Foundry Europe’s expertise has been centered on market expansion since the start. Our roots are in MasonBower, a strategy consulting company that mainly works with large corporations, but also with small and medium-sized companies to help them overcome the challenges of market expansion - either with current offerings into new markets - or new products into existing markets.
The idea of Foundry Europe was born to extend that expertise to also provide the resources needed to deploy and establish operations in new markets. This has often seemed to be the missing link, especially as we started working closely with businesses overseas, in particular from South Korea.
And South Korea has, in fact, been a focus for us the past two years. We have worked with many businesses directly, but have mainly developed partnerships with private and government-supported organisations, that have a broad reach and experience working with local startups and scaleups that have ambitions to expand into global markets.
As an example, this spring we co-developed an acceleration program together with a privately-owned Korean accelerator, Y&Archer, who onboards potential startups, manages the relationship locally and coordinates the projects in collaboration with Foundry Europe.
Another example could be the partnership with Korean International Trade Association KITA, one of the largest government-supported organisations in South Korea, that supports outbound business development. We will act in partnership to support Open Innovation activity between South Korea and Europe, as well as develop “living lab” testbeds to test innovation in real-life settings, while giving companies in Europe the chance to benefit from the latest technologies for their commercial activity.
Now that the year 2020 has effectively forced us all to rethink - all businesses need to adapt in some way. With our extensive experience of adapting offerings to new markets, we have the right expertise to help companies transform their business models and strategies to better face the coming economy, whatever that may be.
Due to ever-changing markets, we also understand that sometimes innovators may face windows of opportunities that require agility and speedy reactions - and there’s not always time to go through extensive research projects. With eyes specifically on this kind of opportunity, we will soon offer a variety of possibilities for quick in-market testing, before deciding on which initial steps to take for market expansion.
With a variety of bridges built between Europe and South Korea, we will now turn our focus northward. We are intrigued by the technologies and innovations Finland has to offer, and see growing opportunities for northern innovation to move into Europe.
Also not forgetting that our infrastructure in Europe, the budding activity in the Nordics and our ties to Korea work in all directions and this triangle can result in some amazing opportunities for everyone.
In Finland, we are offering possibilities for both Open Innovation and quick validation at various test environments that will be put in place this autumn.
We are also looking for ambitious Fintech companies that are ready to take the next step.
Contact us via this form and we’ll keep you updated!
And by the way, we have a few Finns at Foundry Europe, so don’t hesitate to get in touch suomeksi.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
