Slush 2022: Scaling the Best of Nordic Sustainability
Slush Day 0 - November 16th, 2022
Nordic Innovation Houses Singapore, Tokyo, Silicon Valley and New York assembled at Slush in Helsinki, the world’s leading startup-investor event.
4,600 early-stage startup founders in Europe are here
2,600 investors, 50% more than in any previous Slush - the largest gathering of venture capital in Europe, including iconic venture funds visiting Slush for the first time (Benchmark Capital, Founders Fund, Pear VC, Bain Capital, Spark Capital, GGV)
50+ speakers who have built a billion-euro company, and 11 who have scaled to 10 billion
Left to right:
• Niklas Karvonen, Community Director, Nordic Innovation House Tokyo
• Nicole Cham, Community Director, Nordic Innovation House Singapore
• Charles Lorum, Executive Director, Nordic Innovation House New York
• Akiko Shiono, Community Manager, Nordic Innovation House Tokyo
• Paula Salomaa, Community Director, Nordic Innovation House Silicon Valley
Slush Day 1 - November 17th, 2022
Helsinki Convention Center (Messukeskus) Siipi Wing
On the first day 1 of Slush, the Nordic Innovation Houses jointly hosted an official Slush side event that was completely sold out two weeks prior to event day! Together with key supporting partners - AstraZeneca and A.Catalyst, BioVentureHub, SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, America Energy Society and Shibuya Startup Support, the event saw investors, scaleups, government agencies and innovation hubs that are keen in driving sustainability. Participants aimed to expand their networks and learn about Nordic Innovation Houses’ focus areas, activities and support for Nordic companies seeking new market opportunities in Asia or the United States.
We gave the audience the opportunity to hear from the most innovative Nordic companies – AstraZeneca BioVentureHub, Betolar, Clewat and SNERPA Power. There was many years of experience from these companies in sustainability in each of their sectors, and so it was interesting for the audience to hear about their sustainability goals, experiences and success insights on “How to Scale Nordic Sustainable Solutions Globally?”
Here are the key points from our panellists:
Being sustainable is more than being green, it is also in finding the way to grow the business into a genuine commercial opportunity.
SNERPA Power
Íris Baldursdóttir (Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, SNERPA Power) iterated that sustainability in power systems is about three pillars: energy efficiency, carbon capture and digitalisation. Digitalisation comes when it is possible to use a software solution to track electricity consumption in real-time and automate processes.
SNERP Power is developing intelligent energy services that tap into the full potential of the power-intensive industry in Iceland, thereby creating new revenue streams, increasing the competitiveness of the Icelandic market for electricity and leaving more room for the energy transition.
Clewat
In the marine and plastics environment, Marko Kärkkäinen (Chief Commercial Officer, Clewat) commented that it is key that his partners can recycle the waste. There are 150 million tonnes of plastic in the sea. It is extremely powerful to work with the local universities and government (policies) to achieve change.
Clewat is a fast-growing cleantech company from Finland, focusing on solving the plastic waste, excess biomass, oil spills and other pollution problems of our oceans, seas, rivers and lakes.
AstraZeneca BioVentureHub
Magnus Björsne (Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca BioVentureHub) urged startups to ask and demand support in processes when working with larger corporations. He talked about BioVentureHub extending a global AstraZeneca green lab certification program to emerging life science companies.
The BioVentureHub is an innovative 4D (drugs, devices, diagnostics, digital health) ecosystem integrated at the heart of AstraZeneca´s strategic R&D centre in Gothenburg, Sweden. It provides emerging companies and academic groups a unique opportunity to co-locate and interact with AstraZeneca experts, and with each other, to advance life science, health care and the well-being of patients.
Betolar
Melina Pinomaa (Sustainability & Investor Relations Manager, Betolar) shared that replacing cement and moving to embodied carbon is their contribution to the circular economy. How much carbon emission is released can be measured, such as in cement and steel manufacturing.
Betolar is an innovative materials technology company focusing on turning industrial side streams into a sustainable business and circular economy. The Finnish company offers a sustainable competitive edge to the construction industry and leads the way to build a sustainable future for the world.
The conclusion is that large companies set net-zero targets and should strive to achieve those targets and accelerate by partnering with agile and smaller innovative companies. Large and smaller companies can leverage each other's strengths to accelerate green solutions to the market.
A special shout out to our Singapore partner, SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, who were at Slush with us to share about the 11th Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition - Asia's Largest University Startup Challenge. The competition invites all global student founders and university alumni of less than five years with innovative ideas to reshape the future in areas of Urban Solutions and Sustainability, Manufacturing, Trade & Connectivity, Human Health & Potential, Smart Nation & Digital Economy and Media & Entertainment. This is the perfect platform for startups to pitch in front of top investors, government agencies, multinational companies and stand a chance to win up to S$2 million worth of prizes and fly to Singapore for free. Application closes on March 31st, 2023.
Nordic Innovation House is a collaboration between the Nordic countries with a mission to support Nordic companies – from startups to growth companies - to scale globally. Nordic Innovation is an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers, who aim to make the Nordics a pioneering region for sustainable growth by promoting entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness in Nordic businesses. Nordic Innovation and Nordic Innovation Houses support the Nordic prime ministers’ vision that the Nordic region will become the most sustainable and integrated region in the world in 2030.
Slush Day 2 - November 18th, 2022
AstraZeneca A.Catalyst Networking Booth
On Day 2 of Slush with AstraZeneca BioVentureHub, mobilityXlab, Business Sweden and the Nordic Innovation Houses at the AstraZeneca A.Catalyst Networking Booth! The panel topic, “Cross-Sector Convergence – An Accelerator of Innovation and Talent Attraction” saw our panellists having a down-to-earth talk about the recipe for a collaborative environment. In the Nordics, innovation is overflowing because of the strong ecosystem approach where companies and businesses like and practice engaging all players in the room at the same time. Information is shared in a collaborative way instead of working in silos for fear of competition.
Three words to sum it up: Trust, Openness, and Curiosity.
This is the way to unlock creativity and unlock ideas.
The panellists included:
Magnus Björsne, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca BioVentureHub
Britta Stenson, Program Manager Life Science, Business Sweden
Viktor Johansson, Tech Scout and Innovation Manager, mobilityXlab
Marie Claire Maxwell, Programme Manager, Business Ecosystem, Nordic Innovation House
Moderator: Madeleine Thun, Senior Director, Alliances & Strategic Partnership, A.Catalyst Network, AstraZeneca
“It’s a wrap for Slush Helsinki 2022! See you next year. ”
Nordic Innovation House is a connector accelerating high-quality Nordic tech startups, scaleups and growth companies in Singapore. We are the bridge between Nordic and Singapore ecosystem players, including government, corporate, SME, investors and accelerator hubs, to enable more collaborations. In Singapore, we work closely with Business Sweden, Innovation Norway, Business Iceland, the Embassy of Finland and the Embassy of Denmark in Singapore.
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