The University of Helsinki's Helsinki Incubators opens the call for NEXUS, the mentor driven Kumpula Incubator Programme focusing on Deep Tech, AI, and Sustainability starting on the 12th of September, 2022. Kumpula is home of the Faculty of Science led by Dean Sasu Tarkoma, and NEXUS is actively supported by both the Dean and the Faculty.
The NEXUS programme will be held in English, and will last 6 months, taking 10 – 12 participating teams. Each team will have 2 Finnish or international mentors guiding them, and the programme will consist of weekly workshops led by experts physically held in Helsinki.
“The aim of NEXUS is to create scalable and fundable start-ups during the six-month programme that will create new innovations and impact, and successfully enter international markets” explains Andres Archila, Project Manager for NEXUS. “Therefore, NEXUS has built a solid circle of Finnish and international mentors from corporates, CVCs, and venture capital firms with substantial experience in the start-up environment.”
More information on the NEXUS Incubator Programme can be found here.
NEXUS mentors include representatives from Techstars (UK), Reaktor, Daimler (Germany), Amazon (EMEA), IBM, Continental (Israel), Neste, ABB, Telefonica (Spain), Vaisala, DIMECC, Accenture, WithSecure (formerly known as F-Secure), Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), Repsol (Spain), Nordea, University of Helsinki Funds, and venture capital firms and investors from Sweden, Finland, Spain and Silicon Valley who will advise and open doors to new opportunities within their networks for the venture teams in NEXUS.
“We are pleased by the strong interest and commitment of leading Finnish and international partners allowing us to have a superb team of mentors and experts to benefit our Incubator Programme” mentioned Alfonso Gutierrez, Senior Manager, Global Corporate Partnerships at the University of Helsinki.
Currently, we are looking for potential venture teams (2 persons minimum) to join the NEXUS programme, members of which can either be from our University (Masters, PhDs, researchers) or residents of the Helsinki metropolitan area. If you are interested in joining NEXUS, please apply here!
We are also seeking Corporate, CVC and VC Partners for the NEXUS Programme as well as additional Mentors and Experts (all Pro-bono) for NEXUS and/or the new Incubator Programmes of the University of Helsinki that will be launched in Viikki and the Helsinki City Centre.
Besides being a volunteer mentor or an expert in a specific tech or business subjects, you can open doors to develop MVPs or PoC’s between your company and the venture teams, as well as participate in demo days and other incubator activities.