Finlanding program for startups

Every year since 2015 the GoTech Innovation team along with partners from Finland conducts a program of events for startups from the Russian-speaking countries, ready for entering the European market. The program includes Finlanding nomination at the GoTech contest, the pitch session of Russian startups to Finnish accelerators and companies. In 2015-2019, the Helsinki Centre in St. Petersburg, NewCo Helsinki and the Helsinki Business Hub established a special Finlanding nomination at the GoTech contest and took part in the GoTech Arena (booth, pitch session and 1-on-1 meetings in Deal Room). Finlanding winning companies took part in the largest startup event in Northern Europe, Slush. In December 2018 within the framework of Slush event GoTech Innovation together with Helsinki Centre, NewCo Helsinki and Helsinki Business Hub also held a side event that was attended by more than 100 people.

In the fall of 2020, the Finlanding-branded program took place online. The GoTech Innovation team has prepared a landing page on the TechScout platform with an application form. Amid the pandemic, 141 applications were received. An online pitch session was organized for 14 companies selected by the Helsinki Centre, NewCo Helsinki and the Helsinki Business Hub.

Annually in Finlanding pipeline come over 200 new startups, 30-40 companies take part in pitch sessions or meet personally with representatives of Helsinki Centre. 3-5 companies by the results of selection receive consulting support for scaling of the product to the European market, assistance in registration and business development in Finland, access to the expert community, invitations to accelerators and the opportunity to raise funding.

Through the efforts of the GoTech Innovation team, a large funnel of promising companies has been assembled for 5 years already, many of which managed to launch piloting their solutions in Finland. From year to year, the quality of startups is increasing, the GoTech Innovation team always completes tasks on time, works flexibly and shows a high customer focus.