The Talsinki incubation program is celebrating its first birthday after one years work developing regional startup relations between Tallinn and Helsinki. The participants have made beneficial contacts and received valuable information about business development, sales, pitching and fundraising.
The participating companies have had a busy year building their businesses and going cross borders. Talsinki has organized a number of trainings, workshops, matchmaking events and pitching sessions to speed up the incubation process. The participants have definitely enjoyed a number of matchmaking events that have helped them find new team members and cooperation partners. These events have taken the startups to all major startup conferences in both Tallinn and Helsinki, including NewCo, Latitude59, Arctic15 and the ever popular Slush.
One of the highlights for participants has been the attending a constructive pitch training and the opportunity to put the skills to test in two actual pitching sessions that gathered startups and investors from both countries. Estonian startups had the chance to introduce their projects to Finnish Business Angels Network FIBAN, establishing good grounds for future collaboration.
Talsinki Project Manager Triin Mahlakõiv states that this kind of cross-border incubation enriches the identity and mindset of participating startups. “It is a great way to receive valuable feedback from experienced mentors and as a result the company’s entry to international market is more conscious and definitely faster,” Mahlakõiv added.
“Talking about our first year of Tallinn – Helsinki matchmaking, we can say that the parties tend to look for specific skills. For example, the Finns value Estonians as hard workers who speed up the whole process. Estonians have found new competence and are interested in raising funds,” Mahlakõiv commented. Today, a couple of Estonian startups have already started to negotiate on possible future funding.
Taavid Mikomägi, founder of Weps innovative website solution appreciated the new contacts from the projects. “It is a great chance to get to know the active angel investors of Estonia and Finland. Businesses are usually valued on monetary basis but contacts and relationships go beyond that,” he commented.
The startups engaged in the project operate in the field of IT, health, environmental technology and creative industries. The key players include fintech, healthtec and B2B startups.
Talsinki is now open for new applicants for the forthcoming year.
For additional information on next Talsinki project events please contact triin.mahlakoiv@tehnopol.ee or info@estban.ee or check out our web http://cbtalsinki.eu
