Mesenaatti to build the digital platform for Experimental Finland – Ambientia won the hackathon

The Prime Minister's Office has selected the partner for building the new digital platform, which will allow to create, support and fund ideas, experiments and solutions together. The platform will also serve for disseminating and collecting information. The selected partner, Mesenaatti.me Oy, is a Finnish pioneer in developing crowdfunding for social and cultural projects.

- Mesenaatti was selected as the winner of our design contest as the jury considered them to have the most feasible implementation plan. Their project was also considered to respond the best to the needs of the different user categories, says Ira Alanko, Project Manager of Experimental Finland at the Prime Minister's Office.

- This is a bold new opening from the state – a leap to the unknown that is needed if we wish to create something really new. We know how hard it is for small actors to push through innovations and make things happen. Being selected feels even better because this is the first time when the state purchases IT services by a design contests, says Producer Tanja Jänicke from Mesenaatti.

The winner was selected by an independent jury which scored the candidates anonymously, i.e. they did not know which team they were giving the scores. The jury members were Max Hamberg, Director and Markus Rahkola, Senior Specialist from the Prime Minister's Office, Kalle Nieminen, Specialist at Sitra, and Hanna Äijälä, CEO at Pivo Wallet Oy. 

As part of the contest a two-day hackathon was organised last week. - The hackathon participants further elaborated the content of their work and got feedback for their approach, says Johanna Kotipelto, Senior Specialist in the Experimental Finland project.

Hackathon had a jury of its own, with startup consultant Peter Vesterbacka, all-round robotics specialist Cristina Andersson, digital visionary Mikael Jungner, social media strategist Tuija Aalto and public servant with business background Aleksi Koponen as members. The hackathon winner was selected based on pitching, i.e. short presentations of the contestant's projects.

- Peter Vesterbacka, founder of Slush, challenged the teams on the stage to aim at the Americas or Asia and urged the buyer to look for an even better solution, says Johanna Kotipelto who hosted the hackathon event.  

The winner of the hackathon pitches and the EUR 10 000 reward was Ambientia Group Oy. Ambientia is a software company and IT service provider based in Hämeenlinna that is specialised in creating digital services and renewing work culture.

- We were very happy to be selected as the pitch winner by the expert jury as the theme of the contest is most important both for us and the society. Aki Salmi, Jarmo Kniivilä, Juha Krapinoja and Juha Pihlaja from Ambientia considered that event was extremely well organised.

The beta version of the joint development and crowdfunding platform for experiments should be completed by the end of this year.  - The platform will be opened to the public early next year, probably in February, says Project Manager Ira Alanko. - This contributes to the Government Programme objective that 5 per cent of all public procurement should be innovative procurement. We wish to thank the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation Tekes and Hansel for their support, Alanko says.

Read more on the contest hereLinkki toiselle sivustolle

Inquiries: Ira Alanko, Project Manager, Experimental Finland, Prime Minister's Office, tel. +358 295 160 028, ira.alanko(at)vnk.fi , Johanna Kotipelto, Senior Specialist, Experimental Finland, Prime Minister's Office, tel. +358 295 160 206, johanna.kotipelto(at)vnk.fi, Tanja Jänicke, Producer, Mesenaatti.me Oy, tel. +358 50 382 0333, tanja(at)mesenaatti.me, Hannu Latva-Rasku, Sales Consultant, Ambientia Group Oy, tel. +358 50 341 3532, hannu.latva-rask(at)ambientia.fi