Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) congratulates FOM Technologies A/S (Nasdaq First North GM Denmark: FOM) on being selected as Rising Star and Nanoform Finland Plc (Nasdaq First North GM Finland and Sweden: NANOFH and NANOFS) as Star of Innovation in the annual European Small and Mid-Cap Awards 2021 last night. Independent investment research startup Enlight Research OÜ from the Baltics submitted to the competition by Nasdaq Riga was also announced as the winner of the Special Mention. The Award, which has been organized for nine consecutive years, is a joint initiative by the European Commission, leading European securities exchanges and EuropeanIssuers, and aims to promote best practices and encourage more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access capital markets via IPOs.
Each year, small and mid-cap companies are nominated for four separate categories which include International Star, Rising Star, Star of Innovation, and Star of 2021. The independent jury, set up by the European Commission, selects a shortlist of three companies per category. The jury also selects a company to receive Special Mention which aims at recognising an initiative, an individual or a company which has had a significant impact on small and mid-cap issuers accessing capital markets. The winners were announced during the Awards Ceremony hosted by the European Commission during its annual SME Assembly in Slovenia last night.
“SMEs play a critical role in the creation of jobs and economic growth across Europe, and it is important to highlight those that successfully have leveraged the public market as a catalyst for expansion,” said Adam Kostyál, SVP and Head of European Listings, Nasdaq. “These are not only exciting wins for FOM Technologies, Nanoform Finland and Enlight Research, but yet another success story coming out of our European markets. Nasdaq is the leading European market for SME listings and we are looking at a record year. When closing Q3, we had already reached our historical yearly record. We will continue our efforts to keep Nasdaq First North Growth Market the leading growth platform for SMEs.”
“FOM Technologies is among the large group of smaller Danish companies that chose to enter the stock market which shows the great interest in IPOs among investors and entrepreneurs in Denmark”, says Carsten Borring Head of Listings in Nasdaq Copenhagen. “FOM Technology has developed a unique technology with great advantages over current solutions, as research can be done faster, with less waste, and with an opportunity to scale research to industrial production. We want to congratulate Michael Stadi, CEO of FOM Technologies and his team on this amazing achievement “.
“As an innovative nanoparticle medicine enabling company, Nanoform Finland embodies the innovation that we at Nasdaq would like to encourage and embrace, and we are proud to have the company listed both on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland and Sweden. We want to congratulate CEO Edward Haeggström and the entire team at Nanoform Finland on this great achievement,” said Henrik Husman, President of Nasdaq Helsinki.
Enlight Research enables SME’s to get exposure to institutional and private investors by providing in-depth analysis of Baltic listed companies. As all analysis is freely available equally for private and institutional investors as well as public, it provides transparency and visibility of the companies’ activities and prospects. Majority of Baltic companies are SMEs.
“Enlight Research has done a remarkable job helping Baltic listed companies become more visible by increasing the availability of independent research. It is thus playing an important role in the development of retail investment in the Baltics. Having more research helps both companies and investors: investors are able to make better informed investment decisions, and listed companies benefit from much needed visibility," said Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne, the CEO of Nasdaq Riga and Head of the Nasdaq Baltic Market. “We congratulate the founder of Enlight Research Mattias Wallander and his entire team at Enlight Research on winning the Special Mention award,” added Auziņa-Melalksne.
