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Yellow diggers are shoring up mounds of earth, as construction workers prepare to lay the foundations for what’s set to become the largest start-up campus in Europe. The project is an expansion of Maria 01, a co-working and event space for entrepreneurs and investors, as well as larger corporations that want to collaborate with tech start-ups.
Its existing facilities across the street already house around 240 start-ups. They are spread across six buildings that used to make up the city’s first hospital, founded in the 19th Century and notorious in Helsinki for treating patients with the plague.
Now, the current 20,000 sq m site is a hub for companies developing innovative health technologies, alongside AI, cybersecurity, gaming and defence tech start-ups.
“The whole place is really based on community,” says Maria 01’s CEO Sarita Runeberg. “We bring people together so they can network… and find different kinds of resources to grow their businesses.”
There are also office perks including a pool table, table football, running and ice bathing clubs, and in true Finnish-style, a sauna.
“We wouldn’t be a proper start-up hub if we didn’t have our own sauna here!” laughs Ms Runeberg.
While co-working spaces for tech companies are well established across the Nordics, Maria 01 is the largest of its kind in the region.
It is run as a not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the city of Helsinki, which has invested more than €6m in the hub since its launch in 2016.
Ms Runeberg believes it will become the biggest start-up campus in Europe following the completion of three new buildings by 2028, adding a 50,000 sqm floor area.
Later this year it is launching an accelerator programme designed to support and guide high-growth start-ups.
The hub’s current and former members have already collectively raised over €1bn in funding.
