Nordic Life Science 1
54 “YOU NEED TO FIND THE RIGHT COLLABORATION PART
NERS WHO HAVE THE RIGHT NETWORKS FOR JUST YOUR COMPANY. IF YOU FIND THE RIGHT PARTNERS, AND YOU HAVE A GOOD PRODUCT/ IDEA AND TEAM, THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!” TOMI KALPIO, BRINTER “During this project we started to develop our own concept. Before our first commercial bioprinter version was launched in 2019 we had also been involved in many different kind of projects, such as kidney printing, food printing and drug printing,” he says. n 2020, the two business units started to grow in different directions, and it was difficult to keep the focus. The co-founders decided to partially split the company into two, and at the end of 2020 Brinter became an independent company. Challenges along Brinter’s journey so far have for example been finding passionate colleagues who share the same vision, explains Tomi, but today he feels that they have a good and versatile team. “In the beginning, lack of resources was of course also a big challenge. But luckily the world of 3D was also our entrepreneurs’ work and happy place, so the long working days did not feel that bad at all,” he says. Tomi Kalpio, CEO and co-founder of Brinter, agrees with Martin that the right network is key to succeed and compete internationally. “You need to find the right collaboration partners who have the right networks for just your company. If you find the right partners, and you have a good product/idea and team, the sky is the limit! This is exactly what we are looking for at the moment, and also one of the reasons why we just founded a subsidiary in the US, which is the biggest market for our products globally at the moment,” he says. Brinter, founded in and with its headquarters in Turku, is a 3D bioprinter technology company, providing automated and scalable out-of-the-box hardware for bioprinting applications, for example in personalized tumor models, chondral repair, and drug formulation. A great interest in 3D design led Tomi to start a company. Together with a couple of like-minded colleagues he founded 3DTech in 2013, which started out having two business units; one that provided services including 3D designing, 3D scanning and 3D printing, and one that developed 3D printing technologies. In 2015 they were asked to join a project called “brain printing”, and when that project started in 2016, this was the kick-off for their 3D bio-journey, says Tomi. Brinter has received business development support from the ProHealth Growth programme at Turku Business Region, and Tomi says that the programme is especially useful right now. “There are a lot of topics that we need to figure out one way or another during our journey towards becoming a global player,” he says. Turku Business Region offers services for startupsto-be established and companies of all sizes. The national ProHealth Growth programme offers accepted companies a tailored service based on the companies’ needs, including all relevant commercialization steps and necessary workshops. “Mentors, venture capitalists, medium and large companies, and other experts are involved,” describes Hanna Halme, Growth Advisor, Life Science at Turku Business Region. ccording to Hanna, key factors behind a successful life science company growth are a good scalable international business concept, a multidisciplinary team of experts, a strong network of advisors and clients, financing contacts and other partners. She adds that Finland would benefit from a better funding scheme for startups. “Disadvantages of being located in Finland are that the local markets are quite small for any product in our field and the distance is quite far to the biggest markets outside Finland,” says Tomi. “However, being a Finnish company means having a great education system and fantastic nature nearby, the latter being mandatory in order to keep the balance in today’s hectic world. The cities are also not too big and the people are in general quite happy.”