Startup Sauna Puts Some Money Where Its Mouth Is, Secures Inventure Backing
Startup Sauna has always been a slightly puzzling thing. It acts ike an accelerator but does not fund startups. It simply offers European (mostly from Nordic countries) and Russian startups coaching sessions and demo trips to Silicon Valley, and takes no equity. That's because it is funded by Finland's Aalto University and the Finnish Funding agency for technology and innovation. However, it has its uses. It's now announced an open term sheet agreement with venture fund Inventure. The fund will now offer seed funding to Startup Sauna’s best teams - so now there is real money involved. Inventure, based in Helsinki and Shanghai, will invest 100,000 Euro in exchange for taking 15 percent equity in each of the top three startups that will complete the Startup Sauna acceleration program. The VC will decide which startup will get the investment, and the final deal will be sealed between the fund and the startup.
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Nokia Late to the Silicon Valley Party
Nokia is hitting the reset button on its U.S. operations from a place some would argue the struggling Finnish handset maker should have been years ago: Silicon Valley.
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