How do you make city planning more sustainable? And how do you supply clean energy and organise mobility, construction, the circular economy and urban food production in a new, green way?
Urban Tech Helsinki is a business incubator programme of the City of Helsinki and Aalto University, which is aimed at supporting new companies to develop solutions for sustainable urban development. Climate change, urbanisation and biodiversity loss all require new solutions, for which many startups have the potential to provide and innovate upon to create something completely new.
“Urban solutions is a field that is worth hundreds of millions of euros globally. We need solutions to be able to maintain our current living standards and to also create new kinds of good living. One way to innovate these solutions is through startups. Startups can develop technologies and services that improve the everyday lives of city residents, and Helsinki offers a safe and secure place for these companies to grow,” says Project Manager Eetu Helminen from the Aalto Startup Center.
Inspiring results
The Urban Tech Helsinki project was launched in 2021, based on a similar initiative in New York. The City of Helsinki has been the main financier and owner of the project, while Aalto University has been responsible for its implementation. The project is financed by the City of Helsinki innovation fund. Urban Tech Helsinki’s incubator programmes usually last 3–6 months, but some startups can take part in Aalto Startup Center's programmes and services for up to three years. The incubator programmes start with an eight-week intensive period in your own group. This is followed by lectures, discussion sessions, personal coaching and networking opportunities for the participating startup founders. Some of these are organised by the Aalto Startup Center, while others are organised by the Urban Tech Helsinki incubator. The main venue is the Maria-01 startup campus in the former Maria Hospital in Kamppi.
Urban Tech Helsinki has had two main objectives: firstly, to provide the City of Helsinki with concrete tips for sustainable urban development to make the everyday lives of its residents easier, and, secondly, to create new companies and jobs in Helsinki.
The companies selected for the project have all been sustainability-focused and connected to the urban environment. Having just an idea is not enough: the selected companies should preferably already be engaged in some kind of business activity or at least have a strong business plan and the opportunity to participate in the intensive period in Helsinki.
"The success of companies is essential for the City's service provision and therefore important to every resident. The primary objective of the City of Helsinki’s Economic Development Department is to increase the number of companies and private jobs. Together with Aalto University, we have provided a growth platform for innovations and startups that aim to tackle key challenges in sustainable urban development. The location has also been ideal, with Maria 01 being the Nordics' leading startup campus,” says Director of the City of Helsinki's Business Environment Unit Heidi Humala.
“It has been gratifying to see so many existing companies in Helsinki take advantage of this opportunity to support their growth and achieve their growth targets faster through the programme. The programme has also attracted international talent to develop their growth-seeking business in Helsinki. Teams with at least one founder with an international background have been more successful in their funding rounds and growth at Maria 01. It is great that the Urban Tech Helsinki programme has also succeeded in strengthening the internationalisation of startups and the wider startup ecosystem,” Humala continues.
The City of Helsinki has played a key role in the programme. Many of the participating companies have been able to pilot their ideas with the City, allowing them to test and validate their business ideas.
Meanwhile, Helminen's role has focused on supporting the startup founders.
“My role is to make sure that things are running smoothly and that the startups get the right kind of support. After all, being a startup founder is an extremely lonely job. If a team needs guidance, training or contacts, it's our job to make sure that they can find them,” says Helminen.
Urban Tech Helsinki’s funding ended in October. As such, now is the time to look back on the results and reflect on the lessons learned. The results of the external impact assessment commissioned for the programme are inspiring. Between 2021 and 2025, a total of 73 startups participated in the project, raising more than €20 million in external funding and creating nearly 200 jobs in Helsinki. Over 90% of respondents said that participating in the programme helped them to exceed or reach their growth targets faster than they had originally planned. On average, the turnover of respondents increased by 53% within a year of the start of the programme. The survival rate of the participating companies is also promising: approximately 80% are still in business. According to Helminen, this is significantly higher than the average survival rate of startups.
The City of Helsinki, on the other hand, has gained new perspectives on things like construction and how to examine green spaces through the pilots carried out with the startups. According to Humala, elements of the pilots may remain part of the City’s operations in the future as well.
On the trail of animal DNA
SpringDNA, one of the participants in Urban Tech Helsinki, used its technology to study the level and development of biodiversity in the built environment as part of the Kallio Summer Streets project. This involved examining how temporary greenery can support biodiversity, for example.
Saara Suurla, CEO of SpringDNA, speaks passionately about her company's mission. SpringDNA's next-generation eDNA technology promises to revolutionise the way we assess the environment and its biodiversity. eDNA, or environmental DNA, refers to DNA collected from the living environment.
Biodiversity monitoring is still mainly based on a researcher going out into the field to look for animals with limited human senses: their eyes and ears. This method is often inefficient and slow. SpringDNA, on the other hand, takes a sample of water, slime or waste from the environment, analyses it and quickly provides information on the species living in the area, whether they are frogs, mussels, fish or birds.
“We have the technology to verify very accurately and quickly what organisms are living in a given site,” Suurla says.
Having access to information on the biodiversity of areas is important for construction projects, worksites and permit processes, for example.
There is a great deal of demand for SpringDNA's services, both in Finland and abroad. In addition to cities, the company’s clients include construction companies, consultancies and forestry and mining sector companies. Helsinki is currently in the process of establishing a nature reserve in Longinojanpuisto, and SpringDNA has already been involved in surveying the species living in a stream in the area, such as the threatened thick shelled river mussel.
“The City of Helsinki is one of our first clients. I am glad that they take biodiversity seriously and that we have been able to help with that,” says Suurla.
In-depth assessment of green spaces
An idea born in 2023 is now growing into an international solution: Lensor is developing technology to help cities and developers better understand the state of the green environment and its impacts. Founder Lisa Theman says that the idea was born out of a need for better, data-backed information about urban nature and how decisions affect everyday living environments.
“We initially built a concept for a client, and it ended up working so well that we had to start thinking about whether to start a real company,” Theman recalls.
In 2024, the company was ready to participate in pre-accelerators and competitions, which opened up a new path: entry into the Urban Tech Helsinki programme. It gave the startup exactly what they needed in the early stages, such as networks, sparring and access to the City of Helsinki.
The technology developed by Lensor utilises remote scanning, geospatial data and machine learning. The idea is simple: by combining several different data sources, the company can generate real-time views on the state of the city's green spaces and how different measures would affect the environment.
“The traditional method is to have a city employee visit a site in person. But we can provide an up-to-date view automatically. It changes everything,” explains Theman.
Through Urban Tech Helsinki, the startup has been able to engage in direct dialogue with the City of Helsinki’s green space specialists and project managers. The cooperation touches upon things such as planning green corridors, measuring biodiversity and how to anticipate the impact of construction before a single tree is felled.
The company has now grown into a team of four and is aiming to expand abroad. The cooperation with Helsinki has given them a strong direction.
“Helsinki is the perfect place to experiment and develop. They have the know-how, the need and the desire to build a better city, and we want to be part of it.”
Organise your work photos
Founded by brothers Ville and Mikko Hyvärinen, Pictue solves a problem that is familiar to many on construction sites: work photos are taken with personal phones and end up getting lost in WhatsApp groups or among people’s own family and pet photos, making them hard to find.
“The Pictue app is as easy to use as a normal camera, but when you take pictures with it, they are automatically archived on the Pictue cloud and added to a map, without ending up on anyone's phone. You can also attach documents to the photos, allowing a construction site to keep all of its documents and photos in a dedicated project folder in Pictue, for example,” says Ville Hyvärinen.
According to Hyvärinen, Urban Tech Helsinki has provided the company with tangible benefits: sparring for funding, contacts with the City and piloting opportunities.
“The City of Helsinki is a big organisation with varied needs. When you get to talk to the right people, you get a completely different idea of what kind of problems you can solve together.”
One of the pilots is related to the circular economy and involves testing the app to chart reusable material at demolition sites.
“If the material is photographed and documented in time, it can be diverted for reuse instead of ending up on the scrap heap.”
Urban Tech Helsinki has also provided the company with access to an extensive peer community.
"Startup life was lonely at first, but our networks grew enormously here. We got to talk to the City of Helsinki, companies and other startups.”
Already used by around 150 customers, the app is suitable for almost all sectors, from infrastructure to property management, manufacturing and car repair shops. Now Pictue is looking abroad: the company has received Tempo funding and is negotiating with several European countries.
“Our aim is to internationalise quickly,” says Hyvärinen.
