Business Finland Young Innovative Companies (NIY)

Young Innovative Companies (YIC) — Phase 1

Funds high-potential young Finnish startups with promising international expansion potential and innovation readiness.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

YIC Phase 1 is the first-phase grant of Business Finland's three-phase Young Innovative Companies funding package. It provides EUR 250,000 as a grant for the most promising Finnish startups under 5 years old with significant turnover from scalable business and a track record of growing international business.

Business Finland's funding covers up to 75 percent of project costs. The grant is paid retrospectively on the basis of interim and periodic reports — the company must have other funding (typically venture capital) to finance activities between disbursement points.

A typical Phase 1 selected company is on average 4 years old, employs 13 people, has turnover of more than EUR 420,000 from scalable business operations, and has EUR 1 million in equity investments. The management has strong international expertise; about 40 percent of YIC companies have foreign investors.

Achievement of Phase 1 goals is a precondition for Phase 2 (additional EUR 250,000 grant) and ultimately Phase 3 (EUR 500,000 grant for companies selected from 1 January 2024 onwards; loan for earlier selections).

**Status: paused.** As of 10 October 2025, the YIC continuous call is closed until further notice due to grant authorisation constraints. Companies already in Phase 1 or later phases continue under their existing decisions; new applications are not being accepted as of the 2026-05-15 verification date.