Tag Archives: startup

The Q1 2026 Startup Barometer reveals that the financial assessment of Finnish startups has hit its lowest level in the survey’s history. The “balance figure”—a metric where positive numbers indicate optimism—fell to 9.9 for member companies, down from 14.8 the previous quarter. When expanding the view to the entire startup ecosystem for the first time, that figure dropped even further …

A total of 465 startups from five continents have applied for this year’s Latitude59 startup competition, taking place in Tallinn in May. The competition’s grand prize fund has grown by €100,000, reaching €400,000.The Estonian Business Angels Network EstBAN will contribute up to €200,000 to the prize fund, while the Latvian Business Angels Network LatBAN will add up to €100,000. The …

CHICAGO — The Mark Anthony Group of Companies has officially announced the acquisition of The Finnish Long Drink, a move designed to accelerate the growth of the fast-rising ready-to-drink (RTD) brand and expand its availability across North America.The acquisition marks a significant milestone for both companies. Mark Anthony Group, the powerhouse behind White Claw, aims to leverage its massive distribution …

The funding raised by Finnish startups has reached historic levels, according to the latest impact report from the startup hub Maria 01. Sarita Runeberg, CEO of Maria 01, points out that economically challenging times have historically been the birthplace of many successful companies. She remains confident about the future. Finnish startups succeeded in raising capital in record-breaking fashion last year. …

The Polar Bear Pitching event, held for the tenth time, drew a significant number of international startups and media film crews to Oulu. The presentation by the Swiss company Ionic Wind was chosen as the best “ice hole pitch”—appropriately featuring modern cooling technology.Polar Bear Pitching is a business event where the main attraction is a startup pitching competition held in …

Greenstep has acquired 100 percent of the shares of Rundit Oy to strengthen its position in the European fund services market. The acquisition marks a new kind of strategic move for Greenstep, a company that has grown almost entirely through organic expansion until now. “We have been eyeing on some startups in the market, which could strenghten our position, says …

Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept in healthcare—it’s a fast-movingreality reshaping patient care, hospital operations, and disease prevention. According to the Heltech Market Analysis Report on AI in Healthcare (2025), the sector is projected to grow from $6.7 billion in 2021 to $67.4 billion by 2030, a tenfold surge that reflects a massive wave of innovation and adoption. From predictive …

AAC Technologies Pte. Ltd. (the “AAC”), a world-leading smart device solution provider and a company incorporated in Singapore and a fully-owned subsidiary of AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., whose shares are listed and traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the shares and other equity securities in Dispelix Oy, a technology leader in diffractive …

The global gaming industry is entering a golden age. With an expected climb to $206.5 billion by 2028, gaming continues to prove its resilience and dynamism. This steady 3% compound annual growth rate is not only a testament to the sector’s economic strength but also to its expanding cultural and technological relevance. Games are no longer just a pastime—they’re a …

Out of the hundred companies selected for the Slush 100 pitching competition, three of the most promising growth companies were filtered into the final of the Slush growth company event on Thursday, November 20. Diffraqtion, the company developing the Galileo 1 super-camera and the eventual winner, received a million-euro capital investment from venture capital firms General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures …

In June 2020 , it was announced that Pekka Lundmark would join Nokia on August 2020. Earlier this year, in February 2025, Nokia announced that Lundmark would step down as president and CEO on 31 March and be succeeded by Justin Hotard.However, Pekka Lundmark will continue to serve as an advisor to Hotard for the remainder of 2025 to ensure …

HELSINKI — In a world increasingly saturated with transactional travel, a Californian startup named Bubbl is setting out to redefine the meaning of a shared stay. Born from a simple, personal revelation, the platform layers trust, community tools, and a sense of belonging onto the concept of co-living, transforming strangers into an “instant tribe.” The inspiration for Bubbl came directly …

A seasoned serial entrepreneur, Anssi Kiviranta, had an epiphany in 2022. Despite the internet transitioning into the video age, company websites still looked largely the same as they did twenty years prior: full of static text and images. Kiviranta contemplated, “What if website navigation happened from one video to the next?”The idea mirrored popular social media services like TikTok and …

JYVÄSKYLÄ, FINLAND – USA Medical Electronix has established a subsidiary in Jyväskylä thanks to successful university cooperation. The company develops a home-use defibrillator, the software for which was completed in Jyväskylä. The cooperation supports the University of Jyväskylä’s goals for its engineering education, whose first Master of Science in Technology students will graduate in 2026. The development project offered engineering …

Polar Bear (Jason Brower) and MC Simo Kekäläinen put up an interval show. Startup companies competed this year in the Polar Bear Pitching event held in Oulu, Finland, in an exceptional location and under extraordinary circumstances. By the Oulujoki river, the weather was mild with temperatures above freezing and drizzling rain.The finals of the event featured ten companies, including five …

Interview with Ms. Sanja Hauser, founder of Betalane at Slushby Vahur Orrin In the fast-evolving digital marketing world, Zurich-based Betalane.ch has carved out a unique niche by focusing on startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Founded by Sanja Hauser, a marketing professional with years of experience in digital marketing, Betalane is reshaping how businesses approach marketing in the AI …

Pibox is a centralized/all-in-one remote collaboration solution developed for working with creative collaboration. It is used daily by the head of a production, music producers, managers and sound engineers. Now, Pibox has raised € 150,000 in funding from the Pitchdrive fund and several angel investors. Pibox was launched in 2018. The solution first raised interest among music producers, sound technicians …

One of the main themes at NEXT15 , the two-day tech conference that occurred concurrently with Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, was mobility. The conference attempted to answer the question “How will we move?” with all the opportunities and challenges that it implies. But zooming out and looking at the question in the context of the entire conference – with discussions …

Take your event to the next level. That is what EventEye offers their customers. Working as a freelance app developer Fredrik Hoel, CEO and co-founder of EventEye discovered that he kept doing the same thing over and over again. He started to question why he had to ‘reinvent the wheel’ every time he made an app for an event. He came up with …

It’s not about eating. It’s not even about cooking. It’s about socializing. Students from University of Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts have created Cook With a Local to enable people all over the world to connect with each other by cooking and eating a meal together. It all started out in 2013, as a part of …