Networking

We cooperates with several different actors and other networks. We can refer you to the legal and financial experts in our network. We offer international networking opportunities, for example, through targeted investor and matchmaking events and digital platforms.

Network of experts

We guide you forward at every stage of your company's lifecycle. Operating businesses can access services from our extensive network of experts. Whether you need help with contract law, marketing, or accounting, we are happy to direct you to the right professionals.

Advisory services

Through our business advisory services, you have the opportunity to access extended consultations provided by consultants, lawyers, and other experts within the Business Espoo network. The first consultation with an expert is free of charge. Any additional services are billed separately according to the expert’s pricing.

Explore the expert network on the Espoo Regional Enterprise Agency website.(external link, opens in a new window)
To request an expert referral, book an appointment with our business advisor.

Legal advisory services

Members of Espoon Yrittäjät

Do you need reliable and quick information on taxation, employment matters, contracts, or financial management? Would an expert’s initial advice help in a complex decision-making situation? Free telephone consultations for members of Entrepreneurs' associations provide diverse guidance on business-related matters.

You also have access to a document bank, where you can freely download a wide range of templates and contract models. Explore the document bank on the Espoon Yrittäjät website.(external link, opens in a new window)

The document bank includes templates for:

Sales and lease agreements
GDPR compliance
Employment contracts and labor law

Members of Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce

Members of the Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce are entitled to free advice on legal matters, taxation, financial management, and internationalization. The Chamber of Commerce hosts an Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) advisory point, supported by the European Commission. The service helps companies expand into new markets, connect with potential business partners, and arrange pre-scheduled bilateral meetings during international trade fairs and events.

The Chamber of Commerce provides guidance on:

Employment and labor issues
Contract law
Intellectual property rights
Accounting and export documentation

Digital matchmaking platforms

Find a partner for your company through digital platforms.

Dealroom

The Dealroom platform helps startups on their growth journey by providing connections to investors and large companies both in Finland and internationally. By creating a profile for your company, you can gain insights into other players and collaboration opportunities. You can also reach out to potential partners. The basic profile of the service is free.

Business Contact Database

Support for finding international partners. The Business Contact Database(external link, opens in a new window), maintained by the Enterprise Europe Network, helps you search for distributors, representatives, franchise partners, subcontractors, logistics partners, R&D collaborators, or even explore opportunities for joint ventures and acquisitions.

Search listings based on profile type, country of origin, target country, or keywords. You can also contact experts to create your own listing in the database.

For more information, contact:

Johanna Niemistö: johanna.niemisto@chamber.fi
Johanna Marin-Hyppönen: johanna.marin-hypponen@chamber.fi
Maija Kärkäs: maija.karkas@chamber.fi

Find contact details for other Finnish EEN experts.(external link, opens in a new window)

Communities

Communities bring together entrepreneurs, experts and partners. They provide a foundation for growth, collaboration and new ideas.

A Grid is one of the largest startup hubs in Northern Europe. It is home to around 150 startup companies, business accelerators such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and Aalto Startup Center, as well as other established actors. You’ll also find the Business Espoo services in the A Grid building.

A Grid is a unique combination of entrepreneurial spirit, creative community, innovative mindset, awesome facilities and university campus lifestyle bringing people together in different ways.

Join an exciting and innovative community!
agrid.fi(external link, opens in a new window)

Omnia Makerspace is an open space for technology development and networking located in Otaniemi, Espoo, within the A Grid community.

At the core of its activities are technology-focused workshops, study modules, free experimentation, and workplace-based learning. Omnia Makerspace primarily serves the A Grid community, the Business Espoo network, and Omnia's learners.

Explore Omnia Makerspace(external link, opens in a new window).

Innovation hubs

Espoo’s innovation ecosystem enables you to form networks and work with the main innovation actors in Finland.

Fast-growing Espoo is the second largest city in Finland. We offer companies an excellent location in the Helsinki metropolitan area and good connections to all over the world.

The heart of the largest innovation centre in the Nordic countries beats in the Otaniemi-Tapiola-Keilaniemi area. International corporations, a thriving start-up community, diverse cultural activities, active sports associations and a renowned scientific and research community are sure to make the area interesting. The basis for success now and in the future is smooth cooperation between actors.

Along with Aalto University(external link, opens in a new window), major organisations such as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Nokia, Kone, Neste and Fortum have made the ecosystem their home. Supercell and Rovio were born here and hundreds of startups are founded here every year.

Espoo’s innovation ecosystem enables you to form networks and work with the main innovation actors in Finland. Enter Espoo will help you to do sustainable business and establish yourself in the Espoo innovation ecosystem:

Meet the local actors relevant to your business
Identify sustainable opportunities to grow your business
Find spaces and everything you need to start a business
Grow your business in Espoo

Read more about the Espoo innovation ecosystem on the Enter Espoo online service(external link, opens in a new window).

The leading Finnish competence centre for green chemistry, circular economy, and cleantech. The green transition hub will boost innovation, business, and know-how along the metro line in Espoo. The competence centre is home to, for example, EriCa(external link, opens in a new window), a science hub for top chemistry experts and companies.

Kvanttinova is a unique piloting and development facility for microelectronics and quantum tech. The piloting environment focuses on pre-commercial development, offering a pilot line for small-volume manufacturing and scale-up. Kvanttinova contains the latest shared-use equipment and company-specific labs, cleanrooms, and office areas.

Read more on Enter Espoo’s website(external link, opens in a new window).

Defence Tech Hub is a world-class innovation hub at the forefront of next-generation defence technologies. Based in Otaniemi, Defence Tech Hub offers a network of deep tech companies, research institutions, and global partners while accelerating disruption in microelectronics, quantum and space tech, cybersecurity, advanced sensing, and more.

Networking events

We organise networking events where we invite international guests such as investors, large companies and administration representatives from different countries to help you find the right partners.

The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) organizes dozens of business matchmaking events each year alongside major international trade fairs and events, providing opportunities to meet many potential new partners in pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings. The meetings are arranged based on profiles created in the system. Participation is typically free, adding value to your trade fair experience. Many of these events are held virtually or hybrid, so you don't necessarily have to travel to the event.

You can find all EEN’s events(external link, opens in a new window) and events in Finland(external link, opens in a new window) on their website.

For more information, contact Helsinki Chamber of Commerce via email: een@chamber.fi or Johanna Niemistö at johanna.niemisto@chamber.fi
or Johanna Marin-Hyppönen at johanna.marin-hypponen@chamber.fi

Enter Espoo(external link, opens in a new window) focuses on building long-term partnerships with international companies and investors. We ensure that companies that approach us meet the right startups and find the best technology solutions for them. By signing up on Dealroom(external link, opens in a new window), you ensure that we can find your startup and provide the right opportunities to meet international corporations or investors.

Knights of Nordics

159 international investors from Singapore, the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, India, China, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands
32 international corporations from Japan, Korea, Germany, the USA, and Sweden
74 startups and scale-ups from Finland, the Nordic countries, and Germany

Corporate-Startup Online Weeks
In 2020, the first-ever Online Weeks event brought together 107 startups and scale-ups with 15 international corporations.

Visit Espoo is responsible for promoting meetings, congresses, and leisure tourism in Espoo. Visit Espoo participates in and represents the region’s industry at domestic and international sales and marketing events. Companies in the region can also participate at their own cost. Examples of tourism sales events include:

IMEX Frankfurt: International professional event for the meetings industry, focusing on incentive trips, corporate events, and congresses
Meetings & Incentive Forum Europe: B2B event for incentive travel, corporate events, and congress organizers
Finland Convention Bureau Event: Leading Finnish congress cities showcase to international organizations
ITB Berlin: World’s leading leisure tourism trade event

Visit Finland’s tour operator workshops by target market, e.g., in Germany.
Visit Finland organizes numerous events(external link, opens in a new window) annually. For more details, email: visit@visitespoo.fi

Organise a meeting or congress

Organizing a meeting in Espoo is easy. Visit Espoo will help you find the most suitable facilities and partners for your event.

Visit Espoo's meeting and conference services

We offer assistance with ideation and planning for meetings, events, and international conferences, regardless of the size of the event. This includes support with selecting venues, activities, transportation options, and accommodations for meetings, corporate events, and congresses. We regularly organize virtual and face-to-face familiarization sessions for local meeting venues and hold concise "Meeting Espoo" info sessions for event planners.

For international conferences, our services include helping with the invitation and application process, assisting with budget planning, arranging visits for decision-makers, and advising on how to apply for conference grants. We also send out a newsletter about five times a year to conference organizers.

For more details about our meeting and conference services, see the Visit Espoo website.(external link, opens in a new window)

Leisure group travel services for tour operators, clubs, associations and federations

We offer free assistance in the planning and ideation of leisure group trips. We help you find the most suitable accommodation, dining services, activity locations, and partners in the Espoo, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, and Vihti regions.

Our services include:

Expert assistance in finding the right destinations, services, and partners.
Familiarization trips (FAM trips) to visit potential destinations in person.
Free access to a variety of Espoo brochures, which you can order from us(external link, opens in a new window). (webpage in Finnish)

Partners and networks

We have comprehensive business networks around the world, enabling your company to establish extensive connections.

Partners and networks

Bilateral trade associations, chambers of commerce and guilds established by Finnish companies around the world support and strengthen the internationalisation and export efforts of Finnish companies. The Finland Chamber of Commerce has brought these active parties together in the joint FinnCham network(external link, opens in a new window), which involves a total of 41 organisations operating independently and largely on a voluntary basis.

Organisations in the target countries bring together large and small Finnish companies and other export promotion partners and cooperate with Team Finland, i.e. embassies, ministries and other organisations promoting internationalisation. The activities support the creation of a strong image of Finland and cooperation with bilateral trade associations operating in Finland.

Additional information:
Finland Chamber of Commerce, Anne Hatanpää: anne.hatanpaa@chamber.fi

The Visit Espoo marketing collaboration network offers services to the tourism, conference and congress sector.

We invite all tourism and related companies in the municipalities of Espoo, Kirkkonummi and Vihti to participate in Visit Espoo’s joint marketing and partner network. As Visit Espoo’s partner, your company can be a part of an active network and participate in international and domestic marketing measures. The partner network operates on the basis of an annual fee based on turnover. Around 40 companies participate in the network on an annual basis. Visit Espoo organises topical networking and training events for the members of the network about 5–6 times a year.

More information on the Visit Espoo website(external link, opens in a new window).

Finnish AI Region – FAIR

The Finnish AI Region, FAIR,(external link, opens in a new window) provides companies with accessible expertise in artificial intelligence, extended reality, high-performance computing, and cybersecurity. Offering free services, FAIR is a genuinely valuable partner aiming to accelerate and broaden the adoption of AI in small and medium-sized enterprises.

FAIR includes the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa, as well as Aalto University, the University of Helsinki, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, KIRA InnoHub, CSC – IT Center for Science, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT Digital).

The initiative is funded by the European Union in collaboration with Business Finland and the Helsinki Innovation Fund.

Explore the services on FAIR's website.(external link, opens in a new window)

AIStart – AI Incubator

The AIStart AI Incubator project enables micro and small-to-medium enterprises to enhance their capacity to leverage artificial intelligence in their business operations.

The project welcomes companies interested in utilizing AI and XR tools to create sustainable solutions, even if their digital maturity is currently low. Participants will receive expert support and opportunities to experiment with developing products and services. Additionally, the project fosters networking opportunities to promote collaboration, marketing, and growth.

Low-threshold training programs, development platforms, and both local and international networks support companies on their path toward digital transformation.

The project is funded by Innovation and Skills in Finland 2021–2027, part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the EU’s regional and structural policy program.

For more information, please contact:
Ulriikka Järvihaavisto, Senior Planning Officer, City of Espoo
ulriikka.jarvihaavisto@espoo.fi

Networking

Network of experts

Advisory services

Legal advisory services

Digital matchmaking platforms

Dealroom

Business Contact Database

Communities

A Grid – Founders Factory

Omnia Makerspace

Innovation hubs

Espoo - The centre of the Finnish economy and innovation

Green Line

Kvanttinova

Defence Tech Hub

Networking events

Enterprise Europe Network Networking Events

Targeted investor events

Tourism industry networking and sales events

Networking events with international talent

Organise a meeting or congress

Visit Espoo's meeting and conference services

Leisure group travel services for tour operators, clubs, associations and federations

Partners and networks

Partners and networks

FinnCham network and Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)

Visit Espoo’s partner cooperation and networking in the tourism industry

The city’s international networks to support businesses

FAIR and AIStart -tekoälyhautomo – tukea tekoälyn hyödyntämiseen

Kasvu Open and Pääkaupunkiseudun Kasvupolku