Last week, Slush 2024 welcomed over 13,000 attendees, including 3,300 venture capitalists and private investors managing over $3 trillion in assets and 5,500 startup minds. This made it one of the largest tech events, providing networking and collaboration opportunities in AI, health tech, and sustainability.
Although TFN couldn’t fly to Helsinki, we tracked some of the leading innovators from Slush 2024. Here are the highlights!
Innovations kaleidoscope: health tech, sustainability, and digital solutions
The conference showcased market-leading companies developing solutions across multiple sectors, each with the potential to significantly impact their respective industries. For example, Arterioscope, an Austrian healthcare company spun off from Graz University of Technology, presented new cardiovascular disease diagnostic tools for early and precise detection, aiming to significantly reduce healthcare expenditures through early disease detection.
German biotech firm Senara GmbH demonstrated its cellular agriculture technology for dairy production that can reduce environmental impact and production costs through advanced cultivation techniques. Following a January 2024 grant from EIT Food, the company continues to develop cost-effective alternatives to traditional manufacturing.
Operating in Italy and the US, tech firm SLY detects forest fires and gas leaks with 98% accuracy through solar-powered sensors on its platform, Treeage. In November 2024, the US Market Access Center provided grant funding.
ContentRadar, an AI-powered workspace for content creation, is based in London. The platform automates marketing processes, including creating, scheduling, and analysing social media posts. In February 2024, the company secured capital from Vesna Capital, bringing its total funding to $730K.
Miners AI, based in Brussels, offers AI-powered tools to enhance digital prospecting and data monetisation in the minerals exploration industry. The company aims to align mineral discovery with responsible environmental practices, supporting the global energy transition while minimising ecological impact. In September 2023, the company secured a $120K seed funding round from Techstars.
Slush 100: Pitching contest with €1M investment
No major funding deals were announced during the event. Still, the Slush 100 competition, sponsored by General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures, targeted European and North American startups founded after 2021 with under €2 million in equity funding. The sponsors’ portfolio includes established companies like Stripe, Airbnb, and Flix, and the prize was €1,000,000 investment.
DevA11y, a competition finalist established in Dublin in 2024, presented its accessibility compliance management software. The platform integrates with existing project management systems to identify and resolve accessibility issues. The capital has yet to be raised.
Mohana, science-backed personalised nutrition and bio-optimisation for women’s hormonal health, was founded in Montreal in 2022. The company uses advanced testing and data analysis to provide tailored guidance addressing individual hormonal needs. In April 2024, Mohana received a CAD 20K grant from Québec Tech to develop its technology further and expand its market reach.
Oasys Now, the competition winner, introduced the first European clinical trial recruitment platform. The company’s product suite includes consumer-facing and enterprise applications. Current investors include the Graduate Entrepreneur Fund, TenNine VC, Golden Egg Check Capital, and ASIF Ventures, with a total investment of $275K.
Female founders’ initiatives spearheaded the event
While there are no statistics on female-led startups at Slush 2024, the event featured two initiatives supporting women entrepreneurs: Empowerwomen Demo Day and Female Founder Office Hours. The Empowerwomen Demo Day provided a platform for 15 women founders to pitch their startups to a panel of European venture capital firms. In comparison, the Female Founder Office Hours facilitated one-on-one meetings between 10 women founders and potential investors.
The event included workshops and panel discussions on women’s challenges and opportunities in tech and entrepreneurship. It provided practical insights and strategies for success. Here are some standout women from the event:
Neha Nerkhede, co-founder and CEO of Osciliar, an AI-powered platform for risk management decisions. Oscilar’s AI Risk Decisioning platform integrates onboarding, fraud detection, credit assessment, and compliance monitoring. In April 2023, the company raised $20M from Early VC, but the investor’s name was undisclosed.
Lourdes Agapito, co-founder of Synthesia, created a tool to generate professional AI videos from text in minutes. The technology uses AI avatars to replace traditional actors, enabling users to select from a diverse range of avatars that can speak over 140 languages. In June 2023, the company raised $90M at a $1 billion valuation in Series C from Accel, Kleiner Perkins, GV, FirstMark Capital, Olivier Pomel, Amjad Masad, Alex Wang, and NVentures.
Monika Liikamaa, co-founder and co-CEO of Enfuce, a new financial service provider, focuses on future payment possibilities. It offers a modular processing platform that allows businesses to customise their card issuing and payment solutions. In November 2023, the company raised €8M at a €225M valuation from Vitruvian Partners, Visa, and Maki.vc.
