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Hanken Business Lab logo

Hanken Business Lab

"Our mission is to help start-ups, scale-ups, non-profit organisations and individuals to achieve significant growth"

Hanken Business Lab can be found in the so called Torget (Helsinki) or Stugan (Vaasa). These are co-working spaces, where Hanken students, alumni, faculty and staff, as well as other collaboration partners can meet up, any time of day.

Collaboration

At Hanken Business Lab, we value collaboration, kindness, and internationalisation. Our vision for internationalisation is grounded in collaboration and paying it forward. Our “Golden Rule” at the Lab is simply put to always leave the Lab better than you found it.

Curiosity

Driven by a relentless pursuit of knowledge and innovation curiosity fuels our desire to learn, grow, and continuously improve. Down at the lab we encourage our startups to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and explore new ideas fearlessly.

Creativity

In the dynamic and ever-changing world we live in we see the importance of staying motivated and inspired. Hanken Business lab strives to actively seek and cultivate sources of inspiration. Continuously pushing the boundaries of what is possible and strive to bring transformative ideas to life.

Community

Our strength as an organisation is derived from our network of entrepreneurial specialists. This collective expertise allows us to drive meaningful change, empowering us to tackle challenges and seize opportunities to create a positive impact in the startup ecosystem we belong to both on a local and global scale.

2016

Hanken Business Lab was founded in the spring of 2016, with the first spaces being a meeting room with a simple note on the door that said “Hanken Business Lab”. The Lab would develop quickly and needed more spaces for the operations which began in October of 2016. Markus Wartiovaara, Director of the Lab, was offered the old IT-cellar in Hanken’s basement in Helsinki. He was met with with a cellar filled with junk and dust, with a gloomy vibe to it. Faced with what others could possibly see as a challenge, Markus saw an opportunity and grabbed it.


2022

In 2022, Hanken Business Lab faced its first major evolution with the addition of pre-incubator activities through ‘The Playground’, which is a 16-week long pre-incubator program. During this time we gathered all entrepreneurial activities at Hanken School of Economics in one place, while bringing the community together. To make all of this happen, our team grew exponentially in just a couple of months with the unwavering support from both Hanken and the City of Helsinki, through the Campus Incubator Programme.


2023

Hanken Business Lab has 50+ members and partners, including both companies and associations. The Playground pre-incubator program has taken off, having helped catalysed 14 companies in less than a year, that have raised an impressive 300,000 euros in funding. During 2023, Hanken joined the prestigious ENGAGE.EU alliance, where Hanken Business Lab co-leads the strategic development of the labs in the consortium.

The Hanken Business Lab operations build on 5 layers:

Digital: A continuously evolving digital presence in web, video and social media.

Financial: Access to a first class Nordic angel network and venture capital.

Physical: Outstanding co-working facilities in the centre of Helsinki and Vaasa.

Social: A unique social mix of start-ups, scale-ups and non-profit organisations.

Spiritual: A uniquely inspiring community and culture.

Emma Nordbäck och Niina Nurmi
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12.03.2024
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Sebastian Mellblom Anders Wall stipendiat 2024
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11.03.2024
Hanken student Sebastian Mellblom has been awarded the €20,000 Anders Wall Scholarship, which was presented at the Anders Wall Foundation's scholarship ceremony in Stockholm on 8 March in the presence of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia.
Stefan Larsson besöker Hanken
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05.03.2024
When Stefan Larsson from Sweden contacted Hanken professor Christian Grönroos 25 years ago to ask if he could take a course from him at Hanken, he probably couldn't have imagined that he would bring the knowledge from Hanken to one of the world's top fashion houses.
Nina Fagerholm på Stockholms slott
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14.02.2024
In our new article series Alumni Interview, we meet Hanken alumni from all over the world to hear what they have been up to after graduation. This time we met up with Nina Fagerholm, whose workplace for the past five years has been the Royal Palace in the heart of Stockholm!