Finnish design and innovation recognised globally

The Finnish eco-design company Belightful Design was awarded gold in the International Design Awards (IDA) for its Belightful Butterfly Oasis product that competed in the Flora and Fauna category.

The butterfly feeder is made of a special bio-based material from Finnish company Arctic Biomaterials, which was also recently recognised as Bio-based Material of the Year.

The award is a major achievement for the small Finnish design startup that is specialised in environmentally-friendly outdoor products and is now looking to scale up internationally.

“We’ve been able to launch our first product, but now the objective is to expand our product range and simultaneously scale our business up to more territories,” says Taina Tallala, co-founder of Belightful Design, in a press release. “Rapid internationalisation requires funding, and we are currently looking for international capital investors. In addition, we are in search of professionals with high-level skills in international business to join our board.”

Meanwhile, the Finnish escalator and elevator giant KONE has been recognised among the world’s most innovative companies by business magazine Forbes.

KONE placed 59th globally, and seventh in Europe, in the Forbes ranking that measures creative disruption and innovation by companies.

“We are proud to have been recognised for our innovation approach by Forbes,” says Henrik Ehrnooth, president and CEO of KONE, in a release. “At KONE, technological disruption and changing customer expectations provide us great opportunities to add value for customers in new ways and differentiate from the competition.”