Startups at Maria 01, the Nordic's largest startup hub, collected a record 219 million euros in funding in 2022
The Maria 01 Impact Report shows that the hub’s startups have collected more than 700 million euros in funding over the course of its seven-year history. The amount of funding has increased almost tenfold in six years.
Helsinki, Finland (March 15, 2023) Today, the leading Nordic startup hub, Maria 01, has released its latest Impact Report that measures the social impact of the campuses’ startups. The 2022 report shows that the hub’s startups’ impact and amount of funding raised have grown significantly over the years.
Helsinki has emerged as one of Europe’s most active startup hubs over the past decade, with Maria 01 being one of Europe’s leading startup campuses. According to the report, the member companies of Maria 01 collected a record funding pot of 219 million euros last year, which means that the campuses’ almost 400 startups have collected a total of 715 million euros since Maria 01 was established in 2016. Many Maria 01 companies play a role in the value chains of essential societal infrastructure such as payment systems, energy, and transport – in addition to creating jobs and taxable income.
"A healthy startup economy is important for any country because it creates new jobs and innovations for societies at large. At Maria 01, we carefully curate startups to team up with the right investors, and that’s our recipe for success. We’ve managed to create a strong and supportive startup community, and the numbers tell the story of how impactful that really is. Maria 01 is currently the hot spot for Finnish and Nordic startups. In the future, we want to be a hotspot Europe-wide and globally," says Ville Simola, CEO of Maria 01.
Maria was founded in 2016, when its startups initially raised a total of just under 26 million euros in funding. In 2021, just under 164 million euros in funding was collected, and the 200 million euro milestone was exceeded for the first time last year. Even the pandemic did not slow down the collection of funding – in 2020 the total amount raised doubled, and compared to 2021, the amount grew by 34 % in 2022.
The Finnish startup ecosystem is developing and growing at a global scale
According to the Finnish Startup Community, Finnish startups generated a turnover of 3.4 billion euros in 2021, and according to the current trend forecast, in 2030 the turnover may already be 15 billion.
International capital investors are increasingly interested in Finnish innovations. According to the Finnish Venture Capital Association, in 2021 foreign capital investors invested 553 million euros in Finnish startups. In total, 74 percent of all capital investments came from abroad.
Helsinki's attractiveness as a startup scene is shown in Startup Genome's report, according to which Helsinki is tied for 31st place in the global ranking of startup ecosystems. Helsinki's ranking rose 20 places in a year. Among European cities, only London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm are ahead of Helsinki.
"We’ve proven the massive growth our Community and the Finnish startup ecosystem has taken in the past 5+ years, and this will help attract foreign investors, startups etc., looking to take and set up their business in the Nordics to Finland. We’re already seeing very promising traction on this. With enough dedication and work, We see that our model can also be applied internationally," continues Simola.
According to Youssef Zadi, the chief economist of the Finnish startup community, the funding pot collected by the entire Finnish startup ecosystem was upwards of 1.5 billion euros last year.
A full version of the report can be found here.
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Ville Simola
Maria 01, CEO
+358 44 0700520
ville@maria.io
Hanna Nylund
Maria 01, Head of Marketing & Communications
+358 405188278
hanna@maria.io
Maria 01
Maria 01 is the leading startup campus in the Nordics. Our community brings together early-stage tech startups, recognised venture capital firms and international investors, startup ecosystem organisations, and large enterprises with a strong foothold in the tech community, helping each other succeed.
Founded in 2016 and located in an old hospital campus in central Helsinki, Maria 01 operates as a community-driven, not-for-profit organisation, co-owned by the Startup Foundation, Helsinki Enterprise Agency and the City of Helsinki. Currently, the campus serves as the home to over 1500 members, consisting of 180 startups, 24 partner companies, and 29 local and foreign investor network members. For more information, visit www.maria.io
