Bizkaia talent has gone on a mission in the area of Helsinki in Finland in January

The Association to attract, retain and link talent to Bilbao-Bizkaia-Basque Country, bizkaia talent, has gone on a mission in the area of Helsinki in January.

A delegation of the organization, including its managing director, Ivan Jimenez, has gone to Finland to carry out a number of actions in line with the internationalization strategies established by the Department of Business and Territorial Development of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia for this term of office.

It is therefore a mission which intends to foster the entrepreneurial ecosystem existing in Bizkaia and to promote the image of Bilbao-Bizkaia as an international talent attraction hub. In Helsinki, bizkaia:talent will learn first-hand about a business acceleration programme and a leading entity in helping entrepreneurs throughout the process of project and/or business creation and growth.

Vigo business accelerator programme

During the mission, on Friday, 22 January, a meeting was held with the heads of the Vigo Business Accelerator Programme situated in Helsinki. It is a new type of business acceleration programme designed to complement the internationally acclaimed Finnish innovation ecosystem. This programme aims at bridging the gap between early stage technology firms and international venture funding.

The backbone of the programme is formed by the Vigo accelerators. They are carefully selected independent companies which are run by entrepreneurs and executives with proven international experience. These accelerators help the best start-ups to grow faster and smarter into the global market.

To this end, the accelerators themselves invest in the start-ups so as to guarantee common goals as well as a passionate development effort.

The programme has several key objectives:

• Incentivizing the best business developers to help the most promising start-ups grow into successful companies.
• Ensuring early stage funding for the start-ups, increasing the value of the company and making these companies attractive targets for venture investors.
• Continue raising sufficient venture capital from venture investors for continued expansion of the companies after the acceleration stage
• Invigorating the Finnish venture capital market and bringing more international acceleration and venture capital companies to Finland.

NewCo Helsinki

There also be a meeting with several managers of NewCo Helsinki, an entity promoted by  Helsinki City Council which brings together all the support services provided by the city to entrepreneurs: from basic training in entrepreneurship to how to create a promising organization at the international level.

The aim of this entity is therefore to make the first steps of entrepreneurship easier, reduce the obstacles related to entrepreneurship and decrease the risk of failure.

85% of the organizations are in the service business.

Meeting with Basque people residing in the area of Helsinki – Be Basque Talent Meeting

Bizkaia:talent, aware of the importance of generating and developing global work and collaboration networks, made a meeting with Basque men and women residing in the metropolitan area of Helsinki. This initiative has also been carried out in other leading cities such as London, Amsterdam, New York and Tokyo amongst others.

It is the first talent meeting to be held in 2016 and the aim is to get to know the concerns and the situation of the Basque people residing in the Finnish capital. Moreover, bizkaia:talent will set out the work prospects of the Basque Country for the next years and presents the Be Basque Talent Network platform. It is the professional network will brings together all the highly-qualified professionals who are or want to be connected with the Basque Country. At present, nearly one year after its official launch, it comprises more than 6,500 professionals who work in over 80 countries all over the world.