About GEN in Finland

Finland was one of the founding countries of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), participating in the inaugural campaign in 2008 alongside 76 other nations. The first national campaign was hosted by the Helsinki School of Economics Small Business Center, which engaged 32 partner organizations that held 500 events in its first year, reaching tens of thousands of participants. When Aalto University was formed in 2010 through the merger of three Finnish universities including the Helsinki School of Economics, the Small Business Center continued as the national GEW host under the new institution. 

Anne Gustafsson-Pesonen led the national GEW campaign for many years, first through the Aalto University Small Business Center and later as the Center moved to South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk), which has continued as the national host. The campaign expanded steadily over its first decade, with new ecosystem actors joining each year. Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes) joined the GEW community in 2013, broadening the campaign's reach into Finland's student-led entrepreneurship movement, and went on to coordinate the national campaign for several years before the host responsibility shifted to Xamk. 2013 also saw former Aaltoes president and Slush co-founder Miki Kuusi speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Rio de Janeiro.  

GEW Finland has hosted a wide range of programming over the years, from the Innovate or Die national competition to entrepreneurship education cruises connecting Finnish and international educators, and large-scale Junior Achievement camps at Saimaa Stadiumi. Finland also hosted the country's first ever Startup Weekend as part of the campaign in its early years, helping seed a culture of weekend-format ideation and prototyping that has since become a fixture of the Finnish ecosystem. 

Finland has been an active member of GEN's Startup Nations community of entrepreneurship policymakers, with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment representing the national government, and the Cities of Helsinki and Espoo engaging as municipal members. 

Finland also embedded a Policy Hack into the 2019 EU SME Assembly hosted in Helsinki. This brought together officials from across the EU to apply the iterative methodology developed during the Startup Nations Summit in Tallinn to specific cross-border scaling challenges. 

Many Finnish startups have used GEN programs to speed their growth over the years. Six Finnish startups have made their way to the finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC), run by GEN and Monsha'at, where they had access to free training resources, mentorship and exposure to potential investors. Cat Hostel Saimaa, Block Solutions Oy, Kipuwex Ltd., Intercontinental Sustainable Racing, and AIATELLA all reached the EWC 100 and pitched for a share of $1 million at the EWC Global Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Block Solutions Oy reaching the finals in two consecutive years. 

Finland has been a recurring presence in GEN's research community. Helsinki was named one of the world's top emerging startup ecosystems in the 2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), published annually by GEN and Startup Genome, ranking among the top five emerging hubs globally that year. Earlier editions of the GSER also placed Finland among the leading countries for entrepreneurial conditions, with the 2018 report noting Finland alongside the United States, the Netherlands and Singapore at the top of the rankings. 

GEN maintains extensive relationships with key Finnish ecosystem stakeholders, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the City of Helsinki, the City of Espoo, Business Finland, Slush, Aalto University, Tampere University, Xamk, Finnish Entrepreneurs (Yrittäjät), Finnish Enterprise Agencies, YES Verkosto, Bloom Finland, Startup Commons, and Startup Refugees. The Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) is a long-standing member of GEN's Global Business Angels Network, and the Finnish Women's Business Angels Network is also active within GEN's investor community. Finnish leaders have also represented the country in GEN Space, GEN's community of space economy entrepreneurs and investors, with Valerie Vlasenko and later Kalle Vähä-Jaakkola serving as Helsinki-based members. 

Jonathan Ortmans, founder and president of GEN, has been an occasional visitor to Finland and provided counsel to leaders focused on developing its ecosystems, including engagement with the City of Helsinki on its vision to position the city as a leading hub for startups. GEN has also supported SLUSH with its ongoing local mission to connect Finland’s world-class research institutions, founders, investors and policymakers to leading-edge knowledge, programs and peer communities globally — strengthening the country's role as a Nordic and European entrepreneurship leader.