Press Release May 5, 2025Mervi Leminen has been appointed Director of Business Services within the Business Development Services team at Business Joensuu, effective May 1, 2025. She transitions to...
The Start Me Up 2023 business idea competition culminated yesterday with the announcement of the winners and their awarding at the Award Gala held in Joensuu Science Park. Look at the gala highlights below.
Hosted by Janne Pakarinen from Business Joensuu
Morning atmosphere
Audience
Entrepreneur Karoliina Gavrilov won the best pitch award with her presentation about a business concept of the Visual Mentoring service.
The pitching jury shared the prize: Kirsi Svärd and Mika Pyykkö from Business Joensuu and Kaj Hagros, the Start Me Up competition jury member.
CEO Antti Vasara from VTT opened up about VTT’s expertise and role in enhancing and commercialising business ideas.
Pauli Turunen from the UCOT team, who won the main prize in the Start Me Up 2022 business idea competition, opened up news about the UCOT solution and business development a year after winning the competition.
CEO Antti Vasara from VTT and Start Me Up jury members Pekka Lemettinen and Kaj Hagros.
In the Student category, the winner of the University of Eastern Finland is Nanoscale Oy, which develops low consumption and emission-free ECO Boards for better indoor air quality. The solution of Wujun Xu and Junyan Chen, from Kuopio.
Tomi Haring and Kirsi Svärd from Business Joensuu shared the prize.
In the Student category, the winner of the Karelia University of Applied Sciences is Siru Alakangas, whose Kartoon application is designed for the operational management of horse stables.
Tomi Haring and Kirsi Svärd from Business Joensuu shared the prize.
In the Student category, the winner of the Riveria is Sini Hulkkonen and her team’s business idea Crafter's Leather, a Leather-Specialised Web Shop for leather work enthusiasts and companies, focusing on high-quality handicraft leather and leather supplies.
Tomi Haring and Kirsi Svärd from Business Joensuu shared the prize.
Hiil Oy is the winner of the Business for Kitee series. Hiil Oy recycles and chars waste wood into Kiertopuu® building material.
Miikka and Joonas Kotilainen were awarded by Risto Hiltunen, the City of Kitee's Business Development Manager and Mervi Holopainen, Council Chairman of the City of Kitee.
Business for Liperi category winners are Liperi-based Lari Mikkonen's idea for safe recycling of batteries and Antti Ticklen's KahWakiulu sauna product.
Jaana Karppanen, business adviser at Liperi municipality, Lipertek Oy, shared the prize.
Modern Karelian Trade and Service in the new Joensuu Market Hall category winner is Matexpro Oy's Matti and Miia Pasanen’s North Karelia’s Lake Experience Centre.
Antti Pölönen, Head of Accounting at Northern Karelia Cooperative Society (PKO) shared the prize.
The Research-Based Business Idea series winner is ColdXRay, the research-oriented deep technology start-up company at the University of Eastern Finland, which develops X-ray imaging technology based on X-ray cold cathode source.
Tomi Haring and Kirsi Svärd shared the prize.
The winner of the Main prize of the Start Me Up 2023 business idea competition is Mielikki Nordic's WoodSense extract, which is a natural and functional ingredient for the needs of the the global cosmetics industry.
The Mielikki Nordic team from right to left:
Petri Kilpeläinen, Henri Vanhanen, Jarkko Hellström and Marta Cortina Escribano. Team member Markku Leppänen was not present at the award ceremony.
Tomi Haring and Kirsi Svärd shared the prize.
Get to know the winners in more detail in the press release.
We will share more news about the competition announcements, the winners and their business proposals along the way. Also, we're starting to plan the Start Me Up 2024 business idea competition almost immediately, so stay tuned with the Start Me Up! As usual, the competition period is February 1-March 31, 2024.
