rovio Entertainment from Accel Partners & Felicis Ventures in 2011
• Solid Information Technology from Robertson Stephens in 2000
• SuperCell from Accel Partners & Initial Capital in 2011 and from Index
Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners in 2013
• Thinglink from 500 Startups, Steelhead Ventures in 2014
• Thinglink from Steelhead Ventures in 2016
• Tinkercad from True Ventures in 2011
• Usetrace from 500 Startups in 2016
• Valossa from Plug and Play Ventures in 2015
• Vizor from Boost.VC in 2015
10. Finnish Companies Which at One Point
Have Had Offices in SF Bay Area
• Alcom
• AlphaSense (www.alpha-sense.com/)
• Anders Innovations
• Appington
• AudioDraft (www.audiodraft.com) ?
• Basware (now on East Coast)
• BiiSafe
• Biotie Therapies (www.biotie.com/)
– Acquired by Acorda Therapeutics in
2016
• BLSTream (www.blstream.com)
– No Finnish office anymore
• Capslock
• Common Tribes
• Cresense (now Ixonos)
• CubiCasa (www.cubicasa.com)
• Cybelius Software
• Design Power
• Documill
• Elektrobit (www.elektrobit.com)
– Sold to Continental AG
• FogScreen
• Futuremark (acquired by UL in 2014)
• Gearshift Group
• Haltian (www.haltian.com)
• Hantro
• Helmi
• Idean (www.idean.com)
– Acquired by Capgemini in 2017
• Inreality
• Innopinion
• Joberate
• JOT Automation
(www.jotautomation.com)
– Bought byWuxi Lead
• LinkoTec
• Luxus (www.luxus.fi)
– US HQ now in Texas
• MadOnion (now Futuremark)
• MeeDoc
• Mobile Backstage
– Closed, part of IP in Common Tribes
• Modera Point
• Play My Song
• QPR Software
• Rightware (www.rightware.com)
– Acquired by Thundersoft
• Senso Solution
• Shark Punch (www.sharkpunch.com)
• Sonera (+ SoneraZed & SmartTrust)
• Star-Arcade
• Stonesoft
• Sumo
• Tekla
• Terapixel
• TinkerCAD
– Closed, founders started Airstone Labs
• Vaisala
• VDSL Systems
• Vendep (www.vendep.com)
• VividWorks
• VTT
• Zonesco. (www.zonesco.io) StoryBy
11. Borderline Cases
• Heptagon – started as a Finnish company but no ties to Finland anymore
• Nonstop Games – founded by Finns in Singapore, has office in SF
12. 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
• EIT Digital (formerly EIT ICT Labs) - http://www.eitictlabs.eu/
13. Sources
• Company Web sites
• Direct communication with companies
• Big Thanks to CrunchBase’s funding database http://data.crunchbase.com/
• Silicon Valley Journey, Tekes
– http://www.tekes.fi/Julkaisut/silicon_valley_journey.pdf
• Answers on Quora (thanks all!) https://www.quora.com/Which-Bay-Area-VCs-
have-invested-in-Finnish-startups
• Updates and corrections can be sent to Hartti Suomela –
hartti.suomela@finpro.fi