The Giosg story began in 2011 when CEO Ville Rissanen came up with the vision of creating an online digital environment for companies that would be as easy to use as a kiosk. The name of the company, Giosg, is also derived from this vision of a kiosk.
“Ville and I worked at the same company at the time and we got to know each other. Ville started thinking about ways to develop and streamline our processes in order to make our service as easy as possible to use without having to be proficient in coding. Everything would be handled automatically in the background,” says Jussi.
The first product arrived on the market at exactly the right time, when chat services were becoming widespread. The timing was also perfect for developing easy-to-use SaaS solutions.
“We hit the right slot, as the SaaS business was off to a flying start and consumers and businesses started boldly trying out the solutions. The chat launched by Giosg was unique in that it combined real-time analytics that companies could utilise. When Ville presented the solution to me in 2011, it resonated immediately. I knew there would be demand for it. This kind of solution was what most of the companies running an online store were looking for,” Jussi says.
The chat launched by Giosg was unique in that it combined real-time analytics that companies could utilise.
From the start, there has been one principal idea behind all the products developed by Giosg.
“The aim is that we talk only about business with customers, and they don’t have to know IT to use the products. If you want to move a box, a dropdown menu or a button on a webpage, the coding takes place in the background without the user having to worry about it. In addition, we use real-time data,” Jussi explains.
It is precisely this feature that separates Giosg from its competitors.
“We can track in real-time what choices the consumers make and react to them immediately. We can make real-time data visible even to an individual salesperson or customer service employee. This is a feature that even large competitors dream of. It’s not easy to add if it wasn’t originally built into a product. In our products, it’s been there from the get-go,” Jussi says.
In the early years, Giosg offered a chat service that can be added to a website or online store. Nowadays, the company offers a wide range of tools for sales, marketing or customer service, for example.
“Today we have two main categories, as the chat has expanded into a whole portfolio of digital communication solutions. Customers can use our products to integrate Messenger, Whatsapp or video conference calls. The second category is the automation tool Interaction Builder, which companies can use to introduce various bots. The customers use them for surveys, feedback, discount coupons, lead forms, loan calculators... you name it,” Jussi explains.
A large part of the value created by the Startup & Growth unit comes from understanding the playing field and bringing this insight into the bank’s business at many different levels. The competence is evident in the fact that they recognise the differences between various growth companies and adjust their financing solutions, if necessary.
Over the years, Giosg has grown from a small company with two employees into a multinational enterprise employing 70 people. Most of them work in Finland, but some work in other countries. The company has had multiple sources of funding, including Nordea financing solutions, investors, employees investing their own money and Business Finland.
“Business Finland is a major partner. Besides helping us with funding, they run various programmes depending on the industry, enabling us to network with similar companies. We’ve managed to complete some big projects through cooperation with partners, including product development projects and international growth projects,” Jussi says, adding:
“In addition, we’ve received all kinds of assistance from Nordea for our banking and financing and for contacting investors. We participated in the Investor Speed Dating programme the first time it was held in 2020 and last year again at Slush. There we found a potential investor with whom our negotiations concerning financing have progressed. You can’t win an investor’s trust in an instant, as it may require a track record of several years.”
Nordea’s Startup & Growth unit recognises differences between growth companies and customises its solutions to meet their needs.
“A large part of the value created by the Startup & Growth unit comes from understanding the playing field and bringing this insight into the bank’s business at many different levels. The competence is evident in the fact that they recognise the differences between various growth companies and adjust their financing solutions, if necessary. The business logic in B2B SaaS is different from that of, say, a renovation company,” Jussi says.
The company feels positive about the future even though the economic outlook across the world doesn’t seem very bright.
“The digitalisation trend is strong, it’s actually so strong that we believe it will see us through an occasional recession. Over the next few years, international expansion will be a strong theme, be it through partners, subsidiaries or business acquisitions,” Jussi says.
Sustainability is already a factor that has to be accounted for in the business, and in the future its importance will grow in all areas of the company’s operations.
“If you’re in the B2B business and intend to work with large companies, you’ll have to deal with sustainability criteria already at the tendering stage. If you don’t, you’ll be left out. We’ve learned a lot about sustainability from our partners, and because we’re a relatively small player, we can quickly adapt our operations to comply with requirements. Meanwhile, investors report on the sustainability of their portfolio companies, so our job is to provide them with the relevant information concerning our company,” Jussi adds.
Nordea Startup & Growth specialises in serving high-growth companies and companies in their early stages looking for fast growth. The unit has an extensive network of partners that it uses to support growth companies in networking with private equity investors, accelerators and other growth stakeholders.
Get in touch with usNordea Investor Speed Dating is a virtual matchmaking event for high growth startups and scaleups seeking the right investors. Meetings are pre-booked one-to-one discussions between companies and investors, so this is not a pitching event.
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