SLUSH in Helsinki, Finland: The 021 Fund's Trip Report
Yoyo has a Ph.D in International Relations and has experience in both startup and corporate VC industries for many years. In BNE 021 Fund, she mainly oversees global investment and business collaboration. She is a trilingual speaker in Mandarin, English and Japanese.
Hi, I’m Yoyo from the 021 Fund! Today, I will write about my first-ever trip to Helsinki to participate in SLUSH Week.
SLUSH Week: the Largest Startup Event in the Nordics
Students in Finland started SLUSH Week in 2008 after being inspired by the West Coast startup ecosystem in the US. The event hosts founders and investors working in various tech-related fields, and this year, the event welcomed more than 20,000 people. SLUSH itself is only a two-day event, but participants can visit 300 side events held in Helsinki during the week!
Unlike GDC or Gamescom, SLUSH is not a game-focused event, so our mission as the 021 Fund was to connect with a wide range of startups building entertainment-related products.
The Social and Creative Needs of the Younger Generation
As we talked to different founders in SLUSH, we saw that many of them were focusing on the social and creative needs of GenZ and the rest of the younger generation.
GenZs are quite social, and they want to stay connected to their peers and friends, even while watching YouTube or playing mobile games. So many founders were trying to deliver places that would allow those people to talk to their friends while engaging in a different activity or meet new people who share something in common.
In addition, we saw a growing demand for the young generation to express themselves by creating something and sharing that with the rest of the world. It seems the typical “passive” consumption of content is a thing of the past. Technological innovations like generative AI is enabling more people to create high-quality content, and putting that together with the “social needs” mentioned above, it’s become standard for regular people to share or trade their creations with one another. That could be why many startups we met were trying to build the next generation of Roblox-like UGC platforms.
Nordic Startups and Their Potential
I felt that many of the startups founded in the Nordics have a user-centric approach when building their products. Employees have the freedom to express their opinions, which fosters innovation, and the small market size of the Nordic region forces them to look at the global market from the very beginning. In addition, governments are putting in a lot of effort to provide high-quality programming education in high schools and higher education, so I look forward to seeing more innovative IT products from the Nordics.
As it was my first time participating in SLUSH, I was overwhelmed by the massiveness and darkness of the event (and of course, the coldness!).
However, the event was designed to facilitate smooth networking between startups and investors. Thanks to that, our team conducted 74 meetings in four days and effectively connected with many promising founders.
The 021 Fund is constantly looking for startups building products that meet the social and creative needs mentioned above. In addition, we are looking to invest and collaborate with startups building products and solutions in areas such as AI, Web3, and the Phygital spaces. Please feel free to contact us HERE.
