The UEF Startup Day brought university-related business ideas and entrepreneurial services to the surface.
“Entrepreneurship takes time and can sometimes be stressful, but it’s also fun. There are infinite opportunities in entrepreneurship, and that is important for me,” says Valtteri Bovellan, a founder and entrepreneur of DataSauna company.
Bovellan, graduated from the UEF Business School and student of computing science, and his company DataSauna were example of the university-related business ideas that were seen on stage at the UEF Startup Day 2025 event on 27 March in the Snellmania lobby of the Kuopio campus.
The university-organized entrepreneurship event UEF Startup Day was held for the 5th time. The event showcases university-related startups, entrepreneurial case studies, and commercialization projects. Attendees got to know also about entrepreneurship services and courses offered by the university and various stakeholders, that can help students and researchers develop their own businesses, product or service ideas, and entrepreneurial mindset.
“Why are we organizing this event? We want to bring university-based entrepreneurship to the surface. There’s so much bubbling under. There’s always research and innovations happening. This event gives opportunity to network, get familiar with the entrepreneurship services and enjoy the presentations,” emphasizes Tomi Tuovinen, Innovation Advisor, who has been organizing the event from the beginning.
When university studies give spark for entrepreneurship
Several business cases at UEF Startup Day demonstrated the journey from university studies to business ideas and towards startups.
Valtteri Bovellan uses his expertise in business studies and computing science to develop DataSauna company. Bovellan graduated three years ago with a master’s degree in business studies and is now studying computing science, but for now he is more focused on entrepreneurship.
DataSauna Oy is a company specializing in business-driven data analytics and applications development. DataSauna’s idea is to bring analytics to companies of all sizes. DataSauna combines data engineering and architecture, analytics and reporting, and capability development.
Bovellan has noticed that many companies do analytics but do not use the results in their processes. It's not difficult to do analytics, but it’s more difficult putting the results into practice, he points out.
The benefits of interdisciplinarity were highlighted by AliceAI Learning, a technology company developing a professional language learning application for working life as well as others workplace language support tools.
Anne-Mari Pitkänen, a founder and CEO of the AliceAI Learning, has a degree in education and long career in education, and she is currently studying computing science at the University of Eastern Finland. Iida Pitkänen, one of the founders of the company, has graduated as a teacher of Finnish language and literature. Multidisciplinarity is a strength in the company's team of six.
AliceAI is developing a mobile app for companies and organizations to help develop Finnish language skills for jobs in the health sector. It is known that language skills are a major barrier to hiring workers in the health and social care sector.
The business idea took off a year ago with the Draft Program. The Draft Program is aimed to support the development of early-stage business ideas, and is open to all students, staff and alumni of the University of Eastern Finland. If you convince the Draft jury of your idea, you can get 4,000 euros in funding and support for the early stages of entrepreneurship. The call for the programme is open three times a year.
In one year, the AliceAI team has made a lot of work and progress.
“We met a big client last autumn, and things have moved quickly with them. In the near future, we are looking to the Nordic markets," says Anne-Mari Pitkänen.
Personal experience in studies can provide a strong spark for entrepreneurship. Jesper Kauppinen, Kais Rautiainen and Valtteri Savonen, students of computing science at the UEF, noticed that paper student passes are used at student events. This led to the Taskimatti project, which is developing a digital platform for organizing events and activating communities.
The platform uses interactivity, real-time and gamification to help student associations organize events. Taskimatti has been tested with the Serveri Student Association since last autumn and the experiences have been positive. The platform will soon have a new look and mobile app and new features such as a map.
Her own experience of the difficulty of finding summer jobs led environmental science student Suvi Taberman to develop the digital Keicca platform, which connects service providers and customers. The service allows anyone to offer, compare, buy and review services.
“I got the idea for the platform when I was looking for a summer job myself. It was really hard to find work, so I thought why not offer more work for other people. The idea has evolved and the platform is almost finished," says Taberman.
Turning medical and technological research expertise into business ideas
The UEF Startup Day also featured presentations on commercialisation projects based on the university's strong medical and technological expertise.
Paavo Vartiainen, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Technical Physics, presented SURGERIX, a software solution that will improve visual capabilities of surgeons during operations, by providing single expanded view from surgical visualization devices.
SURGERIX, based on research by the University of Eastern Finland and the Microsurgery Center at Kuopio University Hospital, represents the future of microsurgery. SURGERIX is being developed, IPR protected and prepared for medtech field business in the Business Finland -funded research-to-business project, ER4Surgery.
Project team is developing SURGERIX, a software solution powered by processing multiple video feeds of surgical scenes with a custom mathematical algorithm pipeline. The features of SURGERIX will enable surgeons to work over the areas of interest with a high zoom function and see the surrounding structures and tissues on lower zoom, as well as make desired parts of instruments on the view appear transparent.
The TrueHear project of the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital research group is developing a solution for hearing rehabilitation based on a genuine clinical need.
TrueHear includes a self-service point and a digital platform for a seamless, personalized rehabilitation process, and uniquely accommodates hearing aid users. Funded by Business Finland’s Research-to-Business and the University of Eastern Finland, the team is advancing prototype and exploring commercialization opportunities. The TrueHear project was presented at the event by Moona Korhonen, a Research Coordinator at the Institute of Clinical Medicine.
NSES and Kiuas partners in organizing the event
UEF Startup Day was organized by the University of Eastern Finland's Entrepreneurship Services in collaboration with the North Savo Entrepreneurship Society and the Kiuas startup accelerator and matchmaking platform.
North Savo Entrepreneurship Society (NSES) is a student-led organization that fosters a generation of bold entrepreneurs in Kuopio. Its goal is to provide concrete resources and support to those considering entrepreneurship even during their studies. NSES has been actively involved in the event’s organization and hosted a workshop on the prerequisites for launching a startup.
Kiuas, originating from Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, is a startup accelerator and matchmaking platform. During UEF Startup Day, Kiuas organized the Kiuas Co-Founder Matchmaking session, where participants could find a co-founder for their business idea, strengthen their startup team, and join existing startup teams.
