Who we are
Mission
We are a passionate team on a mission to catalyse deep science solutions from shallow waters into scalable businesses for global oceans
2022
The journey begins
A’Pelago was founded in 2022 with a view to create more innovations and entrepreneurship with impact to the unique shallow Finnish archipelago sea region by Patrik Anckar and Timo Ketonen. Six years in a row, Finland had been ranked No.1 as the happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report. At the same time, the sea around Finland was and is one of the most polluted seas in the world and the biodiversity and habitability of the areas is challenged. Hence, the shallow Archipelago Sea Region in Finland was identified as a sweet spot for A'Pelago operations.
At the start, we had two hypotheses:
- Archipelago is a great place for coworking and team events: After the COVID pandemic 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 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 software applications in the digital ecosystem.
- Archipelago is a great place to find Future Solutions: The state of nature humans have created requires significant investments in regenerative business development and sustainable solutions. The Archipelago is a sweet spot for understanding the value of nature and developing solutions that remediate and improve the state of nature in the Baltic Sea region and on global level.
2023
The 1st solutions: remotework locations and the A'Pelago Initiative
Based on these hypotheses our first service was, a platform for the booking of coworking facilities in the archipelago in Southwest Finland in January 2023. At the start 12 venues joined the platform with locations in the Archipelago Sea Region and Åland Islands. Today there are 15 venues including the A'Pelago Yacht. As of now, selected A’Pelago venues are available for booking on Spacent’s platform.
The second service we launched in 2023 was the A’Pelago Initiative – a series of business events for engagement, dialogue, exchange of ideas and unexpected connections that contribute to the development of the Archipelago Sea Region. The purpose of the events was and still is to generate new business ideas and concepts with a local anchorage by bringing together business leaders, researchers, investors and other influencers as well as local entrepreneurs.
The 1st A’Pelago Initiative, held at the Archipelago Centre in Korpoström in August 2023, was a success. We were able to attract 162 ambitious and smart attendees to the event from 8 countries including 21 high-level speakers and 8 startups with concrete solutions for the Archipelago Sea Region, which were evaluated by Private Equity and Venture Capital investors.
As a consequence of the feedback received, we reached a conclusion: there's a roaring need for more ambitious sea region impact innovations, business initiatives and financing that restore the vitality of sea regions. It also became clear that sea region impact innovations in the most polluted shallow sea regions of Finland, have potential to scale up to what is called Blue Economy. The dynamic atmosphere at A'Pelago offer people the opportunity to learn, discuss and collaborate on how to build financially sustainable sea-region impact businesses.
2024
First Accelerator, joining forces with a global Blue economy community and strengthening the A'Pelago Crew
At the dinner of the 1st Initiative event Inka Mero, the Founder & Managing Partner at Voima Ventures suggested that "as you love the sea so much, you should start a specific Accelerator program for this purpose": Right away, we rolled up our sleeves and introduced the one of the first Blue economy Accelerator programs in Finland in 2024.
The program provides advisory to catalyse growth and builds a large network of marine and sustainable business professionals, researchers and investors for participants. The 1st program was joined by 7 Archipelago Sea region impact startups and as a result of the program we helped create 3 new startups in regenerative business (Nexamass, Ruoco and Subdrone), The program was extremely well-received and gained a score of 4.7/5 from participants and coaches.
In the autumn of 2024, A'Pelago joined forces with the global 1000 Ocean Startups coalition . The 1000 Ocean Startups coalition unites the global ecosystem of incubators, accelerators, competitions, matching platforms and venture capital & corporate venture capital firms supporting startups for ocean impact
The collaboration was an important milestone in strengthening the unique A'Pelago Blue innovation ecosystem with 49 global Blue economy enterprises, investors and universities. Finally, in September the A'Pelago team grew from 3 to 4 as a seasoned event production professional Sini Toivonen joined our team. In addition we have 3 external collaborators: Freja Harkke in communication, Mathias Kerke in graphic design and Andreas Anckar in web development.
We are grateful to have 3 skilled advisors: Kirsi Swanljung-von Wehrt in Business Law and as owner of Airiston Lumous (one of A'Pelago venues), Piia Maaranen in Venture Capital and Pär Mickos in Industry & Technology.
Now, with good tailwinds we are speeding up our business development. Next, being one of the most active sea related business innovation catalysts in the Nordics, we continue to work dynamically in the intersection of entrepreneurs, researches, investors and other actors driving the systemic change reclaiming the seas.
Our services Reclaiming the Sea
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 impact for sea regions. We welcome you to join the A’Pelago Network.
If you wish to contact us, do it bravely at info@apelago.fi or via contact details below.
The Team
