*ship Startup Festival
*ship is an international acceleration and development platform for early-stage startups. It is also an excellent learning environment for anyone interested in entrepreneurship. The event includes the traditional Pitch Captain Competition, in addition to which we offer a mentoring program for competing startups. There is more to the event, especially from the visitors’ perspective, which you should read more about below.
Thank you to all participants,
see you next year!
– *ship Crew
2026 Winners of Pitch Captain Competition!
🌱 Pre-seed
AI-powered trust and verification tools for media companies
A wearable and implantable health monitoring platform that shifts dog care from reactive treatment to predictive, preventive care
An AI-powered retail operating system that gets brick-and-mortar stores online in minutes
🧑🤝🧑Audience favorite
A physics-based computational design software that automates the preliminary satellite design phase, cutting early-stage design cycles and costs by up to 50–70% for NewSpace manufacturers and constellation builders.
💡 Idea Stage
AI-powered SaaS that automates industrial quoting by reading technical drawings, replacing slow manual pricing processes with a fast and scalable solution.
One-handed automated tourniquet designed for battlefield use, enabling fast and reliable bleeding control to improve injured soldiers’ chances of survival.
Women’s safety brand offering stylish bag charm-style personal alarms designed to make 130dB protection something women actually want to carry.
🖥️ Data Center Innovation
Arctic Impulse: a phase-change cooling technology company delivering 2–4x more efficient and chiller-free thermal management for data centers, significantly reducing energy consumption, water usage, and carbon emissions.
📍 Best Startup from South-Kymenlaakso
System which reduces data center operational costs by 20–35% by minimizing peak load, power conversion losses, and unnecessary network traffic.
Women’s safety brand offering stylish bag charm-style personal alarms designed to make 130dB protection something women actually want to carry.
Program
What to expect from *ship?
Visitors
No pitching required, just good vibes – come aboard *ship as a visitor
Startups
From early stage to open seas – apply now to Pitch Captain Competition to get a change to pitch your startup and win!
Application period to Pitch Captain Competition is now closed.
Thank you for you submitting your applications!
Pitch Captain Competition – Brackets Guide
– You may have 0-30 000 € of outside funding
- Source of funding can be: competitions, angel investors, grants and scholarships
– You have a business idea, a concept or a demo
– Your product or service is still at its planning stage
– You have not yet generated any turnover
– You want to get feedback, sparring and direction towards further development
– You may have 0-100 000 € of outside funding
- Source of funding can be: competitions, angel investors, grants, scholarships, public funding,
- No significant VC-investments or seed round
– You have an MVP, prototype or a pilot version
– You have had your first customer validation from interviews, pilots or users
– You have an understanding about your target market and business model
– You have a team or are building one, that is committed to developing the startup going forward
– Your Startup focuses on Data Center Innovations (see detailed focus areas below)
- Focus Areas of the track – Startups should clearly fit into one or more of the following areas:
1. Power & Capacity Management
Optimizing limited grid and power capacity to support AI and growth. Examples: load management, peak shaving, grid flexibility, IT–facility power coordination.
2. Cooling & Heat Innovation
Nextgeneration cooling solutions and highvalue heat reuse. Examples: liquid/immersion cooling, retrofit cooling, district heating integration.
2. Resilient & Intelligent Operations
Automation and intelligence that reduce risk and increase uptime. Examples: predictive maintenance, incident management, reliability tools.
4. Sustainability & Compliance
Solutions enabling transparent, auditable, and sustainable operations. Examples: carbon reporting, CSRD/NIS2 tools, lifecycle and asset tracking.
– You may have 0-100 000 € of outside funding
- Source of funding can be: competitions, angel investors, grants, scholarships, public funding,
- No significant VC-investments or seed round
– You have a business idea, concept, demo, MVP, prototype, or pilot-phase solution
– You may or may not yet have a formal company, customers, or revenue
Creator*ship workshops
Entrepreneurship Education Workshop
(Workshop will be in finnish)
This workshop is for teachers and experts in entrepreneurship education in the Kymenlaakso region. Join us to develop more impactful company visits, create new ideas, and gain practical tools to inspire and support future entrepreneurs.
From Side Hustle to Scalable Startup
(Workshop will be in english)
This workshop bridges the gap between creative passion and sustainable business. Move beyond guesswork as we equip you with concrete tools to stress-test your side project’s viability. Learn how to validate your idea from day one—ensuring that your leap from creator to founder is fuelled by both inspiration and strategic clarity.
Our partners 2026
RDI partners
Varustamo – supporting entrepreneurs through business transfer
Varustamo – supporting entrepreneurs through business transfer
Creating a service for business transfer to Kyenlaakso
Kymenlaakso GoGlo – Global Growth & Business Networks
Kymenlaakso GoGlo – Global Growth & Business Networks
The goal of the Kymenlaakso GoGlo project is to increase scalable and…
Eagle Accelerator – growth accelerator
Eagle Accelerator – growth accelerator
Eagle Accelerator promotes growth-oriented and job-creating business, fosters business renewal in the region, and …
Promotional Partners
Location
Contacts
Mikko Vihanto
Development Specialist
Follow *ship Startup Festival on social media!