Acquire information about a new Export Market

Your company has the prerequisites for international growth  

• Your company has its own product, service or business model that is at least in the development or pilot stage.
• Your company has a credible funding plan and the prerequisites for profitable international business and growth.
• Your company's credit rating (Rating Alfa) according to Suomen Asiakastieto is at least A.

You need external expertise in the internationalization process

• Your company is in the early stages of internationalization or already operates internationally and you seek to expand your operations into new areas.
• You are in need of external expertise to find out how your product, service or business model could work in a new export market. The expert service provider can be a company, a research organization, an information dissemination organization or an expert (an individual). The service provider can also be from abroad.

Your company is a over 5 years old small or medium-sized enterprise or a midcap company

• Small or medium-sized enterprise: less than 250 employees, maximum turnover of 50 million euros or an annual balance sheet not exceeding 43 million euros.
• Midcap company: maximum corporate turnover of 300 million euros.
• The company must have been in operation for more than five years before the funding application is submitted. The age is calculated from the date of registration in the Trade Register.
• Your company must be a limited company.
• If your company is less than 5 years old and a small one by EU-definition, check out the Tempo financing service. If your 5-year-old company is a medium-sized or midcap company that continues the business of another company, contact BF's customer service. We will be happy to discuss the suitability of Market Explorer in this special case.

Committed team

• We do not fund single-person businesses.
• A minimum team consists of, for example, one full-time person and two part-time persons in Finland.

• Preparing an internationalization plan and strategy.
• Assessing the company's own export readiness as part of the project.
• Survay of the product's competitive advantage and value proposition in the target market.
• Survey of business opportunities.
• Market survey of an existing product in a new market.
• Survey of localization needs.
• Market analyses and survey of the competitive situation.
• Mapping and analyzing sales channels and partners.
• Examination of legal and standards requirements, and analysis of international product protection.

What the funding cannot be used for

• You cannot use Market Explorer funding for costs related to testing or applying for or expanding marking and product protection.
• Market Explorer funding is not granted to businesses that are not eligible for de minimis funding (primary production of agriculture, fishery and aquaculture).
• Furthermore, Market Explorer funding is not granted to resale companies: your company must have its own product or service offering.
• Costs related to production, advertising, marketing or sales, such as travel, brochures or advertising expenses are ineligible.
• The costs of test marketing, product development and piloting are no longer eligible.

Find a suitable service provider

• In the application stage, you must have a preliminary idea of the service provider from which your company will purchase expert services.
• You may change the service provider during the project if it is necessary in order to achieve your goal.
• The condition for granting funding is that the service provider has sufficient know-how and experience in providing expert services related to internationalization.
• Market Explorer funding cannot be used for purchasing services from other companies in the same group or from a provider associated with your company through, for example, ownership, membership of the board of directors or family relationship.

Search for international market experts through our Expert Search service

Ensure sufficient self-financing

• Market Explorer funding is an aid that will be paid to your company retrospectively, on the basis of the actual costs reported.
• Your company must have sufficient financing of its own for the realization of the project. Sufficient financing means that your company can cover the total costs of the project by itself, prior to receiving funding from Business Finland.

Cash flow forecast

General requirements for financing

Business Finland will not grant funding if:

• Suomen Asiakastieto Oy's Rating Alfa for the company is below A
• the company has arrears, payment defaults or other outstanding financial obligations related to previous loans granted by Tekes or Business Finland
• the company has not submitted its financial statements to the Finnish Patent and Registration Office in accordance with the Limited Liability Companies Act
• the company's financial statements have not been audited in accordance with the Auditing Act
• the company is not in the prepayment register
• according to the Finnish Tax Administration, the company has overdue taxes or payments for which a payment plan has not been agreed upon
• the company has neglected registration, notification or payment obligations related to other statutory obligations (for example, notification of beneficial owners to the Trade Register).

Check de minimis funding

Market Explorer funding is de minimis aid. Your company can receive de minimis funding no more than EUR 300,000 over any period of three years.

The company must assess, at the application stage, how much de minimis funding it has received in the previous years. Companies belonging to the same group or controlled by the same party (for example, same majority owner) are considered one company. Such aid is granted by a range of public organizations, such as Finnvera and the ELY Centers.

Read more about de minimis aid

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

The funding terms and conditions describe the costs that Business Finland can fund, how we monitor your project costs, and how you should report on the progress of your project.

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

Send your application and attachments via our online service. You can also keep track of the processing of your application in the online service.

Go to the online service

Set your project targets

In the application form, you will be asked to set 2–5 measurable targets for your project. The targets must be related to the concrete outcomes of the project and the development of your company's business. The project targets will be recorded in the funding decision and Business Finland will monitor their completion. The accomplishment of the targets has a significant impact when applying for potential follow-on financing from Business Finland.

Please describe the targets in the form "outcomes of the project upon its completion".

Examples of project targets:

• collected and gained information about a new market/customer group and the suitability of the product or service there
• surveyed the product's localization needs in the new market
• surveyed the legal requirements for entering the new market
• surveyed other issues regarding advancement in the new international market
• identified x potential collaboration partners
• identified x potential customers or customer groups

Project Plan

As a part of your application, we will ask you to submit a project plan. You can either type your plan in the application form, in the field ("Project realization: Please describe the intended use of the funding you are applying for") or attach it to the application in a separate file. If you do not already have a project plan, you can use the project plan template.

Please detail at least the following items in your project plan:

• What are the new export markets explored in the project (market area or customer segments)?
• Describe how the target market was selected and does it follow the company’s internationalization plan/strategy.
• Has your company previously explored the target market in a project for which public funding has been received and/or does the company already have operations in the target market?
• Describe the content of the project tasks by work package. Itemize the costs listed under purchased services (name of the potential service providers, the service intended for purchase and the estimated cost of the service).
• How would the funding support the development of products/services and the company’s internationalization plan?

Eligible costs

Business Finland can accept costs starting from the date the application was submitted, at the earliest.

Eligible costs within a Market Explorer are:

Purchased services

• Expert services related to exporting your product, service or business model to a new international market.
• Purchases from other companies in the same group and associated companies are not considered acceptable costs.

Purchased services unrelated to the creation of capacity required in international operations cannot be accepted as project costs, for example

• general business consulting services
• operational sales and marketing services (for example, translation services and creation of website)
• staff training

Other costs
Other costs will be accepted up to the amount of 20 per cent of the amount of purchased services. Other costs do not need to be itemised.