{"id":180747,"date":"2025-08-28T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/?p=180747"},"modified":"2025-08-28T16:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T13:32:20","slug":"scale-able-shows-how-cross-border-collaboration-supercharges-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/scale-able-shows-how-cross-border-collaboration-supercharges-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Scale-Able shows how cross-border collaboration supercharges growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Startups are often told to \u201cthink global from day one.\u201d But scaling internationally is easier said than done. That\u2019s where the Scale-Able project, an initiative run by Ignite Sweden, Norrk\u00f6ping Science Park, and Tehnopol, made a difference. Over the course of 2,5 years, it provided scaling companies and corporates with something both sides urgently need: direct access to each other, in the form of carefully curated one-to-one meetings across three countries.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it worked. During three matchmaking events held in Sweden and Estonia, more than 132 startups and scaleups sat down with 32 corporates in 273 tailored matchmaking sessions. Remarkably, 50% of these meetings led to follow-up processes, and 17 concrete success stories have already emerged.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this model clicks<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The magic of Scale-Able is its laser focus on quality conversations. Each meeting was designed to match corporate needs with solutions offered by scaling companies, whether in energy, securetech, dual-use, or digital innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can find new ideas, new techniques, that you, in your own space, can\u2019t see. And sometimes you need to go outside of that box to find new solutions that you might not know about or haven\u2019t even thought of,\u201d said Fredrik T\u00e4rneberg, Investment Manager at S\u00f6dra.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Startups and scaleups, too, walked away energized. For many, Scale-Able was their first direct access point to decision-makers at multinational companies\u2014conversations that could have taken months or years to arrange on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to have the networking opportunity to actually meet the people in these corporates in person. But most of all, it\u2019s the feedback and understanding of what challenges they see in the world today,\u201d noted Elin Sandahl, Co-founder and Business Developer at Swedish startup Norgald.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More than just meetings<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scale-Able\u2019s impact went beyond the matchroom. Site visits, informal dinners, and cultural exchanges built trust and familiarity between ecosystems that don\u2019t always intersect.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are several important aspects of meeting in person, not only the physical meeting itself, where they can get a feel for each other and really discuss and focus on the important points. But also another important aspect of these physical events is the opportunity to meet other corporates and startups and exchange ideas with them,\u201d highlighted Arwin Zendehrokh, Project Manager at Ignite Sweden.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enefit\u2019s perspective: turning matchmaking into real collaboration<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Estonian energy group Enefit participated in two of the matchmaking events and is now moving forward with three collaborations: two proof-of-concepts already underway and one in the planning stage. For Enefit, the project offered a chance to tackle some very concrete challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of our aims is to address data quality challenges and establish proper validation to ensure data consistency and reliability,\u201d said Kenneth H\u00fctt, Technology Manager at Enefit. By teaming up with startups, Enefit has been able to bring in specialized product knowledge in areas such as data validation, automation, and system integration\u2014expertise that helps accelerate development and co-create tailored approaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the company and its partners have aligned on proof of value at the architecture level, set up applications, completed initial trainings, and defined scope and requirements. While it\u2019s still early days with no measurable impact yet, H\u00fctt emphasizes the importance of committing fully to a proof of value process and including all relevant parties from the start. \u201cA structured, well-prepared technical due diligence process is essential, as it enables both sides to demonstrate readiness,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, Scale-Able made this possible. \u201cIt has enabled us to more quickly evaluate potential service providers, and to co-develop solutions together with startups based on our use cases,\u201d noted H\u00fctt. Without the project, such international scouting and rapid validation would have taken significantly longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A corporate lineup that turned heads<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of Scale-Able\u2019s strongest signals of success was the caliber of corporates that joined the journey. Alongside already mentioned corporates, the project brought together leading companies from across the region, including Saab, Siemens Energy and Stena Metall from Sweden; SEB, Telia and G4S from Estonia; and Royal Caribbean Group, Valmet Automotive and Fortum from Finland.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For scaling companies, sitting down with this level of decision-makers was more than networking. It was an accelerated path into industries often seen as closed or hard to penetrate. For corporates, it was a chance to source innovation directly from agile teams solving tomorrow\u2019s problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Structured matchmaking brings results<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The final results of Scale-Able show a clear case: structured matchmaking works. It cuts through noise, accelerates business development, and builds long-term trust across borders.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because when scaling companies and corporates sit down at the same table, innovation doesn\u2019t just happen. It scales.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strengthening cross-border collaboration in the Central Baltic region<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the impressive numbers, Scale-Able also helped deepen the ties between innovation ecosystems in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. By building trust between startups, scaleups, corporates and innovation actors across the region, the project laid the groundwork for continued collaboration in the Central Baltic area. A key priority of the EU programme that made Scale-Able possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Startups are often told to \u201cthink global from day one.\u201d But scaling internationally is easier said than done. That\u2019s where the Scale-Able project, an initiative run by Ignite Sweden, Norrk\u00f6ping Science Park, and Tehnopol, made a difference. Over the course of 2,5 years, it provided scaling companies and corporates with something both sides urgently need: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":156480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180747"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180800,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180747\/revisions\/180800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tehnopol.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}