Accelerate your success
Since 2015 Vertical has been one of Europe’s leading accelerators. Startups graduating from our programs have raised significant funding rounds or even gone public, established strong networks of investors, partners and customers, and succeeded in global markets.
There’s no exact “secret recipe” but we have worked hard on three foundational pillars for all our programs:
Proprietary methods
High-quality network
Close bonds
Why Finland?
Finland offers a real-world testbed for new ideas, both physical and digital, with its unique ecosystem of testbeds, innovation hubs, and a small yet highly connected country. Finland is committed to sustainability and environmental responsibility, attracting environmentally-conscious startups and investors. Startups here benefit from hands-on collaboration with industry leaders, easy access to resources and mentorship, and a culture of low hierarchy where innovative ideas are embraced and swiftly put into action. A transparent and business-friendly legal framework provides a stable environment for startups to operate and expand in.
Finland is highly innovative, digitally advanced, and offers a skilled workforce. With strong government support, strategic EU location, stable politics, and a great quality of life, it’s an ideal choice for international startups. The Helsinki region consistently ranks among the world’s most liveable cities. Its clean environment, low crime rate, and high standard of living make it an attractive place for talent to live and work.
Global Accelerator
For the past three years Vertical has run the Helsinki branch of the Korea Startup Center Global Accelerator, working with amazing Korean startups on business model design, value propositions, market outreach and access to key stakeholders in their respective industries.
In 2021, KSC Helsinki member Grinergy won 1st prize in the Global Accelerator. Success repeated in 2022 when BEI won 2nd place and our alumni from the previous year Vinssen took 3rd.
Building Tomorrow’s Smart City
Aimed at international startups getting ready to move their companies to Finland, the Helsinki Capital Region Accelerator is held in partnership with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. The first edition focuses on Smart City with other critical industry areas also featured.
This program gives access to top-level coaching, a deep dive into smart city business opportunities, matchmaking with potential partners and clients and a crash course in everything you need to know before starting your business in Finland.
Food Accelerator Network
A safe, reliable, and ecologically friendly food supply is essential to our shared future, and Vertical is proud to coach more than 30 startups in the Food Accelerator program organized by the European Institute of Technology.
We have worked with the Helsinki, Finland and Bilbao, Spain EIT hubs to guide amazing agricultural technology startups to clearer business models, value propositions and pitching capabilities.
Digital health, life science, and biotech startups
Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship for digital health, life science & biotech startups is co-run by partners from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the US.
Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship (NOME) is the first elite pan-Nordic mentor network connecting the best life science, digital health, and industrial biotech entrepreneurs with hand-picked internationally renowned mentors.
In addition to our large-scale government-sponsored accelerator programs, we have also designed and executed over 100 corporate accelerators. By bringing together the most exciting innovations of the startup world and established corporations looking to stay ahead of the curve, our programs shorten time to market and help clients capitalize on hot opportunities as quickly as possible.
Why do startups choose Vertical as their growth partner?
We make accessing bigger markets possible for startups by being result-driven, upfront and transparent.
Our corporate client roster not only offers big opportunities in partnership but also stellar benchmarks for their industries.
We provide support where it really matters: business development, incentive design, commercialization and service design.
Vertical is not tied down to a geographical location and neither are our corporate clients. We embrace agility.
Our projects are strategically important to our clients so the startups that are selected must represent equal level of excellence.
We strive for taking corporate-startup collaboration from planning and validation to the market.
Hear from
our startups
Don’t take our word for it – find out what it’s really like in Finland with Vertical from some of the startups in our KSC batch.
Contact us
Want to accelerate your success?
Let's discuss!
We’d love to set up a short meeting to hear about your challenges and goals.
We hope you’ll get some fresh insights and new ideas for accelerating your transformation – and if there is potential for us to help you, all the better. But no strings attached.
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Please get in touch with Kenneth Salonius if you should have any questions or if you need more details.
Kenneth Salonius
Strategy | Collaboration | Sales
kenneth@vertical.vc+358 50 517 2348