End of an Era – Building for Future
Time to celebrate the achievements of Urban Tech Helsinki successes. The results are coming in from our endeavours. These will be celebrated in October in our End of an Era – Building for Future events. We will share our experiences, present startups from the five years that have passed and discuss, what to take on board, when Urban Tech Helsinki is winding down it’s operations during this autumn.
The Smart Business, Big Impact initiative is still in full flow. The next challenge has just opened, It is with one of the biggest shopping centres and transport nodes in Finland – the Mall of Tripla. We are calling for startups to suggest their solutions to help Tripla solve their challenges. More about it in the next news item.
The learnings from the initiative and Urban Tech Helsinki in general are being collected and we are also starting to communicate those. Our Project Manager Eetu Helminen shares one in his blog. “We need to reconsider how we evaluate risks”, he writes.
Mall of Tripla Challenge – looking for solutions to improve customer experience
Urban Tech Helsinki is teaming up with the Mall of Tripla and @Solmu project. We are looking for solutions for Tripla, a major shopping centre and a transport node In Helsinki, that entices people to leave their cars home.
So, if you have solutions that. For example:
1) Help them become more accessible, especially in times of large events,
2) Make event goers spend more time in the mall
3) Help people move in the mall and the railway station
4) Entice people to leave their cars home and use Tripla as the transport node to use public transport.
Send your solution to be evaluated by September 21st and book the 29th of September in your calendar for the workshop day with the experts. Link to more info and submission in the links.
The startups are supported by Urban Tech Helsinki and Solmu project experts, Mall of Tripla management and other Built Environment experts to mould their solution to match the need. If the solutions helps Tripla to solve their challenge they are prepared to pilot or even buy it for use.
With this challenge our initiative, Smart Business, Big Impact continues building the bridge between innovative solutions and their users continues.
The facilitator in the challenge is @ultrahack. They are expecting the solutions from all possible players to be vetted. The best will continue in a day long
More information and submit your solution here:
Save the date for End of an Era – Building for Future event
Urban Tech Helsinki era is coming to its end. 73 startups have taken part in the programme and hundreds of stakeholders have helped them to develop their business. The impact evaluation shows that some have grown immensely, some struggle. A good share has had pilots or projects with our partners and the City of Helsinki.
To celebrate the achievements and to look how to take as many insights and learnings from the five years to the future, we are organising a End of an Era – Building for future event. Add the date and time to your calendar. We will send the official invite, the registration link and more event info shortly. There are limited spaces available, so make sure to register as soon as you get the invitation.
Time 22.10.2025 10-17
And then an afterparty
Location: Maria01, Urban3 and Lars Sonck, Lapinlahdenkatu 16 Building 3, Helsinki Helsinki, Finland.
Provisional main schedule:
10-12 Urban Tech Helsinki startup meetup
12-14 lunch and startup fair with Speakers Corner
14-16 End of an Era – Building for Future seminar
16-17 Startup Spotlight
Event will have Urban Tech Helsinki startups present themselves, insights on what has been good and what can be improved and a discussion on how to further help collaboration between innovative startups and large organisations.
Learning from the Smart Business, Big Impact initiative – risk aversion is a risk on its own
Urban Tech Helsinki and our partners in the Smart Business, Big Impact initiative are gathering our learnings from the process. First to make an observation is our Project Manager Eetu Helminen. Eetu writes that that Finnish companies and society are stagnating because we misunderstand risks. Read more about the argument in the blog on our website.