The City of Helsinki and the Finnish Startup Community published a comprehensive new study that maps the scale, structure, and economic impact of startups in Helsinki. More than 40 percent of Finland’s startups are founded in Helsinki, and the employment impact of large startups in Helsinki is greater than the rest of Finland combined.
According to the Finnish Startup Community, Helsinki is home to around 1,550 startup-founded companies, from which 840 are early-stage startups. In 2023, Helsinki based startup companies employed 22,300 people and generated a combined turnover of 7.14 billion euros. Early-stage startups accounted for around 480 million euros in turnover. The study estimates that 42 percent of Finland’s startup-founded companies operate in Helsinki.
Startups with less than one million euros in annual turnover employ nearly 3,000 people in Helsinki. In contrast, large startups with more than 10 million euros in turnover employ 11,244 people in Helsinki.
“Within the large startup category, Helsinki’s large startups employ more than the combined employment of large startups in the rest of Finland, highlighting Helsinki’s central role in scaling and in attracting growth companies”, says Youssef Zad, the Chief Economist at the Finnish Startup Community.
Research and development is a distinctive strength of Helsinki’s startup ecosystem. In 2023, startups and companies founded in Helsinki invested 345 million euros in research and development and employed around 3,000 researchers. More than ten percent of these researchers hold a doctoral degree.
“Startups are the growth engine of Finland’s economy. Helsinki, where a large share of our startups are located, offers a unique ecosystem for companies, investors, and talent. And now, for the first time, we have precise numbers that show this significance in practice”, says Riikka Pakarinen, CEO of the Finnish Startup Community.
The study also launches a monitoring model developed by the Finnish Startup Community that will provide comparable annual insights into Helsinki’s startup landscape and support better targeted measures to strengthen growth, talent, and investment connections.
Link to the full study→ Helsinki-Startup-Report.pdf
Authors of the report:
Youssef Zad
Chief Economist, Finnish Startup Community
youssef@startupyhteiso.com
Amir Hassan
Economist, Finnish Startup Community
amir@startupyhteiso.com
Uliana Ivanova
Intern, Finnish Startup Community
uliana@startupyhteiso.com