Tekes goes Mobile Office at the Arctic15

    Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, is going to have a solid presence at Arctic15: Exit Path this year as our Platinum sponsor. We’ve structured our conference to focus on business value for attendees, and Tekes has hopped on board with the concept, providing a mobile office to answer all the questions you may have about the grants, loans, and programs Tekes provides for innovative and growing Finnish companies.

    As Arctic15 is gathering startups from everywhere between Norway and Lithuania, I think one of the positive offshoots will be to have the region’s startups learn what’s unique about how early-stage funding differs Finland’s startup scene. For those of you out of the loop, the Finnish government through Tekes can provide different stages equity-free grants and loans to high-growth Finnish startups, usually tied to an external validation like a funding round. With this extra funding in the ecosystem, investors get more bang for their buck, and entrepreneurs can find themselves with a larger budget without diluting more equity.

    That’s my quick description, but to learn more about Tekes you should drop in the “House of Tekes” at Arctic15. Here Tekes will have a meeting room for one-on-one chats to hear startups’ quick pitch and then give feedback and to tell more about the practicalities and things to consider before putting in an application.

    Arctic15 will also be locked and loaded with meeting opportunities with investors, with some structured matchmaking, meeting tables ready to go, and even startup/investor speed dating. With Tekes also present, Finnish attendees could hypothetically get all their funding round fundamentals figure out on the spot.

    We’ve got a great lineup of speakers ready for you, including Trip Hawkins, Founder of EA and Digital Chocolate; Justin Waldron, co-founder of Zynga; and Aber Whitcomb, Co-founder and CTO of Myspace. To attend, register tickets to the Arctic15 taking place in Helsinki on May 27th and 28th. We have a great program and networking event ready for you!