The Start-Up Support Ecosystem in Finland

D.Camp RoundTable

Finpro (Finland Trade Center)

Yoon-Mee Kim

Senior Advisor

ym.kim@finpro.fi

April 28, 2015

Overview on Aalto Start-up Ecosystem

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© Finpro

Research within

Entrepreneurship

at Aalto Business

School

Aalto

Executive

Education

Ltd

Research

Start-up Center

Business Accelerator

Creative

Entrepreneurship

Training

Central Balticum

Entrepreneurship

Interaction programme

Aalto

E.S

Summer of Start-ups

Start-up Sauna

Start-up Sauna Accelerator

Program

Start-up Sauna Local

Events

Aalto Venture Program

PACE Summer Course

Small Business

Center

Aalto Center for

Entrepreneurship

(ACE)

Aalto Entrepreneurship Society – Aaltoes

• The biggest and most active entrepreneurship society in Europe

• Private and independent student association, founded and managed by and for Aalto

students

• Organise seminars, workshops, and other events for students and other people

interested in the startup scene

• Important actor in promoting entrepreneurship as a career choise among students and

communicating the opportunities available for support and funding activities

• Startup Sauna Seed Accelerator Program and Startup Life Internship Program were

created by Aaltoes. Aaltoes also started organising the annual event SLUSH which has

grown to be one of the largest startup conferences in Europe.

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Start-up Sauna : born out of AaltoES

http://startupsauna.com/

“Accelerating the most promising start-ups in the

Nordics, Eastern Europe and Russia”

“ A leading global network of serial entrepreneurs,

investors, and peers.”

“Currently 145 companies have graduated from Startup

Sauna since 2010, raising more than USD 37 million in

funding. “

“Startup Sauna is organised twice a year, the Spring

program in May-June and the Fall program in October-

November. The program takes place in our own co-

working space in Helsinki, Finland. “

“Summer of Start-ups” June-August ; annual 9 week

summer incubation programme (independent of

Startup Sauna) http://summerofstartups.com/

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Nordica

Eastern Europe

Russia

Aalto Entrepreneurship Society – Summer

of Startups

• What is it?

a 9-week full-time program targeted for ambitious people to help them get started with their own

businesses. Also get a place to work, coaching and the support of its community.

• Who is it for?

It’s for students and recent graduates with an idea for a startup and a passion to drive it forward!

• What happens during a program?

Get coaching from experienced coachest to enable your team to turn your idea into a viable

business

• When is it?

Starts on June 6th and ends on August 6th with Demo Day.

• Where is it?

The program will mostly take place at Startup Sauna, Espoo, Finland.

• How to apply?

Press the ‘Apply now’-button and send us your application. Remember to include a one minute

video about your team and/or idea. We will invite 20 teams to be interviewed in May and then

choose the best of the best to take part in Summer of Startups!

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Slush 2014

www.slush.org

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Slush 2013 Slush 2014

Attendees 7000+ people 13.000 +people

Companies 1200+ companies 3.600+ companies

Countries 68+ countries 79+ countries

Meetings 1960 pre-set meetings 7000+ pre-arranged meetings

funding USD 150 million in funding in

the six months following the

event

*Estimate : Investors with about 60

billion euros in venture capital come to

Slush.

Journalist 350 journalist from around the

world

500 journalist from around the world

Others 118 VC funds & 200 angel

investors

200 represented VC fundings

Demola

DEMOLA

In Demola, university students develop product and service demos together

with companies, creating new solutions to real-life problems. Demola

provides an inspiring atmosphere of creative co-creation and new learning

opportunities for students and professionals of different universities and

organizations.

Demola Summer Program : Demola’s summer trainee program offers

summer jobs for students who want to work on challenging projects with top

class project partners. In 3½ months, the teams create a demo, concept or

even a prototype with the help from Demola facilitators, workshops and

community events.

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Demola Tampere

• Launch of Demola Network in 2008

• 100 projects and 450 students annually

• 40 % of students are international

• Partner companies have licensed 80 % of the project

outputs and hired 15 % of Demola’s students

Demola, Tampere

Through this Demola project for ABB in 2013, I learnt how to communicate with people from different fields who have totally different point of view compared to me. I could also improve my English skills and understand how theories can be applied into real market situations.

Ms. Kim, GE International Inc. Korea

Demola, Tampere

Demos Helsinki : The Peloton Smart Retro

Accleration Program

http://smartretro.demoshelsinki.fi/

• Access to partnerships, mentors, users, communities and spaces

• Built for enabling startups and entrepreneurs to develop their products fast and efficiently by

bringing together decision makers, expert mentors, key stakeholders, user communities and

community leaders

• The 6-month program’s (12/2014-5/2015) events are located in Lahti, Finland, Stockholm,

Sweden and Oslo, Norway.

• intensive co-creation around your concept at innovation camps with the corporate and

public decision makers, experts and community leaders

• 2-month test-bed phase with real users

• local matchmaking events with a wider audience of potential partners during the test-bed

phase.

• The best two startups will be sent to pitch to investors in smart green innovation

conference Ecosummit, Berlin on 16–17 June 2015.

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Demos Helsinki : The Peloton Smart Retro

Accleration Programme

http://www.demoshelsinki.fi/en/projektit/peloton-the-makers-of-new-economy/

• Peloton has been joined by partners :

• The Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra),

• Ministry of Employment and the Economy,

• Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry,

• the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK),

• Companies :

food producers Fazer and Anton & Anton, Bonnier Publications, the S-Group network

of retail and service companies, hardware stores Starkki and Puukeskus, retail store

Stockmann, gardening and farming tool producer Biolan, and the Foundation for

Student housing in the Helsinki Region (HOAS).

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Vertical Accelerators

• HealthSPA ;

a non-profit association for health startups.

The largest health tech event in the Nordics, Upgraded Life Festival.

Serious Gaming

Main partners : City of Espoo and EIC ICT Lab

• Hardware HEL ;

HardwareHEL is the PRIME community for hardware startups and hw-minded

folks in Finland.

HardwareHEL embraces Internet of Things -devices, Wearables, Robotics,

Industrial Design, Smart and Stupid Gadgets, Clothing, Audio, Machinery, etc.

• Serious Gaming ;

The Serious Gaming Cluster Finland is a network of companies developing

products with a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. We are

working within five sub-clusters of Learning, Wellbeing, Environment,

Gamification and Simulation.

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TEKES Funding for Young Innovative Companies

(YIC) : Vigo

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Vigo is a business accelerator programme for

innovative young companies

The Vigo programme interconnects innovative

business ideas, internationally experienced

professionals in entrepreneurship and both public

and private funding.

Company accelerators invest capital and their

expertise to quickly develop the start-ups they have

selected, to make them suitable for investment from

the viewpoint of risk investors.

In 2009, Vigo set a target

to acquire EUR 200 million

in private funding for start-

ups within six years. Now

this target was reached

two years in advance.

Approximately EUR 160

million, stems from foreign

private investors and

business angels. More than

EUR 70 million of public

equity has been spent on

the target companies during

the Vigo Accelerator

Program.

The Vigo Accelerator Program founded in 2009 by the

Ministry of Employment and Economy aims at creating

new start-ups with growth potential in Finland and to

accelerate the growth and internationalisation of its target

companies. Tekes and Finnvera operate as public

investment funds.

Closing thoughts

- Students-driven social innovation

- Government driven vs. private driven

- How to create new values and be sustainable, not to be the

“boondoggles”

- if not born-global, it is cannibalizing.

- Reduce the number of start-up support orgs -> Scale up

- Collaboration is the competitive advantage

- What about the social-cultural difference? Entrepreneurship

education and start-up supports that fit with Korean culture