Slush week started - Vantaa Energy Scouting Forum engaged great community in the event of excellent presentations and networking.

Vantaa Energy scouting forum was a great opening of Slush week for over 60 Finnish and international startups, investors, corporate participants and others interested in novel approaches!

Director of economic development Tommo Koivusalo elaborated in his opening remarks how innovative and business-oriented City of Vantaa is today. Vantaa offers top-quality consultations, testbed and pilot opportunities, excellent networks and other services. 

“Contact us - International startups, talents and businesses are welcome to join us in Vantaa, we promise to get back to you within 48 hours,” this is the clear and strong message delivered by Tommo.

In his reserve pitch Matti Wallin, business director for Energy Service Business of Vantaa Energy, welcomed startups to join in the common journey towards carbon-negative goal with an ambitious target 2030. “We are known as a forerunner in the energy sector and are actively seeking innovative energy solutions. We are now looking for startup partners that are able to develop new solutions, including but not limited to carbon sequestration, capture and utilisation, management of waste flows and not forgetting the significance of data and analytics” - attested Matti.

Innovestor Group - one of the biggest and most successful VC funds in Nordics act as an investment partner of Vantaa Energy. They scout and evaluate startups and innovations doing this on a permanent and continuous basis. Innovestor Group plans to invest over 100 million EUR in early-stage tech startups. Together with Vantaa Energy they form a unique combination of VC-capital and customer. This means great piloting opportunities for any startup capable of presenting great products and services with sustainable technology in mind, proven traction and a strong team.

In addition, we heard about two excellent business cases. Cases Virta and Carbonate are impressive success stories. They demonstrated how cooperation with Vantaa Energy accelerated their growth from innovative idea to the international success.

Metropolia University of Appliced Sciences is the place for startups to accelerate their development. They may utilize existing collaboration platforms, for example in the area of circular economy or related to Industry 4.0 applications.

The last part was the highlight of the event for start-ups, the pitching session. Nine promising startups presented their excellent new offerings. These included e.g. smart city, smart grid, innovative materials, smart mobility and robotics solutions. Robolaunch (Turkey), Mayak (Finland), Nelinor (Finland), Hive Power (Switzerland),  Zero Gravity (Finland), Exaum (Finland), University of Tampere spin-off with next generation smart-solid oxide cells and Robosharing (Finland) had their chances to conquer the stage.

German startup Beagle offering on-demand aerial data was selected as the best pitch of the event by expert jury!

The first Vantaa startup-event full of inspiring stories, outstanding pitches and super effective networking was a great milestone offered by innovative, sustainable and startup-friendly City of Vantaa.