Image: Code School Finland

Daily Brief

DAILY BRIEF: Code school, AI writing tool, maritime industry, recycling and Angry Birds

All the daily Finnish business news that works: Flowrite, Code School Finland, Vaihtolava, The Switch and Angry Birds make headlines.

Rasmus Hetemäki

01.12.2020

Flowrite raises pre-launch coin, a Finnish testing centre for giant maritime systems starts up, Code School Finland collaborates in Japan, Vaihtolava is acquired by Sortera Group, and Angry Birds cheer up kids before MRI scan. Click on the headlines for more in-depth information about each piece of news.

Flowrite raises EUR 550K pre-launch

Two men in black t-shirts smile at the camera — Finnish productivity startup Flowrite has raised 550 000 euros for its AI-powered writing tool from Lifeline Ventures and Seedcamp, and a group of angel investors including Unity founder David Helgason. The productivity tool helps professionals with everyday writing tasks by turning words into ready-to-send emails, messages and posts, for instance. Flowrite is building its tool on OpenAI’s language generation engine GPT-3 and was among the first companies to get access to the technology, which is boosted by its in-house built proprietary technology.

Finnish electric drive systems testing centre starts up

A ferry from above — Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch has started operations at its new testing centre for large electric drive systems in Lappeenranta, Finland. The Finland-based company produces its permanent magnet (PM) direct-drive shaft generators, propulsion machines and auxiliary generators in Lappeenranta. The centre can handle 12-megawatt drive systems and will soon increase the capacity to 18 megawatts, and has an 80-tonne heavy-lift capacity, which means it will be capable to test some of the biggest machines in the maritime sector and beyond.

Code School Finland partners in Japan

Japanese and Finnish students working with technology — Code School Finland has entered into a long-term collaboration agreement with GLiN, a Japanese company providing educational services and content in Japan. In the first phase of the partnership, GLiN has acquired licenses for Code School Finland teaching material for its educational camps in the country. Its teachers will now be trained online by Code School Finland. The collaboration comes as Japan has updated its national curriculum to include activities for programming and future-thinking skills from an early age.

Vaihtolava joins forces with Sortera Group

Orange containers that can be loaded on trucks — Sweden’s Sortera Group has acquired Vaihtolava, a Finnish company operating in logistics and sorting of construction material. The acquisition gives Sortera a substantial foothold and presence in Finland, especially in Helsinki and the southern part of Finland. Vaihtolava has around 100 employees and an annual revenue of approximately 18 million euros. It sorts over 100 000 tonnes of waste annually at its two facilities in Helsinki.

Angry Birds cheer up kids before MRI in Oulu

A MRI scan room in a hospital decorated with Angry Birds wallpaper — HP Finland, Rovio Entertainment, Coloro and Seri-Deco have donated Angry Birds-themed wallpapers to a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) room in the children wing of Oulu University Hospital. The MRI room is already partly in use and will open fully in January 2021. Follow the link in the headline for our article on the heartfelt project.

Related news

Latest news

Daily Brief

14.01.2021

DAILY BRIEF: Lighting history, healthtech, Denmark-bound company and research funding

Science/Research

14.01.2021

Funding aplenty for Finnish research

Daily Brief

13.01.2021

DAILY BRIEF: Cleaner shipping, 5G, acquisition, genetics testing and international talent