Doing things differently for two decades and counting
At the turn of the millennium, our founders wanted to set their own rules and built Futurice as a company where culture is key – and the rest, as they say, is history. Join us for a trip down memory lane and scroll through the timeline to see how it all began.
2000 to 2006
The early start-up and product house years
Futurice was founded to create an amazing place to work, right when the dot-com bubble was about to burst. There was a lot of loose cash around for almost anyone who could come up with a sufficiently outrageous business idea, but Futurice took a different approach: to develop products that had a real draw in the market. In our case, they were imaging products, small applications and bespoke agile software development for clients.
2000
Founded in Helsinki, Finland.
Started out developing imaging products and small applications.
First CEO: Markku Taulamo
Headcount: 5
2001
Established a long-lasting partnership with Nokia.
2003
Built hit B2C imaging service Kuvaboxi. Possibly the world’s first mobile app for uploading photos from early smartphones to the "cloud".
2004
Filed a patent for tagging people on photos and sharing photos based on that metadata.
2007 to 2009
Transformation into a tech consultancy
Having found our calling in consultancy work, we focused exclusively on that side of our business and sold off our product functions. This change came hand in hand with switching our official language to English and opening a new office in Tampere. With Nokia as our largest client, we bet heavily on a mobile future and expanded our focus to cover both tech and design.
2007
Sold the Kuvaboxi product business and became a 100% consultancy.
Changed the official company language to English.
Headcount: 40
2008
Adjusted consultancy focus to cover both technology and design.
Largest client: Nokia.
Opened a new office in Tampere, Finland.
Tuomas Syrjänen appointed as new CEO.
Ranked #1 on Deloitte Fast 50. We made the list for the next 10+ years.
2009
Bet on a mobile future.
2010 to 2015
International growth and expertise expansion
Driven by our growing international ambition and as well as the practical needs of our largest client Nokia, we opened our first German office in Berlin. Over the coming years, the business with Nokia began to decline, motivating us to systematically broaden our client base across several sectors. As Futurice grew into an innovation and engineering company capable of strategic partnerships and end-to-end services, the outside world also took note of our unique culture and way of doing things.
2010
International expansion begins in Berlin. Driven by actual projects with Nokia and others.
Started out working from local cafés.
Headcount: 115
2012
Achieved the first of two consecutive number 1 positions on Great Place to Work’s list for SMEs in Europe.
Opened our London office.
2013
CEO Tuomas Syrjänen was chosen as leader of the year by Finnish business magazine Fakta, based on Futurice’s unique culture.
2014
Launched the employee-initiated Spice Program, paying people for open source contributions in their free time.
2015
Helsinki office moved to downtown Helsinki.
2016 to 2020
Investigating what shapes the future might take
Our expansion shifted into a higher gear with new international offices as well as Futurice Family companies, a network of subsidiaries and spinoffs with a specialty focus. We made an explicit and early bet on the importance of data and artificial intelligence in the future of all work and business. Our exploration into cutting-edge technologies ramped up, as did our efforts to find effective ways to have a real impact on the world and people, both inside and outside Futurice.
2016
Launched the employee-driven Chilicorn Fund, an open-source social responsibility initiative.
Opened new offices in Stockholm and Munich.
Introduced the first Futurice Family company, Columbia Road.
Headcount: 375
2017
Groundbreaking facial recognition pilot at Helsinki Airport with Finnair and Finavia.
2018
Made a bet on AI and data as the next game changer.
Teemu Moisala appointed CEO with former CEO Tuomas Syrjänen moving to head new AI initiatives.
Opened a new office in Oslo (closed in 2021).
Launched two new Futurice Family companies, Aito.ai and Thriv (initially known as Tentimes)
2019
Opened a new office in Stuttgart.
Berlin and Munich offices moved.
2020
Founded a new Futurice Family company, Meltlake.
Resilience of company culture tested by the global pandemic.
2021 and beyond
The journey continues
World events continued to put our and our clients’ resilience to the test, both as people and as a company. We passed, but much work remains on building a resilient future for our people, clients and the world. We continue on our journey towards becoming a company focused on a positive and measurable impact.
2021
Simo Leisti appointed CEO.
Launched a new Futurice Family company, Recordly.
Stockholm office moved.
Headcount: 650
2022
Helsinki office moved.
New satellite office established in Freiburg.
2023 and beyond
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