- CB Health Access program facilitated the entry of Health Tech companies to distant markets
- The results, achieved sales 2,1M€ and 10M€ investment, clearly fulfilled all stated objectives
- Long-term agreements signed with South Korea, USA, India and Uganda
In 2016 a 3-year CB Health Access program was initiated between Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and Swedish business development organizations to support health technology companies in their export efforts outside of EU.
A total of 21 Finnish companies took part in the program, which aimed at facilitating the entry of Health Tech companies to distant markets – South Korea, USA, India and Uganda. This was the first internationalization project implemented in Turku business region focusing on markets outside of the EU. The aim of the program was to achieve at least 3 new sales in each of the four target markets, i.e. 12 new sales in these distant markets.
CB Health Access provided the companies with an introduction of the target markets, individual coaching both from the home country and from target market experts, market information, identifying and contacting potential partners, and business missions. The program was financed by Central Baltic Interreg Program.
“The participating companies found the project very successful. At the end of 2018 it was concluded with 12 sales achieved amounting to 2,1M€ and 10M€ in capital investments gathered totally. It is worth pointing out that all these investments and sales were achieved by Turku based companies,” tells Teppo Laaksonen, Business Development Manager at Turku Science Park Ltd.
During the program the participating partners also signed long-term agreements with Korean Health Industry Development Institute KHIDI, Indian based InnovatioCuris, Uganda Healthcare Federation and US based REA Inc, State of Maryland Department of Commerce and Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. These agreements make entry into South Korea, USA, India and Uganda markets much easier for Finnish companies. During the project, in each of these countries a local contact person was available to help the participating companies to enter the market. These connections can be utilized also in the future.
This successful concept of the CB Health Access Program facilitated the launch of a new internationalization project, this time aiming at Chinese and South Korean markets with cleantech business focus. The ASIA-CLEAN project starts this April. More info on this project will be released during this spring.