DAILY BRIEF: International expansion, laser therapy, automation, telecom and education technology

Finnish medical technology startup Maculaser has raised 1.2 million euros for its laser treatment technology for retinal diseases. The funding round was led by Finnish venture capital investor Innovestor Ventures, with participation from institutional and private investors including business angel Jaakko Ollila and medical doctors. The funding will be used to accelerate product commercialisation and move the company to the clinical trial phase. Maculaser’s temperature-controlled laser therapy addresses the challenges with the emerging treatment and aims to tackle common retinal diseases already at an early phase. Image: Maculaser

Finnish education technology company Opinsys has signed a framework agreement worth over seven million euros with German cities to deliver almost 4 000 refurbished laptops and maintenance services to 101 primary and secondary schools. Opinsys was awarded the five-year agreement with Harz through an open international tender, and also won equipment tenders from Harz and Magdeburg. Opinsys’ open-sourced system was instrumental in landing the contracts, as it allowed the schools to avoid expensive licence fees. Image: Opinsys

Peikko Group’s team in Turkey has started manufacturing in a newly established factory in the city of Izmit, around 100 kilometres east of Istanbul. The 700-square metre facility will initially focus on products related to industrial flooring solutions. The plan is to rapidly expand the product offering and scale the operations in the years to come. The Finnish provider of solutions for construction and wind energy infrastructure employs over 1 800 professionals worldwide. Image: Peikko

Finland’s Cimcorp is providing an automation solution for German supermarket group Edeka’s regional Rhein-Ruhr business. The solution will be installed at a new state-of-the-art distribution centre in Oberhausen-Waldteich. Once fully operational, the 90 000-square metre centre will supply 400 Edeka branches and 400 shops operating under other group brands in North Rhine-Westphalia. The solution will ensure reliable order picking for fresh products such as fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Image: Cimcorp

Nokia has partnered with Brazil’s Telecommunications Research and Development Center (CPQD) to develop open RAN solutions to support innovative 5G use cases in the country. The Finnish telecom equipment supplier has also been selected by Deutsche Telekom as a long-term strategic partner to help to modernise the German operator’s optical transport network. Finally, Nokia will continue to manage and maintain Mobily’s network in Saudi Arabia after signing a three-year extension to its managed services contract. Image: Nokia

In our Do I Know You? segment, we talk with Jouni Kangasniemi, programme director of Education Finland, about the success of Finnish education export in these unprecedented times, the digitalisation of the classroom and his own experiences in the Finnish education system. Check out what this prominent education expert has to say about this important and flourishing sector by clicking the headline. Image: Julia Bushueva