Leading Finnish Startup Accelerator Kiuas Seeking to Internationalise Invites Ambitious.Africa to Demo Day 2020
What is different about Demo Day 2020 is that, unlike previous years, early-stage Finnish startups will receive feedback from an international panel and everything will be online. Photo taken from last year’s physical event.
The leading Finnish non-profit startup accelerator Kiuas has invited members of the Ambitious.Africa initiative to join their annual Demo Day on August 27th - an online event this year. Kiuas wants to internationalise and encourage involvement in more collaborative projects outside of Finland, such as in Africa. The final show of Kiuas Accelerator will showcase sixteen of Finland’s most promising pre-seed startups who have participated in their programme.
The Kiuas Demo Day 2020 will take place online this Thursday, August 27th. Sixteen out of the roughly 160 pre-seed startups which have successfully gone through the Kiuas startup programme will showcase their ideas to potential investors. This year will focus solely on pitching and will last just two and a half hours in order to maximise online participation. The startup teams will be physically present at the venue, investors and external participants will watch them remotely.
Kiuas is a non-profit and Finland’s leading startup accelerator for early-stage Finnish companies - a rare combination in the startup world. By not taking equity, the organisation wants to level the playing field and give startups no reason not to apply to their programmes. At the Demo Day, the selected startups gain visibility and get the chance to show investors how they have progressed.
Entrepreneurs can apply to their free programmes at prototype-level or when they already have an early-stage startup with a Minimum Viable Product. Kiuas programmes help entrepreneurs develop their ideas for the market through mentorship and peer support. They also strengthen entrepreneurs’ networks and connect them deeper into to the startup community. The programmes have a thriving alumni network.
Although Kiuas only accepts startups registered in Finland to enter the programmes, it is possible this will change in the future, says COO Patrik Holopainen. Kiuas is now encouraging their startup teams to think more internationally. Ambitious.Africa initiative is invited to the Demo Day to get insight into what it takes for early-stage startup success, but also to strengthen the international presence at the event. Kiuas is hoping that their teams will be able to help startups in Africa in the future by mentoring them remotely.
A sign of Kiuas’ desire to internationalise is that over half of the panelists this year are international - a strategic move encouraging Finnish investors to see the value in foreign investment and start thinking more seriously about it. Tech angel investor Zachariah George is one of the high-profile international names in the Demo Day 2020 panel. He co-founded Startupbootcamp, the first and largest tech venture accelerator in Africa. He has also invested in over forty-five leading African tech startups and owns an advisory firm specialising in high-growth, high-impact African tech ventures.
Kiuas and Ambitious.Africa share the goal of increasing and enabling entrepreneurship globally. Kiuas believes in harnessing the Ambitious.Africa network to connect key players within the startup ecosystems in Finland and Africa. “We hope people will come and see what the Finnish startup scene has to offer. We don’t have access to talent from Africa yet” says Holopainen.
Click here for more information about Kiuas Demo Day 2020.
By Alina Weckström
Twitter: @alinaweckstrom