Roundup: Investors to compete for early start-ups in Slush 2016

In a massive business match-making event in Helsinki scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday next week, the investors will outnumber the early-phased companies for the first time at this annual occasion.

So far 2,000 companies and 1,100 investors have registered at the event, dubbed the Slush. analysts believe this ratio has changed to the advantage of the businesses, although actual share of early startups among the companies has not been divulged.

While there were five times more companies than money providers in Slush 2013, this year there will be at least two investors per participating start-up company, business magazine Talouselama reported. In other words, investors may have to compete for covetable startups, the magazine concluded.

First organized in Helsinki nine years ago, Slush has soon won publicity in Europe and Asia.

Of the registered participants for 2016, Asians amount to ten percent, and North Americans six percent. About 55 percent of registrants are from the Nordics and 25 percent from the rest of Europe. Those from Middle East and Africa amount to three percent only.

It has been reported that Slush has been involved in roughly one fifth of the investments in early start-ups in Finland during the last three years. Encounters in Slush contributed to 130 million euros while the total capital inflow for startups via all channels was 650 million in 2013-2015, said Talouselama.

In recent years, Slush has arranged similar events outside Finland, for example in China and Japan.

Despite the quick expansion, the actual number of people wandering around the huge halls of the Exhibition Centre has levelled off at around 15,000 since 2013. The organizers of Slush seem to appreciate the idea to keep "those just watching" outside.

With the help of a mobile application, business hopefuls and their future money will find each other pretty easily, media reports said.

Business people and potential investors will pre-fill their key information and interests into the application before entering, and thus Slush will see even fewer "meetings-by-accident" at the venue.

The application can also help track down successful encounters. Marianne Vikkula, the CEO of Slush, boasted to Talouselama that the event stands out among comparable ones as it can actually show the effectiveness of the meetings.

Based on the data created through the meeting-app, the organizers can later verify the results. When companies announce their financing arrangements usually the following year, it is easy for Slush employees to check whether their prime encounters have taken place in Slush.

Talouselama mentioned a case of Tampere-based company M-Files and its CEO Miika Makitalo.

Makitalo and his colleagues pre-filled their profile in the Slush app in 2015 and then met 25 investors. "Without the Slush app arranging that, many meetings would have taken at least two months, but in Slush it worked in two days," he was quoted as saying in the report.

Then came the crucial encounter at "stand W85" with French investors whose interests matched with the future vision of M-Files, said Makitalo. By March 2016, the company was able to attract 33 million euros worth of investment. Endit