OP Lab

OP Lab is the startup collaboration unit of OP, a major Finnish bank. They seek startups to purchase innovations from as an early adopter, while also seeking for more mature startups to acquire.

Their focus is on solutions that are linked to fields of banking, insurance & finance in general. Fields such as fintech, insurtech, AI, biometrics, customer experience, and loyalty etc. are of interest to them.

They’re happy to connect with startups that are interested in the Finnish market.

AI4Cities

AI4Cities is looking for solutions that use articial intelligence to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption. The participating cities are Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris region Stavanger, Tallinn.

They’re seeking 40 consortiums to participate in phase 1 (up to €40k per company), of which 20 continue to phase 2 (up to €80k) and three to phase 3 (up to €240k).

An applying consortium can consist of one or more companies. The emphasis is on European companies (main applicant of consortium and at least 50% of the budget expenditure).

Companies can seek others to form consortiums with through the matchmaking of two pre-events as well as the form on the website.

Their applications are open from 1.12.2020 to 28.2.2021.

Contact through website and email: info@ai4cities.eu.

Rocket Cluster

Lithuanian cluster of engineering, design and production companies, specializing in products of at least one cubic meter in size and orders from €30k upwards. They’re especially able to orchestrate complex offerings, up to 50 suppliers for one project. Their focus is in metal and plastic production.

Their ideal customers are from the following sectors:

  • Micro- and macro-algae
  • Aquaculture & marine
  • Industry & offshore
  • Indoor and outdoor marketing

Their offering is most often used by companies with a TRL of 4-8, but sometimes as early stage as 2.

They are also happy to help in the technical part of writing applications for Horizon and other grants. They’re also interested in discussing helping companies where management team wants to simplify their involvement or move on to something else.

Access 4 Future

Access 4 Future is a market entry program for startups wishing to help people in the target countries get better access to healthcare: India, Niger, Philippines, Egypt, Thailand.

The program’s support includes connections locally (piloting), regionally and globally (scalability) and covers startups’ piloting costs. Each location has a different challenge for startups to help in, and they have different application periods during autumn 2020. Challenges include for example furthering the education and training of doctors.

The chosen solutions have to be scaleable. For example a solution that will be piloted in two hospitals might later expand to the state, then the country and finally internationally.

 

Salo IoT Campus

Salo IoT Campus is a community of high-tech companies, researchers and educational instutitions working together on a daily basis. They have over 100 companies and 2 000 people on working and studying on their campus.

They offer versatile premises, comprehensive services and an active expert community. They are seeking more companies and partners to join them in making a smarter future.

They’re based in Salo, Finland, approximately one hour from Helsinki.

Sampo Accelerator

Sampo Accelerator is a no-equity 3.5-week acceleration program ran by Mike Bradshaw, who was the Head Coach of Startup Sauna when that acceleration program was active. The program includes follow-up meetings and checkups after the program to support the founders’ growth path.

The program is optimized for first-time growth company founders. They’re looking for companies around launch, with a working demo but without significant customer numbers. The solution will be evaluated too when applying, but teams are the main focus. Teams typically have to have background in design or product development (ability to build a solution and generate interesting ideas).

The program is free until the company generates €1M of revenue profitably, at which point the company is suggested to make a small contribution to the accelerator’s founder community.

The coaches each have over three years of experience in building startups. They’re not investors, which enables them to offer an independent point of view.

Sampo Accelerator is ran three times a year, starting typically around October, January and April. They also organize a social gathering for alumni and coaches twice a year: the week before midsummer and around the time of Slush.

The Founder Institute Finland & Global Center of Excellence for Food Ecosystems

The Founder Institute runs two pre-seed acceleration programs in Finland: a general one for all founders, as well as a Global Center of Excellence for Food Ecosystems, interested in all food-related solutions.

Their program works for all founders, even those who don’t have an idea yet, until the stage of having good sales and the first professional investor on board.

The programs cost €599/€799 (early bird/regular fee), with a possibility to get a stipend to cover the costs. The participants also commit to a 4% warrant.

Equinor & Techstars Energy Accelerator

Equinor & Techstars Energy Accelerator seeks innovative startups within four critical areas of the energy sector: oil and gas, new business models, digitization and renewables. Equinor is a leading energy corporation in Norway, and the program’s physical parts take place in Oslo.

Techstars is a leading startup accelerator that has invested into over 2,100 companies and helped them raise $9.3B since 2007. They run approx. 50 programs every year, each investing into 10 companies.

Their application period for 2020 program is open until 11.10.2020, and the next application period will be open from July to October 2021, for the program that will take place in February 2022.

Techstars acceleration programs include a $20k stipend for running expenses and an optional $100k convertible loan in addition to the programs’ coaching and the network membership, in exchange for a 6% stake in the company (or higher based on the conversion rate on next round).

Techstars Ventures also does follow-on investments into their best performing portfolio companies, having co-led an investment round with Equinor of €4M. Many other funds also invest into Techstars companies.

Buildit Latvia

Buildit Latvia is a hardware-focused accelerator in Riga, Latvia. They invest into many startups in their program. Among its usual benefits the program acts as a due diligence for both sides to see if it’s a good time to work together for a longer term and make and take the investment.

They invest €20-50k initially from their pre-seed fund on companies. They can later follow up with up to €250k with their seed fund. For the pre-seed investments, the teams need to incorporate in Latvia. At the seed stage, they don’t need to stay there. All the companies they take in have to be willing and able to move into Latvia.

They have a preference for B2B, but take in companies with all client types.

Tampere Imaging Cluster

Tampere imaging cluster has 16 high-tech companies providing world-class solutions and research and development in imaging. They serve all industries that can make use of cameras and lasers, including but not limited to mobile device, vehicle, testing and automation, and security industries. The companies work in close collaboration with Tampere University.