We're glad to share a milestone for the company: Nordic Intelligence Labs Oy has been awarded a business start-up grant co-funded by the European Union, through the Leader programme, to work on Communic8, an AI-based virtual assistant for modernising digital communication. The funding will help us to get started on building Nordic Intelligence Labs as a business.
What Communic8 is
Communic8 is an AI-based assistant aimed at renewing how organisations handle digital communication. The objective is a virtual assistant that takes the repetitive, time-consuming parts of communication work off people's plates, so a small team can produce and manage more without growing headcount. The first version's development goal is to enable the automated processing of large amounts of unstructured text data, starting from email.
The grant we've now secured is what lets us commit to producing the first version of Communic8.
What the funding covers
This is a start-up grant (yrityksen käynnistystuki) under Finland's rural development funding for 2023–2027. It supports the practical work of getting the business and the product off the ground, such as creation of Graphic design and a digital image library, Communications training and consulting, purchasing Development hardware getting ourselves a rented working space.
The total approved project is €7,500, made up of three sources by the European Union (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development), the Government of Finland, and Municipal funding via the Leader group.
Who's behind the decision
The grant comes from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (2023–2027), the EU's instrument under the Common Agricultural Policy for supporting rural enterprise. The local Leader Länsi-Saimaa ry action group reviewed and endorsed the project, and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Southeast Finland (Kaakkois-Suomi ELY Centre) made the funding decision in August 2025.
Leader is the EU's model for community-led local development: funding decisions are shaped by local action groups who know the region, rather than dictated from far away. For a company built in Taipalsaari, in South Karelia, that's a fitting way to get started. And we are grateful to Leader Länsi-Saimaa and the ELY Centre for backing the work.
What's next
With this grant, we'll keep building toward capable, trustworthy AI. Thanks for following along.