Flexmill: polishing your way to the future

Serving clients in the aerospace, marine and energy industries, Flexmill is a company that strives to deliver precision and quality in manufacturing. Based in Nurmijärvi, just north of Helsinki, Flexmill offers solutions for surface finishing by adapting robotic technology to the specific needs of production plants around the globe.

“Most of our customers are outside Finland, and we have our equipment installed in various factories in countries like the UK, USA, China, Singapore and Japan”, says Petri Kosonen, CEO. Flexmill’s machines specialise in the polishing and finishing of airfoils, engine structures, propellers, gears and other geometrically complex machine parts that are used in ships or jet engines for example, with companies like global aircraft engine manufacturers among its customers.

Originally, Flexmill was a small part of a larger company active in the consumer electronics sector, making up only around 6% of overall turnover and falling outside the company’s core business. “We felt that, by spinning-off from the mother-company, we could develop the business more in the direction we wanted to take it. We were looking for an external partner to share that ambition and invest in our business plan,“ explains Petri.

To that end, in mid-2017, the company secured an equity investment from Verso Ventures II, backed by EIF. “With the support from Verso Ventures, we bought out Flexmill and Verso became our main shareholder, helping us on the business-side with guidance and support” Petri adds.

“Without the investment, we would have remained in the mother company and certainly been much smaller”, Petri explains, “We would have been a business unit without full interest and support from the main organization. After the investment we hired people for sales and manufacturing and plan to continue recruiting and growing.” For the future, the company plans to invest further in its sales force and product development. “R&D is definitely something we need to work on constantly,” Petri says, “we are an innovative company with several patents, but we want to go beyond developing projects for customers, and become a true technology provider”. In addition, Flexmill is looking to expand to cover after-sales services, such as maintenance and repair.

Company: Flexmill (Finland)

Type of business: manufacturing

EIF financing: EIB Risk Capital Resources

Financial intermediary: Verso Ventures II

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Ireland, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/fi/index.htm