Following-on from successful events in Madrid, Copenhagen, Munich and Prague, this year’s Ntegra Greenside European Technology startups showcase was held in Helsinki on 26th and 27th October, 2017.
Working with leading international law firm Bird & Bird, Ntegra selected Finland for its showcase due to the abundance of great engineering, coding and networking talent, nurtured in Nokia and leading Finnish universities, who are starting new and innovative technology businesses. With high levels of research, innovation and an active venture capital investment scene, our delegates enjoyed a wide range of interesting and thought-provoking presentations.
The technology showcase was hosted at Bird & Bird’s office in central Helsinki on Thursday, and by M-Files at the ‘Technopolis’ business park in the city of Espoo, west of Helsinki, on Friday.
Nokia’s status as the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer drove self-confidence in Finland throughout the 1990s and 2000s. At the top of its game, the company was delivering a quarter of Finnish corporate tax receipts and 4 per-cent of GDP. Its decline and near financial collapse was deeply felt by Finns, and contributed to a national economic crisis. Nokia is one of the things that Finns have been most proud of in their history, and its near-demise had a big impact. Nokia’s Q3 2017 results were released while we were in Helsinki and, thankfully, their technologies are once again driving strong profit growth.
A side-effect of the rise and fall (and rise again) of Nokia, has been the availability of highly trained and highly skilled technology professionals in a marketplace looking for alternative outlets. This coupled with a wide range of initiatives, put in place by the Finnish Government, aimed at plugging the gap in the economy, has resulted in a very active and buoyant start-up, venture capital and technology ecosystem, bringing many new and innovative products to market.
During our time in Helsinki, we saw presentations from startups : Enreach, Anaplan, Hoxhunt, Kompozure, The Curious Ai Company, Upcloud, Pivotal, Leaddesk, M-Files, Tosibox, Flashnode, Kontena, Aves Netsec, Haltian, Riisk And Poimapper.
