Finland was one of few European countries to see growth in the amount of capital pouring into tech startups in 2020, according to Atomico’s State of European Tech report, with both Helsinki and nearby Espoo earning their place as major tech hubs. The country’s current ecosystem builds on past successes from the likes of gaming giants Rovio and Supercell, as well as more recent triumphs such as that of food delivery service Wolt. “Success creates success,” says Supercell co-founder and CEO Ilkka Paananen. He believes that Finland is “the best place in the world” to found a startup, thanks to the high quality of living – international talent is increasingly seeing the appeal. This year’s hot startups span a wide range of sectors, but many have an interest in sustainability.
IQM
A spinout from Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, IQM makes quantum computing hardware using superconducting technology, and has ambitions to be a European quantum competitor to the likes of Google in the US and Huawei in China. To reach quantum advantage faster, IQM takes what it calls a “co-design” approach, building processors aimed at specific use cases. Co-founder and CEO Jan Goetz says that initial commercial applications will target “low-hanging fruit” such as new materials development and financial algorithms. “Step by step we will open up new markets, until we reach a stage of having a general-purpose machine that can solve any kind of problem,” he says. Founded in 2018, IQM has raised €71 million in private and public funding. meetiqm.com
Gubbe
A pandemic poses challenges for a business that involves visiting the elderly, but Gubbe co-founders Meri-Tuuli Laaksonen and Sandra Lounamaa believe that our experiences under Covid-19 have only highlighted the importance of companionship for older people’s wellbeing. Founded in 2018, Gubbe connects families of elderly people with students who visit and help out with tasks such as housework. “Our mission from the very start has been to give meaningful work to students and also create happier elderly people,” Lounamaa says. The students are paid, and Gubbe takes a commission (Lounamaa describes it as like Wolt, but for elderly care). Part of its success to date, Laaksonen says, is down to branding: Gubbe has made elderly care “trendy”, with young people on the platform keen to show off their work on social media. gubbe.io
Infinited Fiber
Following circular economy principles, Infinited Fiber takes textile waste and other rubbish and turns it into new textile fibres with the look and feel of cotton. It’s less about recycling, more about “regeneration”, says co-founder and CEO Petri Alava. To make its material, the company shreds and chemically cleans the waste before turning it into liquid cellulose, which can be remade into new fibres to be used in clothes production. At the end of the new textile’s life, it can be put back into the system. Founded in 2016, the company is now looking for a location in Finland to build its flagship factory. Collaborating with the likes of H&M, Patagonia and adidas, it aims to renew excitement in fashion for environmentally-conscious customers. “We want to be bringing back joy to the closet,” Alava says. infinitedfiber.com
Flowrite
Aaro Isosaari was working as CEO of Finnish accelerator Kiuas when he realised how much of his work was sending repetitive emails – “a lot of my days, I used to spend multiple hours on writing.” He had been following recent developments in generative language models when he founded Flowrite with CTO Karolus Sariola in September 2020. Their product is a browser extension that turns bullet-point prompts into full emails, making use of OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model. flowrite.com
Enfuce
Building a neobank wasn’t an ambitious enough proposition for Enfuce co-founder and CEO Monika Liikamaa. She wanted to use her experience in IT and banking to work with many neobanks, plus incumbents too. The result is a payment service provider with clients including Swedish neobank Rocker, Danish fintech Pleo and Swedish energy company St1. Enfuce’s My Carbon Action calculator also helps users track their carbon footprint based on transaction data. enfuce.com
Solar Foods
Solar Foods co-founder and CEO Pasi Vainikka describes his company’s mission as “disconnect[ing] food production from agriculture”. Founded in 2017 as a spinout from VTT, it uses a process of fermentation to make protein from microbes. The resulting powder ingredient, Solein, can be used in meat alternatives but also bread, noodles and dairy. With total funding of around €35 million, Solar Foods plans to have its first production plant operational in 2023. solarfoods.fi
Aiven
Founded by four software engineers in 2016, Aiven builds cloud-based data infrastructure so that developers can focus on building applications without worrying about what’s happening in the background. It now has 1,000 customers and a global team of almost 200, and closed a $100 million series C funding round earlier this year. Investing further in open source is a priority, says co-founder and CEO Oskari Saarenmaa. aiven.io
Varjo
A veteran of WIRED’s hottest startups list, Varjo started shipping its latest generation of “human-eye resolution” virtual and mixed reality headsets, the VR-3 and XR-3, in March 2021. The company counts the likes of Audi, Siemens and Boeing among its clients and has now raised more than $100 million since its inception in 2016, including a $54 million series C round in 2020. varjo.com
Swappie
Jiri Heinonen and Sami Marttinen founded Swappie after running into scammers while trying to buy a used iPhone online. Their solution: a marketplace that professionally refurbishes iPhones so that people can buy and sell second-hand without the stress (and reducing e-waste to boot). A Series B funding round in June 2020 brings Swappie’s total funding to €40m and cements its place as a Finnish startup success. swappie.com
Sulapac
Sulapac takes on the plastic waste problem by making sustainable packaging alternatives. Its biodegradable products, which range from single-use straws to luxury packaging for beauty products and food, are suitable for industrial composting and can be made using existing plastic product machinery. Founded in 2016 by Suvi Haimi, Laura Kyllönen and Antti Passinen, Sulapac has raised a total of €17m, with investors including Chanel. sulapac.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
