At this year’s Polar Bear Pitching, the startups competed in an exceptional location and under exceptional conditions. The weather at Värttö Beach in Oulu was rather wet for February, but that did not slow down the passionate entrepreneurs in the ice hole.
Organised by BusinessOulu, Polar Bear Pitching has become one of Oulu’s international attractions annually. The ice hole pitching competition for startups attracted a large number of emerging companies to the city again this year, as well as media from around the world.
This time, the competition was held in rather slushy conditions, where a Finnish startup took the win. Espoo-based Acouspin is a company that has spun out of research at the University of Helsinki and says it has produced an unprecedented ultrasound-generated nanofibre. Thousands of times thinner than human hair, nanofibres can be used in many ways in industry and medicine, for example to build artificial skin to repair wounds.
Acouspin’s idea was sold to the panel of judges by CEO and founding partner Maximilian LeRoux, who describes himself on Instagram as “half Bavarian and half Savonian”. LeRoux revealed after the race that he had an advantage in the race because of his hobby.
– It felt amazing to win! I’ve been ice swimming for three years and I would never have thought of going in there to pitch anything, but my friends told me I should attend Polar Bear Pitching. I was excited about it, but never thought I would win, LeRoux said with a laugh.
Perhaps due to his ice swimming background, Maximilian LeRoux delivered his winning pitch as cool as a cucumber.
Nordic Option’s Investment Director Teemu Puumalainen, who sat on the jury, praised how well LeRoux managed to sum up the huge potential of nanofibre, which is difficult to explain to the layman, in just five minutes.
– We’ve practised in the ice hole, but it’s a bit different in front of an audience when everyone is watching how it goes. It was fun! LeRoux concluded with a €10,000 prize cheque in his hands.
There were ten companies in the Polar Bear Pitching final, including five from Finland, two from Switzerland and others from the US, Japan and India. In addition to Acouspin, ranked in the top three were Fanhaven, a Californian music start-up, and Swijin, a Swiss manufacturer of pro sports bras.
The top three startups celebrated their efforts with the organisers' representatives at the victory ceremony.
The event keeps expanding
In 2026, Polar Bear Pitching will return to Oulu’s Market Square, which is currently under renovation, and the event will also be opened more to the general public as part of the European Capital of Culture year programme.
Next time, Polar Bear Pitching will also celebrate its ten-year anniversary. For years now, the event has been much more than just a pitching competition on ice. This year’s programme of side events was bigger than ever, and many of the attendees spent several days in Oulu. The main day’s events, including the day conference were sold out.
Among this year’s packed side events were Finnish Business Angels’ Network’s networking and training event FiBANiced, Oulu’s health and life science sector’s Northern Freeze, and Team Nordic Arctic’s Business & Burger, to name but a few.
The Polar Bear Pitching Day Conference packed the house at Oulu's Radisson Blu.
The Polar Bear Pitching day conference at Radisson Blu this year focused on growth and sustainability, with an international group of experts giving keynotes around the topic and taking part in a panel discussion about scaling resiliently. Both the day conference and the Avanto competition were hosted by Simo Kekäläinen, who is already a veteran at Polar Bear Pitching.
The events were attended by 64 start-ups and 45 investors. A total of 500 people attended Thursday’s day event and the evening finale. In addition, the event was streamed live around the world. In Japan, Switzerland and India, the stream attracted viewers particularly because of the satellite competitions that had been organised in those countries, from which participants advanced directly to the final. The goal is also to expand the network of countries with satellite events as qualifications to the main competition in Oulu.
Watch the live stream recording from this year’s competition