The Aaltoes kids and Startup Sauna are at it again, putting together another Slush conference November 13-14th in Helsinki. 1,000 startups from Europe and Russia are expected to pitch, giving good deal flow to Investors. In return, this year they hope to attract €60 billion represented by VC’s at the event. Joining them, Slush hopes to attract 5,000 attendees this year again at Kaapelitehdas.
“Already last year we were honored to host 30 billion euros worth of venture capital from over 50 international VC funds. Based on the initial response we’ve gotten this year, we’re expecting the number of arriving funds to more than double — there’s now a lot of top talent looking for funding here”, says Miki Kuusi, the main organizer of Slush.
Keynotes at Slush 2013 include former Nokia Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila, founder and CEO Taizo Son of GungHo, founder and former CEO of DeNA Tomoko Namba, and John Lindfors of Digital Sky Technologies. Founder talks include Ilkka Paananen from Supercell, Markus Pasula, Founder and CEO at Grand Cru, plus Jacob de Geer, Foudner and CEO at iZettle.
Last year’s attendance was said to be somewhere around 3,500 people. We had a fun time, but I’m not sure how many people last year were thinking to themselves, “you know what would make this conference better? 2,000 more people.” But regardless it should be an action-packed couple of days, and it’s fairly amazing to see that many people together discussing startups and entrepreneurship in Helsinki.
Tickets are a little steeper this year, with basic early-bird tickets are running €200 for attendees and pitching startups, with a 50% reduction given to very early-stage startups. Student tickets are also available on their website. Slush is a non-profit organization.
“International interest in Northern Europe has grown immensely, and Helsinki is at the very center of it all. From the perspective of international investors and the global media, local startups have never been in such a strong position to succeed”, says Peter Vesterbacka, CMO at Rovio and co-founder of Slush.
