Now that we’ve recovered, it’s time to reminisce all the good stuff that happened in Slush 2018!
As startups and investors from all over the world gather in Helsinki's November gloom, Slush is a great snapshot of the state of technology and the big questions that are being tackled right now. For us, the two days were full of interesting discussions and meeting startups on behalf of our investment company Sangre+ventures.
A lot is happening AI and Machine Learning, AR/VR, MedTech and Big Data. Among the many showcases presenting startups from different fields we saw promising advances particularly in Medtech, such as AR/VR solutions that allow more individualised care for patients or Big Data being used for more accurate diagnosis.
The tech industry is leading change in tackling societal and environmental issues. Some of the highlights were the startups battling climate change pitching at the Climate-KIC Climate Impact Battle, and Supercell taking part in solving the coder challenge by founding the Hive school for coders.
The startup investment scene is still highly undiversified (as stated in The State of European Tech release, in 2018, 93% of all funds raised by European VC-backed companies went to all-male founding teams). That’s why it was delightful to hear Arlan Hamilton, the founder and managing partner of most interesting VC fund at the moment, Backstage Capital, speaking about their investment strategy that is tackling the issue of underrepresentation of women/POC/LGBT founders.
Slush offered a great amount of insightful talks from a wide variety of topics. The Role of Design in Tech panel stressed the importance of having designers in the board room right from the beginning (a subject that's close to our hearts). The key role of design today was equally visible as UX-evaluating bots, effective visualization in presenting data and applications that produce vector graphics or layouts.
Thank you Slush 2018 for the new contacts and the tons of inspiration to draw from in the coming year!
- Sangre's Slush team Laura & Joonas
P.S. We’ve been working behind the scenes to launch our investment sister company Sangre+ventures. We invest our expertise in startups that move the world forward. If you want to know more or you have an idea you want to pitch, get in touch!
Photo source: Slush 2018 © Jussi Hellsten
