The city of Helsinki and Aalto University are setting up an incubator for Helsinki-based start-ups.

Called Urban Tech Helsinki, its goal is to draw experts and businesses to the Helsinki metropolitan area, and to support and expedite the formation and early growth of fresh, especially research-oriented companies.

Additional aims of the incubator activities are to support the burgeoning of research-based innovations into international business and to cooperate closely with large enterprises that invest in sustainable urban products and services. An emphasis will be on clean energy, mobility, sustainable construction, the circular economy, waste management and urban food production.

“Urban Tech Helsinki is an excellent addition to Helsinki’s innovation ecosystem, because the city wants to take a more active role as a platform for interesting and result-oriented innovations that seek solutions to the greatest global challenges of our time and generate new export opportunities,” said Helsinki mayor Jan Vapaavuori. “I am confident that by offering a functional city as a platform for local companies, Helsinki has every chance to attract the best talent and ideas, even from other countries. As an investment in Helsinki’s capacity to reinvent itself, Urban Tech Helsinki enables the development of world-class innovations in an entirely new way.”

The incubator will promote the strategic partnership goals of the city and Aalto University, which include international cooperation, visibility, communication partnerships and providing employment for international experts.

“The goals of Urban Tech Helsinki align very nicely with Aalto University’s strategy for building a sustainable future,” said Ilkka Niemelä, president of Aalto University. “Aalto’s aim is to remodel society through research-based information, creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. As a partner, we will make Aalto’s vast international network and first-rate expertise in research and innovation available to companies and the city. Urban Tech Helsinki will substantially bolster the capacity of the innovation infrastructure in the Helsinki metropolitan area to produce sustainable solutions that tackle the world’s foremost challenges.”

Urban Tech Helsinki will operate in the premises of start-up campus Maria 01 and on Aalto University’s Otaniemi campus. It will also have close links to other innovation and incubator activities taking place on university campuses throughout region.

The incubator operations will be non-profit-making. The cooperation agreement between Helsinki and Aalto University with regard to the Urban Tech Helsinki activities will remain in effect until 2025. The aim is to open applications for the incubator in June.

“Together with its partners, Helsinki will build the best innovation ecosystem in the world and accelerate the process of solving global sustainability challenges,” said Santtu von Bruun, head of innovations for the city of Helsinki. “The Urban Tech Helsinki incubator brings together Finnish top-tier research, Helsinki’s excellent start-up ecosystem and global challenges related to the sustainability of cities, which offer opportunities worth billions of euros to Finland and innovative Finnish companies.”