1.
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

2.
Overview on Aalto Start-up Ecosystem
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2
© 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)

3.
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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4.
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

5.
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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6.
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

7.
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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8.
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

9.
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

10.
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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11.
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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12.
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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13.
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.

14.
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