Summary
Finland is working on making the largest start-up area in Europe, named Maria 01. It's being built to give a place for new and growing tech companies to work and share ideas.
Key Facts
- Finland is building a large area for start-ups called Maria 01. "Start-ups" are new, small companies.
- This area is being set up on an old hospital site of 20,000 square meters (think of it as 3 soccer fields together).
- There are already about 240 start-ups working in the existing area.
- Maria 01 is partly funded by the city of Helsinki. The city has donated over €6m ($6.7m; £5.2m) since 2016.
- The plan is to become the biggest start-up area in Europe by 2028 with the addition of three new buildings.
- A new program to help fast-growing start-ups is planned to start later this year.
- Finland has already created 12 successful businesses, each worth a billion dollars or more, including game makers and a food delivery platform.
- Finland's start-up ecosystem was ranked the 7th best in western Europe and 14th in the world last year. This system includes support from the government and universities.
