HELSEED entrepreneurship programme for students attracted interest: Over 20 teams submitted a business plan

The University of Helsinki is executing a new entrepreneurship programme to encourage its students to develop and commercialise their ideas. As much as €50,000 may be invested in the most promising startups.

The , which was launched in spring 2020, has attracted the interest of students, as more than 20 teams submitted their business plan by the deadline. Most of the plans were related to companies that have already been established, although most of them quite recently.

“The number of business plans as well as their cross-disciplinary and international nature came as a positive surprise. I firmly believe that we will find good investments among them, enabling us to collaboratively develop successful companies,” says Marko Berg, head of investment at the University of Helsinki.

The promising start increase confidence in the future of the HELSEED programme as part of the comprehensive education provided by the University of Helsinki.

“It’s a great honour to have the opportunity to contribute to developing the human capital of our students, and unleashing their creative potential in particular. I’m convinced that we together will be able to develop companies that will serve society as a whole,” Chief Investment Officer Anders Ekholm sums up.

Next, the University’s investment team will review the business plans and invite the teams behind the most promising plans to give oral presentations of their ideas. The presentations will take place in November, with the decisions to invest in selected startups potentially made by the end of the year.

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Release from 2 April 2020:

Further information can be obtained from:

Marko Berg, phone +358 41 534 9893,

Anders Ekholm, phone +358 50 526 4253,