Slush 2018
WORLD’S LEADING STARTUP EVENT.
During what is – let’s be honest – the sh*ttiest weather season of the year, Slush brings together the leading actors of the global tech scene to Helsinki for something very special. Described by many as “Burning Man meets TED”, the event has grown in just a few short years to 20,000 attendees and 1 million live stream viewers.
In 2017, over 2,600 startups, 1,500 venture capitalists, and 600 journalists from over 130 countries gathered to Slush to drive business, and to experience the phenomenal atmosphere.
NOT THE CALIFORNIAN SUN, BUT HONEST SLUSH.
Slush has grown from a 300 person assembly to a world-renowned event, now spreading globally. The philosophy behind Slush has remained the same: to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward.
CELEBRATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
Held during the darkest time of the year in Helsinki, Finland, Slush has always been characterized by a unique energy and enthusiasm. The very core of Slush is to facilitate founder and investor meetings and to build a world-wide startup community.
Slush is a student-driven, non-profit movement originally founded to change attitudes toward entrepreneurship. In 2016, Slush was organized in Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore.
ONE-OF-A-KIND COMMUNITY.
Think of Slush as a collision of a festival and a conference. It’s not a business, but a community of people who love what they do.
Slush is run by the youth who want to make a difference in their societies. Several successful entrepreneurs such as Niklas Zennström (Skype & Atomico), Taizo Son (GungHo), Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), and Risto Siilasmaa (Nokia) among others, have already become a part of the non-profit initiative that is radically changing how entrepreneurship is perceived in Northern Europe, Japan, and China.
Arctic15
The most effective matchmaking startup event in the Nordics and Baltics.
The focus is on making deals and quality networking. We have 15 Tracks focused on various topics, industries and technologies from Talent and Digital Health to Smart Cities and Virtual Reality. Industry players can use the time efficiently and gather under one roof. The core of it all is 1-on-1 meetings in Deal Room. Networking is optimized to the absolute maximum with Pre-Event Matchmaking, Ad-Hoc Meetings, Networking Areas, Side Events, Workshops and Roundtables.
Arctic15 is optimal size. We bring together 450+ startups, 300+ investors, 150+ corporates and media from 60+ countries.
Our Speakers
Deal Room
40% of Arctic15 meetings lead to real deals. We provide an online matchmaking tool and app prior to the event. That enables you to screen other participants and pre-book 20 minute meetings to efficiently plan your business days. Our online matchmaking tool and app allows you to make requests to all of our participants: Speakers, Investors, LP’s, Media, Entrepreneurs, Corporate Reps.
During the event we have a dedicated space with private tables for each meeting. You can also book a table during the event. All services are included in the ticket price.
Over 3500 meetings held in 2016 and 4000 in 2017. Get ready for your business day.
Investors
We couldn’t be more honoured to host some of the most innovative investors to come from all over the world. See the full 2017 list here.
Quality networking is the name of the game and we are proud to have one of the best startup-investor-corporate ratios of any startup event out there. People do not hide their badges at Arctic15, as the ratio is just right.
Survey: Exits by Finnish BA’s are profitable, but the risks are high
A new study on the profitability of angel investing, made by the Finnish Business Angel Network (FiBAN) together with Ruben Moring (Åbo Akademi University), is the first broad study on the national angel activity in Finland. This is the largest study made about the angel exits in the Nordics.
By Claes Mikko Nilsen
For professional angel investors, the role of exits is vital and maintains interest towards startup investing. The study covered 126 business angel exits measuring the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) that observes the profitability of the whole investment lifecycle. The key results of the study show that the pooled IRR is 25% and overall realization multiple is 3.75. This shows that the IRR of the exits of professional business angels in Finland is excellent and in line with international studies. However, more than a half (54%) of the exits that were reported during the survey were unprofitable. Also these results are in line with the general risk level of the business angels.
The survey included only one IPO and no unicorn exits. Therefore, the results show that also smaller exits can be quite successful. The average holding period in Finland was 5,5 years, which is longer compared to the international level. Finnish business angels have also been very active with their portfolio companies; on average they have used 28 hours in a month for a company.
“This survey is an excellent initiative to raise understanding on the profitability on angel investing, and compare the activity internationally. By these means, the results seem excellent. Even if an entrepreneur is not expected to actively think of the exit possibilities, for many investors this is a matter that needs to be planned.” comments Torsti Tenhunen, Chairman of FiBAN, in a press release.
Investors with exits behind them bring positive returns
Even though the returns have been excellent it’s important to notice the high risk of angel investing. Investors’ experience and activity in the startup scene avails the probability of making positive exits.
“It’s been interesting to compare the results of the survey to my own exits. I can see that gaining more experience in angel investing, and having wider network covering the startup ecosystem really supports my possibilities towards positive exits. In my experience, many investors that have made exits will do new startup investments.” says Riku Asikainen, Vice Chairman of European Business Angels Network (EBAN).
FiBAN will continue making and developing IRR survey also in the future, aiming to make Finland one of the leading countries comparing startup data to business angel activities.
Slush 2017
WORLD’S LEADING STARTUP EVENT.
During what is – let’s be honest – the sh*ttiest weather season of the year, Slush brings together the leading actors of the global tech scene to Helsinki for something very special. Described by many as “Burning Man meets TED”, the event has grown in just a few short years to 17,500 attendees and 1 million live stream viewers.
In 2016, over 2,300 startups, 1,100 venture capitalists, and 600 journalists from over 120 countries came to Slush to drive business, and to experience the phenomenal atmosphere.
Five startups will represent Finland in the Final of StartUp Europe Awards
More than 16 startups from six cities all over Finland were competing for a prestigious StartUp Europe Awards in a National StartUp Europe Awards Pitch Competition, brought to Finland this year by Nordic Female Business Angel Network sponsored by NewCo, Helsinki Business Hub, Nordea and Slush.
The organizer NFBAN received 22 applications from Kotka to Turku and Tampere. 16 semi-finalists were invited to an online pitching event on November 16. Each startup had a time slot of 10 minutes, during which they were pitching their company for 5 minutes and had 5 minutes to answer questions from 6 members of jury, representing experts from 3 different countries with diverse industry backgrounds, active and well established within the startup ecosystem.
High quality of presentations made jury’s task of selecting finalists and a winner quite a challenge. In the ceremony held at Newco on Thursday 24 November, from a shortlist of 8 finalists, were chosen five outstanding startups to represent Finland in the European final of StartUp Europe Awards.
PromoRepublic, a Finnish SaaS that helps Small Businesses and Marketers create amazing social media posts based on the context of the day: holidays, trends and events,will represent Finland in the ICT Category, and they also received first prize of the Pitch Competition.
For the ENERGY category, the winner isTespack, specialized in providing a complete mobile energy experience by combining latest technology and renewables with a focus on generation of energy on-the-go.
Heimo, the anonymous & safe online community for untellable stories, was chosen in the category of SOCIAL.
For the TOURISM Category the jury chose Duara, a platform for communities in low-income countries to offer home stay experiences to impact-minded travelers.
Finally, Bryom wicht urns smartwatches into a personal safety system replacing most elderly care wearables, devices and sensors with a single nice looking smart watch, will represent Finland for the category of HEALTH.
StartUp Europe Awards is promoted by the European Commission and supported by the President of the Committee of the Regions, several members of the European Parliament as Ambassadors and it is implemented by Finnova Foundation in collaboration with Startup Europe
For more information please contact Florence Korhonen, founder and Chair at NFBAN – Nordic Female Business Angel Network: email: [email protected], mobile: +358 40952 6370.