Aalto Creatives afterwork event on 27.8.2025 focuses on Aalto Creatives alumni stories and introducing the Aalto Creatives pre-incubator programme.
Startup Spotlight: Aalto Creatives Demo Day Celebrates New Innovations
Aalto Creatives pre-incubator programme hosted a Demo Day event at Marsio’s Living Room Stage in the end of May. The event featured eight pre-incubator participants showcasing their early-stage companies and a panel discussion about investing in the creative industries.
Each Aalto Creatives pre-incubator round ends in a Demo Day event offering a platform for the programme’s participants to introduce their companies. On top of showcasing creative industry innovations, the long-term goal of the Demo Day events is to build local ecosystems by bringing together creative industry entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors, and organisations that operate in the field of advancing entrepreneurship.
An important part of the Aalto Creatives Demo Day is the detailed feedback the participants receive from a jury of experts after pitching their business concepts. This Demo Day was no exception and the jury’s key takeaways were clear: for early-stage startups the main advice is to build a strong team and know the customer.
In the jury of experts were Business Advisor Timo Heikkilä from Aalto Startup Center, Business Coach Fredrik Sirén from Metropolia UAS, Founding Partner Petri Rajahalme from FOV Ventures and CEO Marja-Liisa Permikangas from Finnish Textile and Fashion.
The first pre-incubator participant to pitch on stage was Ye Feng. Feng has graduated from Aalto University as an architect and her work blends technology, art, and science. At the Demo Day, she introduced her company Arbitrary Aesthetics which produces custom-made spatial design modules for brands.
From the field of sustainable fashion, Janina Weckström introduced Hawen, an ethical sleep-wear brand focusing on improving the quality of sleep. At the heart of Janina’s business concept are wellbeing, ethically sourced materials, and beautiful designs.
Software engineer Alex Osadchuk pitched iPlayARt which is an augmented reality (AR) platform that transforms real instruments into immersive learning tools. For iPlayARt, the aim is to bring music education and wellness to modern spaces such as airports, offices and schools.
Askim Naz Yildiz’s startup is based on her MA thesis on early-stage collaboration in architectural planning. Previa tackles issues that arise in architectural project’s stakeholder alignment by providing a tool that makes the pre-design processes more efficient.
In the field of mobile gaming, Hasan Demircioglu introduced a new game studio Susa Games and their first game Summer Love which merges the two popular genres of summer and love.
Fashion and textile designer Xuefei Shi took the stage to introduce her new materials focused business Ocean Loop. By producing ecological hard trims for fashion from seaweed, Ocean Loop aims to substitute plastic with a new bio-based material.
Tassia Rebelo’s company The Secret Club, tackles the issues of loneliness and difficulty of making new friends as an adult. Born from Tassia’s own experiences of moving to a new country, The Secret Club community already has over 1000+ subscribers. The Secret Club aims to facilitate real-life connections that overstep the shortcomings of social media.
Game programmer Peter Guygos introduced Lumios which is a new VR combat game that aims to bring immersive action to life. The team behind Lumios are seeking to improve the experience of VR gaming by bringing solutions to the problems such as motion sickness, the short length of games and their quality.
In addition to highlighting creative industry innovations, the event delved into the theme of investing in creative industry companies. In the panel discussion were Founding Partner Petri Rajahalme from FOV Ventures, Finance and Operations Manager Linda Hasi from Innovestor, Head of Investment Niki Leskinen from Aurora Studios and CEO Marja-Liisa Permikangas from Finnish Textile and Fashion. The panelist shared their insights on emerging trends, growth strategies, risk management and investing in intellectual property. The panel discussion was moderated by event’s presenter, COO and Head of International Johanna ‘Nunnu’ Karppinen from Post Control Helsinki.
Watch the panel discussion and the pitches from the Demo Day recording:
The next Aalto Creatives pre-incubator programme starts in September and the application deadline closes on 8.9.2025. For more information on applying visit the Aalto Creatives website.
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