The idea of three researchers generated a deep tech company
Today, Sim Analytics Oy, established by DSc (Tech) Samuli Kortelainen, DSc (Tech) Lauri Lättilä and MSc (tech.) Markus Jääskeläinen in 2013, is an internationalised growth company operating as part of a large group.
The momentum for growth was built at Aalto Startup Center
Markus Jääskeläinen, the company’s Chief Growth Officer, recalls how the founding trio contacted their alma mater when developing their business idea. The university gave them encouragement and belief in entrepreneurship, but they felt they needed something more.
‘At that point, I had already moved back to Helsinki. We were wondering what else we would need than just premises to best support us in the early stages of the company. We made calls to different actors and familiarised ourselves with business incubators first abroad and then in Finland. We were not members of the Aalto community, and entrepreneurship was new to all of us. Yet, we were able to join the Aalto Startup Center, which gave us a lot of support in the early stages.’
The entrepreneurs rented a 10-square metre room at the Aalto Startup Center on Energiakuja in Salmisaari, and business advisor Matti Karjanlahti took them under his wing.
‘We were thirsting for advice to help us in getting the business started, since as startup entrepreneurs we lacked any experience. The business incubator provided us with ideas, valuable contacts and tips on who to contact. Matti challenged our business idea and helped refine it further.’
‘The incubator was full of hustle and bustle, and events. We participated in various information and coaching events as well as events arranged by the business angel network Fiban, where we fine-tuned our elevator pitch. At the same time, we actively sparred with other startup companies. It has been great to see how many companies around us took off to a good growth, such as Smarp.’
Growth requires customer understanding
We found our first clients approximately three months after the company was founded. The company soon started growing at the ‘gazelle company’ rate.
‘We concluded that if something is new in the world of research, it must be new in the industrial sector as well. We set off to produce a solution that helps process industry management and experts make decisions on process entities involving a multitude of factors.’
Growth companies rarely grow at a steady pace. Their path includes many different stages through which they must navigate to get their service offering streamlined and their growth stabilised.
‘We have needed good luck, too, as well as resilience. We have had to modify our original business idea several times. We have contemplated how to implement an idea in a manner that would function best for the client, while being prepared to make many kinds of U-turns along the way.’
In the early stages, clients had to be educated about how to get the best out of technology. Jääskeläinen estimates, however, that timing also happened to be on the company’s side.
‘Earlier, companies may have collected data, but they probably lacked the ability to envision how to analyse it and leverage the results in real-time decision-making. This also slightly slowed down the early stages of our company. When we started talking about these matters in companies, we profited from the novelty value, and this helped to open doors for us.’
The company found its customer base in the process industry, including the paper, pulp and chemical industries. They quickly discovered that it was not worthwhile to offer clients all that was available but only what was most useful to them. The company also developed its own software product and entered the international market.
‘Companies operating in the process industry are global. Domestic references helped us enter the export market and we were able to open the doors to Central Europe.’
What still lies at the core of Sim Analytics’ product development is more efficient leveraging of the client’s production data to support production. The company has been using machine learning and artificial intelligence in developing its products from the very beginning. In recent years, corporate responsibility has also become an essential part of clients’ everyday activities and, at the same time, an important driver of development.
‘Regulation has increased the requirements posed on data management and utilisation and emphasised the importance of collecting and analysing data. However, for companies this is not only an obligation but also an opportunity to stand out. Among our own clients, I’ve seen many business executives who have wanted to act responsibly and be on the right side of history even before it was mandatory.’
As an independent part of a large group
Jääskeläinen thinks that in the early years Sim Analytics could appear as a ‘cute, trendy startup company’ in a sector where large companies traditionally operate together.
‘It made us consider partnerships from a new perspective. We quickly realised that we needed a partner who would bring something more than just capital with it. That is why we said no to capital investors but decided to look for an industrial partner instead. We wanted to see how our service can be deployed in practice in the industrial sector. We had several partnerships with forest industry companies, but we were looking for a partner with whom we would also have a shared long-term vision and objectives.’
Since 2023, Sim Analytics Oy has been part of the Kemira Group, operating as an independent company that produces service business and digital services for the Group and its clients. Being part of a group has opened up new markets for the company. Sim Analytics Oy has about thirty employees on its payroll, and the company’s own turnover is slightly over EUR 1.5 million.
‘Our strategy relies particularly on the paper and pulp industry, the chemical industry and water treatment. It has been great to see how a large industrial company has succeeded in integrating our technology into its own business operations. We must give Kemira credit for the determined and open manner in which they have been steering our cooperation in the direction that we originally outlined together. Therefore, we founders have also continued our involvement.’
The operating environment in Finland has also changed from the company’s early years: ‘The venture capital sector has gone forward. However, I think that it would accelerate many more companies to growth if they were surrounded by leading industrial companies making bolder investments in them.’
This article is part of a series on different growth stories from over the years compiled on Aalto Startup Center’s alumni companies. For more information about Aalto Startup Center, see: www.startupcenter.aalto.fi
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