Selected corporate leaders and startups will start their common learning journey this week in Helsinki.

In the EEX Journey, bravest corporate leaders step out of their corporate offices and comfort zone, becoming Advisors to ambitious startup entrepreneurs. In a year-long program they learn together about bold experimenting, agile growth, and entrepreneurial leadership.

"These people are the sharp end of our economy. We’re proud that EEX Community is growing and getting more international. In the 13th cohort we have over 60 large corporations’ leaders and entrepreneurs from around the whole Europe and the world – like Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, USA, Sweden, Austria, China, and Hungary and more.” Tapio Peltonen, Founder, EEX

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These 10 startups will start their journey with Advisory Board, Advisors coming from companies like Uniper, ABB, Bosch, Stora Enso, Fortum, Sandvik, Deutsche Telekom, BASF and KONE.

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Wildplastic 🇩🇪

WILDPLASTIC was founded to eliminate wild plastic waste found outside recycling systems in illegal landfills, nature, or streets. They collaborate with local organizations to recover and process this material into new products, such as the WILDBAG.

Tim Lampe, COO, Co-Founder:

“We tackle the global plastic crisis by recovering waste and transforming it into stylish, eco-friendly products. Our mission is to show consumers and brands that saving the environment can be fun, fashionable and a successful business. By reducing plastic pollution and promoting sustainable choices, we inspire a movement towards a cleaner, healthier planet.”

EEX Journey expectations:

“We are seeking practical, hands-on insights and actionable advice focused on the pragmatic execution of our goals.”

Aircohol 🇫🇮

Aircohol® technology empowers distilleries & breweries to produce the world’s most sustainable drinks using nothing but CO2. We make alcohol from air!

Simo Hämäläinen, CEO & Co-Founder:

“Aircohol has a cheerful way to save the planet! Patented Aircohol® tech offers alcohol & ethanol companies the best and most sustainable business case to utilise fermentation CO2 by helping them to convert it to sustainable alcohol for wonderful drinks or bioethanol. As side streams we generate essential nutrients like proteins and lipids for food & feed industries. With CO2 offset potential of hundreds of megatons, and drastic cut in land, water and nutrient use, Aircohol offers alcohol & ethanol companies much needed solution to reach promised net zero targets.”  

EEX Journey expectations:

“Looking forward to gain ideas and sparring on our most pressing issues in commercial & scaleup size: how to work with large corporations as a startup to scale the tech with them, and what business models are most suitable for us.”

‍Biocode 🇫🇮

Biocode is a common-sense carbon footprint calculator for food brands and producers – from farm to shelf, Biocode covers the entire supply chain.

Vilja Hannula, CEO:

“We are on a mission to make sure that all food and beverage companies have capabilities to reach even their most ambitious climate goals. A third of the world's greenhouse gas emission is created in the food supply chain, so the potential impact is huge.”

EEX Journey expectations: 

“I wish to gain an outsider perspective and experience-based sparring regarding growth, internationalisation and SaaS scaling.”

Inmox 🇦🇹

Inmox provides an intelligent sensor technology for high performance wear detection in gearboxes and a more sustainable predictive maintenance.

Michael Aufreiter, CEO & Co-Founder:

“Focusing on our two main targets, the wind industry and heavy industry, we aim to save up to 550 million tonnes of CO2 by reducing resource wastage and keeping wind turbines running to avoid energy compensation by burning fossil fuels. These targets are in line with SDG 7, SDG 9 and SDG 13.”

EEX Journey expectations:

1) To have access to highly skilled people who understand the challenges of management and growth as sparring partners.
2) To have a safe space where we can discuss different issues or challenges or get feedback from a different (external) point of view.
3) To agree on a growth strategy and set milestones as checkpoints to achieve it.

Arctic Farming 🇫🇮

Arctic Farming is a AgriTech startup changing how food is produced on planet Earth and beyond, by building multiplanetary technologies for indoor farming.

Oliver Rotko, CEO & Co-Founder:

“As shown by a number of geopolitical and macroeconomic events during the past years, the global food supply system is becoming ever more vulnerable to localised crises, and to climate change. This is putting global food supply systems in danger of breaking, and there is a need for more sustainable domestic food production methods.

We are changing how food is produced on planet Earth by offering indoor gardening products to businesses and individuals, decoupling people from traditional food supply systems one individual at a time. In addition to our Earth-bound business, Arctic Farming is aiming to change food production in space by spinning its core technologies into a multiplanetary technology platform for space travel.”

EEX Journey expectations:

“We expect to engage in discussions that make us think about the world and our business from a vastly more broad perspective compared to the status quo. Working on one's own startup often forces you into a silo where you have no time or ability to think of the larger picture. I expect the advisors to bring this broad perspective to our day-to-day operations.

Also, I am very much looking to learn if what we have learned from our journey so far would bring something new or exciting to our advisors and their work.”

Byewaste 🇳🇱

Byewaste is a circular economy platform that makes it effortless for consumers and brands to give products a second life.

Tommaso Troiani, CEO & Co-Founder:

“Byewaste is on a mission to eliminate waste as we know it. Our platform transforms unwanted items into valuable resources, ensuring that nothing goes to landfill unnecessarily.”

When Byewaste succeed, they will:

✅ Divert millions of items from waste streams by enabling effortless reuse, repair, and recycling.
✅ Cut CO₂ emissions at scale by preventing incineration and reducing the need for virgin materials.
✅ Empower conscious consumption by making sustainable choices seamless and rewarding for users.
✅ Revolutionize the circular economy by bridging the gap between households, brands, and recyclers.

EEX Journey expectations:

1️⃣ Scaling Sales with Brands
2️⃣ Scaling Company Revenues & Pricing
3️⃣ Making the Vision Bolder & Expanding Internationally
4️⃣ Helping Founders Acquire Leadership Skills

Sofi Filtration 🇫🇮

Sofi Filtration design and supply the proprietary advanced (ultra)fine particle filtration technology to customers in mining and power.

Riina Salmimies, CEO:

“We will ensure that the metals needed to electrify the world are available without the need to establish so many new mines.”

EEX Journey expectations:

“We want to learn and be challenged by our advisors as we are at a turning point in our business. We want to grow but want to also avoid the pitfalls, when it comes to introducing a new business model, new capabilities and a larger clientele.”

reLi Energy 🇩🇪

reLi Energy is a startup specializing in advanced software solutions to maximize the profitability and operational efficiency of energy storage systems. reLi smart operations extend battery lifetime up to 35% and increase profits by up to 70%.

Laura Laringe, CEO & CO-Founder:

“reLi Energy is transforming energy storage by maximizing battery lifespan, reducing battery waste, and enabling smarter, sustainable operations. Our technology reduces degradation, extends battery life, and optimizes energy storage use, driving the global shift to cleaner, more efficient energy systems.”

EEX Journey expectations:

“We aim to refine our business strategies and accelerate growth.”

‍COnovate 🇺🇸

COnovate is commercializing a novel advanced carbon-based nanomaterial that is the world’s only form of solid carbon monoxide (CO) – offering improved performance, cost-competitive scalability from domestic bio-sourced materials, and the opportunity for seamless adoption as a battery anode material.

Carol Hirschmugl, CEO & Co-Founder:

“COnovate is tackling an audacious goal to partially or fully displace a 5-decade incumbent solution that is derived from graphite materials that employ environmentally dirty mining and energy intensive processing methods. Our eCOphite materials will reduce CO2 emissions by 90 million tons/year using sustainable feedstocks and deliver less environmentally damaging, affordable, mobile energy to people around the world.”

EEX Journey expectations:

“COnovate is a B2B organization seeking to intentionally tackle numerous challenges. It is critical to be strategic about next steps, including navigating large contracts with customers, choosing industry partners, refining the forecast for material production and delivery and funding options to grow and launch successfully. We are looking forward to insights from our advisory team.”

‍ContainerGrid 🇩🇪

Circular reverse logistics for cost-effective and efficient recycled material procurement.

Today, only 9% of materials in supply chains come from recycled sources. Why?
🔹 Fragmentation during use drives up collection costs.
🔹 Inefficient and opaque supply chains limit access to recycled materials.
🔹 Quality inconsistencies make recycled materials less reliable.

ContainerGrid solves these challenges with our platform:
✅ Optimized reverse logistics to lower costs.
✅ Orchestrated recycling supply chains for maximum efficiency.
✅ Full traceability—track where recycled materials come from and how they’re used.
♻ Enabling closed-loop recycling for a truly circular economy.

Aron Handreke, CEO & Co-Founder:

"We eliminate inefficiencies in the circular economy to enhance its competitiveness and drive a more sustainable future."

EEX Journey expectations: “During this journey, we look forward to receiving honest feedback and industry expertise to refine our go-to-market strategy, product-market fit, and the integration of our solution into our customers' IT infrastructure. In return, we aim to contribute by sharing our approach and driving ecosystem leadership to advance circular economy solutions together.”
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Do you want to join a great community of path-breaking doers? 🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️Application for startups and corporate leaders for the 14th EEX Journey starting in September 2025 is open!

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