Recent investments

• Alstom closes the sale of its Energy activities (Power generation and Grid) to General Electric for an amount of approximately €12.4 billion [1]. Consequently the Group is today entirely refocused on rail transport.
• GE Digital Energy and Alstom Grid Combine to Form GE’s Grid Solutions.

GE Grid Solutions at Tampere:

• Alstom Grid’s factory in Tampere engineers and manufactures products and systems for reactive power compensation and harmonic filtering. Exports account for 90% of the factory output. Alstom Grid employs over 300 persons in Finland.
• Products business unit designs and manufactures a comprehensive range of electrical equipment for the high voltage and ultra high voltage electricity transmission. Systems business unit is specialised in engineering and project management for large turnkey transmission projects, and special power supplies for electro-intensive industries.

Grid Solutions, a General Electric and Alstom joint venture, is serving customers globally with over 20,000 employees in approximately 80 countries. Grid Solutions helps enable utilities and industry to effectively manage electricity from the point of generation to the point of consumption, helping to maximize the reliability, efficiency and resiliency of the grid.

Alstom is now focusing on its transport business. As a promoter of sustainable mobility, Alstom develops and markets systems, equipment and services for the railway sector.

• Federal Signal Corporation completed the sale of its Bronto Skylift business to Morita Holdings Corporation. Bronto Skylift was the only remaining operation in Federal Signal’s Fire Rescue Group.
• Morita believes that integrating Bronto into its group will contribute to the groups sustainable growth and corporate value improvement through enhancing its overseas fire fighting vehicles business and obtaining Bronto’s state-of-the-art CPL technology.
• Bronto Skylift continues operating as a stand-alone business unit under current management focusing on manufacturing truck-mounted platforms for both Fire and Access customers worldwide under the well-known and trusted Bronto Skylift® brand.
• Bronto Skylift has its headquarters in Tampere, Finland.

Bronto Skylift is a leading global provider of truck mounted hydraulic articulated aerial platforms or combined platform ladders (“CPL”) with sales network and operations spanning across more than 100 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and so on.

• Kalmar, part of Cargotec, provides cargo handling solutions and services to ports, terminals, distribution centres and heavy industry. Kalmar is the industry forerunner in terminal automation and energy-efficient container handling.
• In the Centre, Kalmar focuses on the development of energy-efficient, safe and intelligent machinery and automation solutions.
• The Centre is one of the most energy-efficient office buildings in Finland, having awarded the international BREEAM environmental certificate in 2013.
• In the years 2011-2015, Cargotec has invested approximately EUR 38 million in the construction of the Centre in Tampere, providing a complete end-to-end automation system with automated and manual straddle and shuttle carries for horizontal transportation, automatic stacking crane system for yard operations and automated truck handling for landside operations, all integrated with Kalmar terminal logistic system (TLS) and Navis N4 terminal operating systems (TOS).

“The functioning of ports is simulated in the laboratory and testing range, based on real data provided by our customers. In this respect, the Centre is unique in the world.”
– Olli Isotalo, President, Kalmar

• In 2015 Kopla raised it’s pre-seed round worth of 100.000€ from Finnish investment company Sisu Game Ventures and other investors.
• In March 2016 Kopla Games finalized a 700.000€ seed investment round. The funding comes from German angel investor and serial entrepreneur Klaas Kersting, who is known for founding online games provider Gameforge and mobile game publisher and developer Flaregames
• Kopla Games’ mission is to introduce action RPGs to everyone. The team’s speciality is their systematic approach to quickly discovering what the players are truly interested in, by continuously validating their direction with feedback and metrics, only focusing on what has the potential of becoming the next big thing. Kopla Games’ debut title, Nonstop Knight, will be launched in cooperation with Flaregames in 2016.

Kopla Games is a mobile gaming startup from Tampere, Finland. The company was founded in 2015 by four seasoned developers who initially teamed up while working on Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise: Mika Kuusisto, Product Lead Janne Jaakkola, Art Lead Ilkka Siik and Tech Lead Vilppu Tuominen.

“Kopla Games chose to operate in Tampere due to multiple reasons: Tampere has the second biggest and active game cluster in Finland with open collaboration environment. Tampere is big enough region and centrally located to be internationally attractive; it is the gateway to Finnish game scene, especially for those who consider that there is too much competition for resources in Helsinki. There is also considerable difference in quality of living and cost of living between Tampere and the Helsinki metropolitan area in favor of Tampere.”
– Antti Salomaa, VP, Kopla Games

• Patria’s Space unit became part of RUAG’s Space division. The transaction includes the business operations and assets.
• Patria’s Space unit used to be part of Patria’s Systems Business Unit, and it delivers turnkey equipment for spacecraft demands.Their key product areas are spacecraft control electronics, electrical power subsystems, electronic units and related test equipment.
• Patria’s Space unit has been very successful and active in various Satellite programs of the European Space Agency, ESA, such as the Earth observation satellites Sentinel-2, Earthcare and Swarm and the Gaia space telescope. Currently on-going for ESA’s solar probe Solar Orbiter, where Patria is responsible for the spacecraft Electrical Power Subsystem, can be seen as a successful continuation from Rosetta power electronics equipment deliveries over the last ten years.
• The newly founded company RUAG Space Finland has 32 employees in Tampere.

”To offer a better growth basis for space business we see our Space unit has more possibilities to develop further as a part of RUAG Group, where space is defined as a strategic priority.”
– Jukka Holkeri, Chief Strategy Officer at Patria

RUAG Space is Europe’s leading equipment supplier to the space industry. With 1,150 employees at seven sites in Switzerland, Sweden and Austria, the RUAG Space Division recorded total sales of 299 million Swiss Francs in 2013.

“The acquisition of Patria’s Space unit gives us the opportunity to broaden our technology base and to enhance our product portfolio in the area of Space Electronics. This will help us further improve our position particularly in the commercial Satellite market.”
– Urs Breitmeier, CEO of RUAG.”

• Pegasor, founded in 2008, is recognized as one of Scandinavia’s most promising growth companies in the cleantech sector, based on its breakthrough innovation in fine and nanoparticle sensor technologies
• Through the Pegasor acquisition, CoorsTek Sensors will expand beyond its current solutions in the automotive-sensor market into the growing market of solutions to monitor air quality, including: sensors targeting urban air quality monitoring networks; indoor air quality monitoring in commercial and industrial facilities; and smoke-stack emission monitoring systems.
• “CoorsTek Sensors’ technology will play a critical role in reversing the deteriorating levels of air quality present in cities around the world by identifying locations where air quality falls below acceptable standards and the specific contaminants of concern, which are critical initial steps in improving air quality to improve public health and ultimately save lives.”

CoorsTek Sensors – the CoorsTek company that develops and deploys smart sensors across diverse markets to improve our environment. It develops and deploys smart sensors across diverse markets, including automotive, HVAC, manufacturing and governmental public safety/public health.

“With the acquisition and integration of Pegasor, CoorsTek Sensors has become the world’s most capable particulate matter sensor company”
– Timothy Coors, CEO of CoorsTek Sensors

• Piceasoft has had two investor rounds, the first in 2013 resulting in approximately 1.5M€ investment and the second in 2015 resulting in 750.000€ investment with Finnish investors of various sizes.
• The investments have enabled Piceasoft to grow internationally, landing major accounts like Telefonica and Swisscom as their customers. Furthermore, the investments have enabled Piceasoft to expand product portfolio to globally scalable consumer services.
• Piceasoft has developed a series of products to simplify people’s mobile life, including: PiceaServices mobile device lifecycle solution, PiceaSwitch for data transfer, PiceaDiagnostics for repair avoidance, PiceaEraser for data erasure, and PiceaReporting web based tool for business follow up.
• Piceasoft with its product portfolio is well positioned to address the emerging global device recycling and reuse market which is estimated to have global value of 14 M€ in year 2017 (source Gartner http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2986617)
• Piceasoft is Tampere based company.

Tampere based Piceasoft is an innovative and agile software company developing products to simplify people’s mobile life, established in 2012. Company provides computer and Cloud solutions for retail, service centers and consumers.

“The most exciting Finnish ICT technology cluster has been born in Tampere. This has been boosted by ex-Nokian engineers and two high-level universities.”
– Jyri Roselius, CEO of Piceasoft

• Initial Capital, Sunstone Capital and Finnvera Venture Capital, together with angel investors Kenrick Drijkoningen and Henric Suuronen have invested 1.3 million euros in mobile game studio Traplight. This brings the total investment to the studio to 2 million euros since 2014.
• The investments gathered from new and previous investors will enable Traplight to publish and further develop their upcoming puzzle-racer as well as to focus on their new game projects based around community creativity.
• Big Bang Racing is a groundbreaking physics​-based mobile racing game where all the levels are created by the players. It’s scheduled to launch in 2016 on Android and iOS devices.

Tampere based Traplight was founded in 2010 by industry veterans Riku Rakkola (CEO), Sami Kalliokoski and Jari Paananen. The 15-strong team is on a mission to reinvent User-Generated Content games on mobile.

“Tampere has a tightly knit game development scene with innovative companies and a good support network of services. As a city, it provides great atmosphere to build a company.”
– Riku Rakkola, CEO of Traplight

• The u-blox Tampere R&D center is the company’s thirteenth research and development site worldwide. The facility, already staffed and operational, will initially focus on further developing GNSS technology, in close collaboration with the u‑blox offices in Thalwil, Switzerland; Reigate, UK; and Espoo, Finland.
• This new R&D center attests to u‑blox’s rapid growth and shows their commitment to expand their product offering in the satellite positioning field.
• The new u‑blox office is strategically located in the Tampere region, well‑known as a high‑tech hub with state‑of‑the‑art companies and its famous Tampere University of Technology.
• u‑blox Tampere is planning to expand its headcount to 20 during 2016.

Swiss u‑blox is a global leader in wireless and positioning semiconductors and modules for the automotive, industrial and consumer markets. u‑blox solutions enable people, vehicles and machines to locate their exact position and communicate wirelessly over cellular and short range networks.

u-blox has offices in 19 countries with over 750 employees worldwide. u-blox is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange and had a revenue of 338 million CHF in 2015. For further information, see www.u-blox.com.

“The Tampere office will offer an attractive and exciting work environment to experienced and talented engineers.”
– Daniel Ammann, Executive Director, Positioning, u‑blox

• Wirepas is focused on providing the most reliable, optimized, scalable and easy to use device connectivity for its customers.
• Wirepas Connectivity is a de-centralized radio communications protocol that can be used in any device, with any radio chip and on any radio band. With Wirepas Connectivity there is no need for traditional repeaters because every wireless device is a smart router of the network. The connected devices form the network – easy as that.
• Wirepas has its headquarters in Tampere, Finland and offices in Brazil, France and the United States.
• Wirepas was awarded as the Nokia Open Innovation Challenge winner in 2015.
• Wirepas has raised 3.0 million euros in Series A funding from Vito Ventures and Inventure Ventures (1.5 in 2015 and 1.5 in 2016). Besides Vito and Inventure its shareholders include founders, management shareholders and private investors.

Wirepas was established 2010 in Tampere, Finland. The company has its roots at Tampere University of Technology where a ten-year research project was conducted around the radio frequency mesh technology.

“Tampere is a great place to grow a global success story in Internet of Things.”
– Teppo Hemiä, CEO of Wirepas

• Safety technology company Yepzon Oy had public stock issue in 2015. This round of financing resulted in new capital from new and old investors to the tune of a million euros. This round of financing resulted in 20 new investors.
• The capital will be invested in product development and international growth.
• Yepzon started out with the Yepzon One locator. This compact GPS locator with a superb battery life has been specifically designed for locating persons, but there is a strong demand for the device in many different leisure segments, too. The Yepzon locator is available within the EU and the US.
• Yepzon products have been designed and manufactured in Finland.

Yepzon Oy is the developer of easy-to-use mobile location services. Founded in 2013, Yepzon is in entirely European and primarily Finnish ownership, divided between private investors operating in different fields. The company’s headquarters are in Tampere, Finland.