The Anders Wall scholarship awarded to perceptive entrepreneur who renewed a traditional industry
"It is a great honour to receive the Anders Wall grant and proof that you can build something completely new in an old-fashioned and traditional industry that has not felt new winds for a while. It is thanks to our fantastic team that we have managed to achieve this and set a new standard for this industry," says Helenius.
The business idea came when Henrik and co-founder Johannes Salmisaari were abroad and the pandemic broke out. They noticed how ordinary goods suddenly became difficult to find in stores and wanted to find out why.
“After investigating further, we realised that the problem was not with producers or buyers, but somewhere in between. Wholesalers and distributors were struggling to deliver because of middlemen who could not sustain their operations. We realised that there was a need for a standalone e-commerce platform that could bring all actors together in one place and streamline logistics.”
By connecting industrial companies directly with European manufacturers of consumables, the marketplace has managed to avoid middlemen, enabling a shorter and stronger supply chain. In this way, the company has contributed to a more sustainable solution by avoiding unnecessary packaging waste.
In the first two years, the company grew to over 10 full-time employees, and today it has over 30 employees in seven countries, with more than 800 business customers and over 100 leading manufacturers in Europe on its platform. Currently, Droppe's team is working on expanding both the product catalogue and the manufacturer network with the goal of becoming the number one marketplace for industrial companies in Europe.
Click here Opens in new window to watch the feature with Henrik Helenius.
For more information, please contact:
Henrik Helenius, Droppe AB, henrik@droppe.fi
Fredrik Söderbaum, Anders Wall Foundation, fredrik.soderbaum@wallstiftelsen.se
Photo: The scholarship to Henrik Helenius was presented by Charlotte Wall at the Anders Wall Foundation's scholarship ceremony in Stockholm (Photographer: Kristian Löveborg).