About us

A’Pelago Experience Ab was founded in May, 2022 with a view to Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the unique Finnish archipelago. Six years in a row, Finland has ranked No. 1 as the happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report at the same time sea around us is in bad shape. Hence, Finnish Archipelago is a sweet spot for our operations.

During the pandemic in 2020 our co-founder Timo had moved to Lillandet and Patrik had been working remotely from his cottage on a nearby island. Both of us thought it would be more productive and social to team up with other entrepreneurs in a coworking space.

We had two hypotheses to start with:

1. Coworking and team events: The new normal is that most companies apply a hybrid model and physical meetings are not required to the same extent as before. The archipelago is already an area that individuals seek out, and a unique nature experience and creative work environment is offered here. This applies in particular to the companies that develop AI and new applications and software in the digital ecosystem.
2. Future Solutions: The state of nature humans have created requires significant investments in reqenerativity and sustainable solutions. Archipelago is a sweet spot for understanding the value of nature and developing solutions that remediate and improve the state of nature and seas in Finland and on global level.

We launched our pilot platform for the booking of coworking facilities and team meetings in the archipelago in Southwest Finland in January 2023. 12 venues joined in located in the Archipelago Sea Region and Åland Islands. As an evolution we have since teamed up with Spacent offering workspaces, meeting rooms and private offices at 190 coworking spaces in 72 cities – all in one mobile application. As of now, some of our A’Pelago venues are already available for booking on Spacent’s platform, speeding up the positive development of hybrid work culture.

Another concept we launched is the A’Pelago Initiative – a series of business camps and a forum for engagement, dialogue, exchange of ideas and unexpected connections that contribute to the development of the archipelago. It brings together business leaders, digital nomads, researchers, investors and other influencers as well as local entrepreneurs around vital questions of the future of the archipelago. The purpose of the events is to generate new business ideas and concepts with a local anchorage.

The 1st A’Pelago Initiative took place at Archipelago Centre Korpoström on 10-11th August, 2023. The event was a success: We had 162 attendees from 8 countries, 21 speakers and 8 startups with concrete solutions for the Archipelago Sea Region, evaluated by Private Equity and Venture Capital investors. Altogether 9 business partners enabled us to arrange the event. We also received good media coverage and influencers shared their enthusiasm and ideas in social media channels.

As a consequence of the feedback received we have decided to put our energy into three focus areas:

These focus areas are explained in more detail through out or website.

We are a small team, however, thanks to 'sisu'-spirit and our network of business coaches, researchers, local entrepreneurs, Venture Capital funds and other investors we are able to do a lot to speed up the positive development of the Archipelago Sea Region.

We welcome you to join the A’Pelago Community. If you wish to contact us, do it bravely at info@apelago.fi.

Patrik Anckar | Partner & co-founder

Timo Ketonen | Partner & co-founder

Alina Sippolainen | Producer

Andreas Anckar | Web developer