Sensmet Strengthens Business Development and Sales – Janne Suhonen Starts as CCO

Janne Suhonen starts as the CCO of Sensmet

Janne Suhonen, MSc Electronics, eMBA, has been appointed as the CCO of Sensmet since September 2020. He will have a leading role in business development and he will also contribute to sales and marketing. Janne’s long experience in technology driven companies also helps developing the overall strategy for Sensmet’s sensitive real-time water analyser technology.

Janne has 25 years’ experience in photonics and spectroscopy. He worked over 15 years at the Technical Research Center of Finland – VTT, one of the leading European research organisations in spectroscopy and photonics. At VTT, he hosted several commercialisation projects where research results were transferred into business by start-up companies. In 2014 he co-founded a start-up company, Spectral Engines Oy, where he acted as the CCO. Spectral Engines rapidly grew up to 35 persons before it was acquired by Nynomic AG, Germany in 2018.

“After the acquisition I started to look for the next opportunity. I have known Sensmet’s founders, Kalle and Toni, since my VTT days and we have occasionally met each other in conferences and seminars. I was really surprised and impressed when we started to discuss about Sensmet’s new water analyser technology, its performance and potential applications. I immediately saw the potential of the technology, but I was also impressed about the Sensmet team. I’m happy to bring in my knowledge in business development, sales and marketing. I believe that my networks will support the company’s growth.”

Kalle Blomberg, CEO of Sensmet, is thrilled about the future collaboration with Janne. “Janne has definitely the knowledge which helps us to reach the ambitious goals we have set. It did not take long to finish our negotiations when both sides saw the business targets we can reach together. We have invested a lot to finish our technology platform and the product based on the proprietary µDOES® water analyser technology. Now it’s an excellent time to strengthen our sales, too”, says Kalle Blomberg about his feelings after signing the agreement.

Sensmet µDOES® (Micro-discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy) real-time water analyser was launched to the market in November 2019 at the Aquatech trade show in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The µDOES® is an innovative and cost-efficient product for comprehensive real-time metals analysis in water and allows for industrial process optimisation and compliance monitoring of wastewaters. The analyser can reach sub-ppm (part-per-million) metal detection sensitivity in various water sample types. Many water analysers are used in laboratory or natural water environments but Sensmet technology is designed to be used even for the harshest industrial water measurements. In addition, the price of the instrument should not be an issue as the business concept is based on Measurement-as-a-Service (MaaS) concept.

Sensmet has accomplished several successful analyser installations this year and the technology was selected as the best water analysis technology in a mining technology competition organised by the Brazilian Mining Hub open innovation initiative. Mining Hub, supported by leading mining companies, opened the opportunity for Sensmet to work with one of the largest mining companies, Vale S.A.