The Finnish technology company Mariachi helps startups bring their inventions to market. Over the years the Kasvattamo incubator programme has brought Mariachi contract manufacturing customers and created new companies and significant export business. Still, it does not offer quick wins.
What do you do when electronics manufacturing threatens to shift from Finland to Asia?
The Turku-based electronics contract manufacturer Mariachi was confronted with this question, when a significant amount of electronics manufacturing shifted to the Far East and Nokia stopped producing its phones in Finland.
The move created a significant gap in Mariachi’s order book. What next?
Based on research and strategic planning, Mariachi created a new business concept called Mariachi Kasvattamo. It aims for mutual benefit: startups bring their products to market with support from a seasoned player, and Mariachi gains a new contract customer.
– This approach allows us to create more jobs ourselves while also generating new companies that employ people. Most of them are export-oriented, says Mariachi CEO Pasi Hatakka.
Comprehensive Support and Mentoring
Companies joining the Mariachi Kasvattamo programme are chosen through rigorous Dragon’s Den -style discussions that test the business potential of the idea and the team’s cohesion.
– We also use the programme to grow our own customer base, so software-only products or those outside hardware manufacturing are excluded, Hatakka says.
He estimates that about one in ten contract manufacturing customers comes through the programme.
Hatakka notes that the Kasvattamo programme is open to all industries, but it focuses on products designed for professional use. Mariachi specialises in equipment used in industry, health technology and telecommunications.
Mariachi supports programme participants in areas such as business planning, team expansion, securing funding, product development and manufacturing.
The goal is to bring products to market on a sensible timeline. According to Hatakka, Mariachi acts as both a pacesetter and a motivator for the startups.
-Sometimes inventors get so attached to their idea that they want to keep on developing it. We often remind them that not all funds should be spent on product development.
Building Long-Term Partnerships
One of the Kasvattamo startups is the health technology company CutoSense. Its first product, currently at the prototype stage, tracks the healing of venous ulcers.
WoundWatch helps in evaluating the best time to open a wound dressing, saving healthcare professionals’ time and making treatment more comfortable for patients.
According to CEO Tuomas Lundén, a key advantage of the Kasvattamo programme is that CutoSense has been able to purchase product development services related to electronics and mechanics from Mariachi.
– Thanks to the Kasvattamo programme, startups can develop even complex hardware systems, he says.
CutoSense has also used Mariachi’s facilities and learned early on what it is like to work with a contract manufacturer. According to Lundén, a key strength of the Kasvattamo programme is building a long-term partnership with Mariachi.
– This probably also involves developing the product further together.
Sustained Effort
The Kasvattamo programme does not offer quick wins, Pasi Hatakka emphasizes. Success requires the entire company’s commitment to the concept and a genuine desire to do good.
Over more than ten years, he has had over a hundred discussions with inventors, leading to 16 Kasvattamo companies. Eight of these have reached the stage of product manufacturing. The most rewarding part has been the wider employment impact beyond Mariachi.
– And if you add up all the revenue generated by the companies in the programme, it totals more than 100 million euros, Hatakka says.
Mariachi also collaborates with Business Turku. According to Pasi Hatakka, the Turku Startup Hub established by Business Turku is precisely what the region needs.
He thinks that the collaboration works both ways. Hatakka can direct early-stage entrepreneurs who are not suitable for Kasvattamo to the startup services. Conversely, the Turku Startup Hub can introduce Mariachi to new potential Kasvattamo companies.
Hatakka hopes that companies across various sectors will take a bigger role in supporting startups to boost Finland’s economic growth. Support from an established company can be crucial in bringing an innovation to market.
Tuomas Lundén of CutoSense is not at all sure the invention would have been developed into a product without Mariachi’s help.
– It might have remained just a prototype.
Text and pictures: Heidi Pelander