Startups

Creating Business With Startups


Elisa has a strong track record of doing business with startups. In fact we have 100+ ongoing startup partnerships, adding value across all our businesses. Always, we are forming partnerships with startups to execute our strategy and vision of a sustainable future through digitalisation. 

For years Elisa has been creating its own exclusive innovation platform with over a thousand startups from all over the world with startups highly recommending Elisa as an innovation partner.

Elisa has co-created together tens of new innovations with international startups ranging from incident management, cyber security, machine learning to music concerts and prevention of social exclusion of teens. 

How Elisa does business with startups

Elisa has been actively co-creating new products and services with many startup partners. When we develop new solutions we are finding the best partners and always starting with the customer. We employ lean startup methodologies to validate the market potential of new services as quickly as possible, and then we are scaling the service for the benefit of our customers and finding new potential customers. Elisa act as either a customer or sales channel for the new services.

Below are some examples:

OhmniLabs

OhmniLabs is reinventing traditional robotics development and redefining telepresence for healthcare, education, senior care and work.

Elisa and OhmniLabs have worked together to develop a video robot for use on the COVID Ward to help nurses and Doctors interact with patients. The robot service is a product of the Sustainable Future Accelerator organized by Elisa and HUS and has already received positive feedback from hospital personnel.

Video robot connects nurse and patient with live video. Nurse can drive the robot inside patients´ room and ask how they are doing or if they need any assistance. Additionally, the robot can be used to perform night time inspection rounds in patient rooms. This reduces the risk of personnel being exposed to the virus.

Varjo

Varjo created the world’s first human-eye resolution VR/AR/XR headsets that help professionals in the most demanding industries push the limits of what's ever been possible. 

Elisa and Varjo have been collaborating to improve virtual reality experience to meet a whole new standard. In Slush 2019, Elisa and Varjo showcased the first time 12k virtual reality broadcast over Elisa 5G that matched the quality of human eye resolution. 

Xplora

Xplora produces children’s first phone, which is designed for children and has limited access to the internet and no access to inappropriate content. 

In Elisa and Xplora partnership, Elisa offers mobile network access in Finland for Xplora devices, enabling that using the subscription and guardian applications costs only a few euros per month, as well as that parents can easily reach their children with Elisa’s high-quality network access. 

Elisa also onboarded Xplora children phone to Elisa web shop, aiming to be one of the leading sales channels for the product. 

Kjetil Fennefoss, CEO of Xplora Mobile commented, ‘it seems that people at Elisa share our excitement for our mobile phone and services. Xplora benefits from being a MVNO on the best mobile network in Finland’. 

Grundium

The Grundium Ocus is a monumental leap in digital pathology. The portable microscope slide scanner is compact and affordable enough to be on every professional's desk. With its wireless connectivity and ability to share images it is a solution to the global shortage of pathologist, making professional diagnosis available anywhere in the world.  

Remote diagnosis is typically conducted during surgery and is extremely time critical, thus it is a perfect couple with 5G. Elisa and Grundium co-escalated this solution over Elisa 5G network. 

Grundium CEO Mika Kuisma gives his opinion that, Elisa 5G perfectly supports the Grundium Ocus microscope whole slide scanner. Grundium is proud and honored to pilot 5G as the first medical device in the world. 

Why work with Elisa?

Now, why does your company want to work with Elisa? 

  • Finland’s market leader with over 2.8 million customers and over 6.3 million subscriptions
  • Access to European and global markets, e.g. through our South Korean partner in startups and  innovation, LG U+
  • Finland is a launchpad for 5G services with Elisa having launched many first-in-the-world 5G services with startups
  • Experience co-creating and experimenting quickly with startups on our Elisa Accelerator

Is your startup next?

We have been able to do achieve great results by establishing the right partnerships. Now, we want to find the right startup partners so we can bring future innovations to market. Elisa knows how to renew itself and can provide your startup with a growth platform where your business can expand into global markets.

Contact us:
Otso Laakkonen
Elisa Head of Startups
+358 453100919
otso.t.laakkonen@elisa.fi