Alto University startup club ‘Altoys’ visits Korea
Finland has become a startup powerhouse thanks to a startup ecosystem made up of students, volunteers, and senior entrepreneurs eager to pass on their experiences and knowledge. Finland has a world-famous entrepreneurship conference, ‘Slush’. More than 20,000 startup officials and investors from around the world flock to this event, which is held every winter. However, there is another important force that moves the Finnish startup ecosystem besides Slush. This is Aaltoes, a startup club at Aalto University in Finland.
On the 24th, we met the 11 executives of Altoyce, who visited Korea for the first time for 10 days, at the Donga Media Center in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. In an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo, Mary Heikkinen, vice president of Altoys, said, “Finland’s leading company Nokia sold its mobile phone business, and students turned to entrepreneurship as a way to rebuild the national economy.” There is an atmosphere that encourages a spirit of challenge and is not afraid of failure.”
Founded in 2009 by Aalto University students to “have an entrepreneurial spirit and dream big,” Altoys, short for “Aalto Entrepreneurship Society,” has grown into one of the most active entrepreneurship organizations in Europe. Altoys was started when young engineers, shocked by the Finnish economic situation in the 2000s, gathered in a warehouse at Alto University to discuss entrepreneurship.
Founded to inspire innovation in the minds of the Finnish people, Altoys is conducting about 10 projects and events in a startup space called ‘Startup Sauna’. In Startup Sauna, Europe’s largest hackathon (an event that develops programs at a certain time and place) called ‘Junction’ has been held since 2015. ‘Dash’, a design thinking hackathon, and ‘Deep Dive’, a 24-hour problem-solving contest that commercializes deep tech (advanced technology), are also held here.
‘Silta’, which sends Finnish entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley in the US for three months to nurture their entrepreneurial vision; ‘Tulva’, which helps scientists commercialize their deep tech without staying in academia; A 10-week incubating camp called ‘Ignite’ will also be held.
Based on these efforts, around 4,000 startups are active in Finland, which has a population of 5.54 million. For example, Supercell, a Finnish game company acquired by Chinese company Tencent with an investment of 10 trillion won in 2016, was a startup founded in 2010 by graduates of Alto University.
The ALTOYS executive team visits startups in Seoul and Busan this time to share ideas with each other. In particular, I am very interested in the technology field where Korea has strengths. On the 25th, he visited the Korea Startup Forum and the Seoul National University Campus Town Project Team. “Koreans are similar to Finnish people in that they are dedicated and willing to help others,” said Nante Kibinen, who is in charge of finance at Altoys. It seems that the structure is different in that it receives a lot of support from large companies.”
Finnish startups founded by Altoys graduates are attracting the attention of investors around the world. Food delivery start-up ‘Wolt’, ‘Carbo culture’ that develops a carbon removal solution with climate technology, ‘Flowrite’ that helps compose business emails based on artificial intelligence (AI), etc. there is. Vice President Heikkinen said, “The power of Altoys alumni who nurture and help juniors is supporting the Finnish startup ecosystem.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.