Helsinki hosted the annual investment forum SLUSH that convened over 25 thousand participants from around the world, including more than 4000 startups and 2000 investors.

SLUSH started in 2008 as a small-scale event that featured around three hundred participants, and in a short time has become the largest investment event in Northern Europe. Among the regular participants of the forum are residents of the Slolkovo Foundation, units of the Russian Export Center, best startups of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tatarstan, and other regions.

SLUSH is intended for growing companies at all stages of development representing all areas. By participating in this forum they can find partners and establish new contacts, search for investors, present their business idea and learn about the trends in high technology.

The highlight of the investment forum was the finals of the startup contest. Still, in the two days, the forum featured many parallel and additional events: presentations of projects and products, lectures by world-class speakers, meetings with investors, workshops with leading entrepreneurs, etc.

This year SLUSH included a seminar “From Cross-Border Cooperation to Cross-Border Entrepreneurship” organized on the sidelines of the forum with the support of cross-border projects that involve PetrSU (KA-3004, KA-4022, and KA-4032). The participants of the seminar presented their projects, exchanged their opinions on the current state of affairs in cross-border business and commerce, assessed the investment climate in the region, as well as discussed the prospects for the development of youth and creative entrepreneurship, the support offered to startups in the border areas, including mono-cities.

The seminar also featured several startups that are actively developed on the premises of PetrSU. Thus, Artem Derbenev, Director of LLC Energy Efficient House Building presented a startup in the export supply of “green” solutions in wooden construction, while Sergey Melekhov, Director of the Student Business Incubator of PetrSU, presented a new business initiative of residents of the SBI that involves manufacturing high endurance and inexpensive kayak paddles. The participation in the seminar and SLUSH investment forum has challenged these startups for their readiness and maturity of the business projects for further growth and scaling.