Finnish companies secure the green

DB Pro is among the approximately 60 European companies selected from over a thousand applicants to receive phase-two innovation funding under the EU’s Horizon 2020 SME Instrument.

The overall funding amounts to 1.8 million euros. DB Pro will use the funding to accelerate the R&D and international sales of its data platform optimisation solution ‘SQL Governor’, which enables organisations to eliminate unnecessary database servers to save costs.

“It is great to see how our radical innovation gets noticed all the way on EU level,” says the inventor of SQL Governor, DB Pro’s founder and CTO, Jani K. Savolainen.

Then onto Plantui, which has successfully closed a 1.4 million-euro funding round with participation from previous shareholders and significant private investors, such as co-founder of Supercell Mikko Kodisoja, Leino Group CEO Liisa Leino, Harvia CEO Tapio Pajuharju, and Laiterä Consulting’s Anne and Jukka Laiterä along with their families.

The new investors were particularly attracted by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement that Plantui made with a leading, global household appliance manufacturer in May.

“The indoor garden and food tech categories are currently growing worldwide at an incredible pace,” says Plantui CEO René Österman. “The revenues from the funding round will be directed towards sales and marketing, especially for digital marketing and e-commerce.”