Finland may have a population of just 5.5 million, but the country has a proven ability to turn out global startup success stories from Nokia and Rovio to Wolt and KONE. Some 4,000 startups are currently located in the country, and the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is the beating heart of its startup scene. Slush, a student-run tech conference, brings international and domestic entrepreneurs and investors to Helsinki every November. Junction started out here as a single hackathon, but has developed into a series of tech events around the world. The Otaniemi-Keilaniemi area in Espoo is an innovation hub — home to startups, corporations, and R&D institutions including Aalto University and the Technological Research Centre of Finland VTT. In recent years, several domestic venture capital funds with more than €100 million ($109 million) in assets have emerged in Finland. Longtime players in the local investment scene have also successfully marketed the nation to global investors. Finnish companies received €929 million (around $1 billion) in private investment in the first half of 2021, an all-time high. The average investment in Helsinki area startups is now $408,000 at seed stage and $2.7 million at Series. A. Many Helsinki area accelerators and incubators, including Nordea Startup Accelerator and Kiuas, invest in early-stage startups. Government start-up grants offer new entrepreneurs around €700 ($763) per month for 12 months while they get their businesses off the ground. With its track record of producing unicorns, Finland also now has serial entrepreneurs who are reinvesting the money they made from successful exits in the country’s ecosystem.