Minister Stubb to travel to United States with start-up businesses
Press release 50/2012
7 March 2012
Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb is scheduled to visit the United States on 11-16 March. The visit will take place in Washington, New York and Silicon Valley in California.
The purpose of the trip is to provide increased exposure to Finnish start-up companies and to help them to establish contact with key clients and financial institutions. At the same time the trip will increase awareness of Finland as a European hub of start-up companies.
In Washington, Minister Stubb will meet US trade representative Ron Kirk, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R. Nides and Under Secretary of State Robert D. Hormats. Discussions will touch upon current trade policy issues as well as the Euro zone. Minister Stubb is also scheduled to give a talk at the Brookings Institution.
In New York, Minister Stubb will open the trading day on the NASDAQ MarketSite by ringing the bell on Wednesday, 14 March at 9:30 local time. This will be streamed live on the NASDAQ OMX website at www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window); the webcast starts at around 16:15 Finnish time. After the event a video recording will be posted at www.nasdaq.com/marketsite/marketsite_events.stm(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window).
Together with the business delegation, Minister Stubb will also have meetings in New York with media companies and investors and he will meet UN representatives from French-speaking countries.
In Silicon Valley Minister Stubb will visit successful ICT companies, attend business networking events and participate in a roundtable discussion at the University of California, Berkeley. In California the start-up companies will also have the chance to pitch their technologies and business concepts.
New York is the centre of US media companies, where the confluence of mobile and media industries has created a true business boom. Silicon Valley is the centre of new technology and innovations. Silicon Valley is in a position of great strength in the mobile, gaming and software development sectors as well as in social media and cloud services. It attracts a substantial proportion of venture capital funding in the United States. In 2011 Silicon Valley businesses attracted 11.6 billion dollars in venture capital funding, representing 41 per cent of total venture capital investment in the United States. Most of this capital, 40 per cent went to software development companies. Apple and Google, both headquartered in Silicon Valley, are global leaders in the mobile industry, while Facebook and Twitter are the leading names in social media. Silicon Valley is continuing to gain in importance to Finnish businesses. Last year more than a dozen Finnish start-up companies set up base there.
The visit is co-organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Aalto Venture Garage, FinnMob, Finpro and FinNode.
Further information: Antti Timonen, Press Attaché to the Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade,tel. +358 40 590 7231,firstname.lastname @formin.fi, and Counsellor Ilkka Rentola, tel. +358 40 723 9731, [email protected]
Follow the trip on Twitter: #FinnvasionUSA