Greater Helsinki Boosts Startup Ecosystem with Strong Founder Connectedness
Finland
Greater Helsinki
Early-Globalization Phase
Helsinki’s ecosystem is unique through its connectedness and ambition level. World-changing solutions are born out of encounters, joint efforts, and quick experiments, and Helsinki offers a functional and attractive platform for this.
Sub-sector Strengths
Gaming
Finland is among Europe’s top three countries in digital game development with 250 gaming enterprises — 30 of them exceed $1 million in annual sales. Finnish games, including Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, have been played by over a billion people globally. Docomo, a Japanese mobile operator, invested an undisclosed amount in Hatch in 2019, a spin-off of Angry Bird’s creator Rovio, to bring 5G gaming to Japan. In 2018, Small Giant Games was acquired by Zynga in a deal worth up to $700 million.
AI, Big Data & Analytics
Finland was the first EU country to publish a National AI Strategy, in June 2017. The free AI education program created by Reaktor and the University of Helsinki had nearly 90,000 people from 80 countries enrolled in the first four months, making ‘Elements of AI’ Finland's most popular online course. Giosg, an AI customer behavior tool, raised $5.3 million in venture funding led by Varenne Investment, and ZenRobotics, which uses AI-powered robots to sort through trash, raised $17 million in funding.
Why you should invest in Greater Helsinki
SOFTWARE STARTUP OUTPUT
600-900
GLOBAL AVG.
1,010
ECOSYSTEM VALUE
$3.4 bn
GLOBAL AVG.
$5 bn
Top 10 Global Ecosystem
Connectedness
Top 20 Global Ecosystem
Gaming
3
Exit Growth
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8
Output Growth
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4
Funding Growth
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Reasons to move your startup to Greater Helsinki
Low cost, high quality
The Greater Helsinki region offers entrepreneurs all the benefits of a Scandinavian lifestyle at a lower cost of living than larger tech hubs. Startups can hire excellent local talent at lower salaries than other ecosystems. The area attracts founders and investors from across the world to Slush each November, which has become a major global event.
Startup Community
Startup Genome
Partners & Members
MEMBER
Helsinki Business Hub
Nestholma
Arctic Startup
Espoo Innovation Garden
NewCo Helsinki
Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA)
Business Finland
Butterfly Ventures
Helsinki Think Company
Helsinki Games Factory
Maria01
xEdu Accelerator
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Local Ambassadors
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