Herizon Logo

The employability platform for international professionals.

Herizon is a non-profit that builds software to make people employable. We connect international talent with courses, AI tools, and employers across Europe. We don't place people in jobs. We make them employable.

Employability is not the same as employment. Employment is a job you have today. Employability is the capacity to find work now and adapt as the market changes. That is what we build.

We do this with software: a community platform with 30+ career courses and an AI assistant, a talent matching engine that connects trained candidates with employers, and labor market intelligence that tracks 441,000 companies. All free for job seekers. Always.

By the numbers

1,156

Employed

~32% employment rate

3,645

Community members

From 121+ countries

€41.6M

Annual salaries

Avg €36k/person/year

€16.0M

Annual taxes

Social security + income tax

Every euro matters. With roughly €800K in funding so far, cost per employed person is €692.

Behind the numbers, we're a group of people who believe employment should open doors, not close them.

We like experimenting, breaking old models, and proving that real change doesn't need to be slow or complicated. We measure success in jobs, impact, and futures built - not vanity metrics.

Because at the end of the day, it's simple: people want to work, companies want to hire, and societies need both to thrive. We're here to make that happen.

Herizon team working on employment solutions
Herizon team collaboration and networking
Herizon benefits and opportunities
Herizon community and support
Herizon career development
Herizon international talent connection

Why non-profit

Employability is a public good, not a product to trade. Our non-profit structure means the mission can't be flipped, sold, or diluted. Every resource goes into building better software, training more people, and creating more employment outcomes.

We hold ourselves to the same standard we ask from partners: transparency. We publish employment numbers, salaries generated, and ROI. Real people, real jobs, all in the open.

Herizon non-profit approach

How Herizon works

Herizon is built as a non-profit. Instead of creating returns for shareholders, everything we do loops back into impact.

Cities & companies pay

When international professionals get employed

Revenue funds growth

Our team and technology development

Better tools & programs

Faster, fairer employment process

Sustainable cycle

Success funds the next wave of employment

Herizon non-profit team

We build impact the same way we built startups. Our team brings experience from fast-scaling companies and venture capital, including Freska, Supermetrics, Yousician, icebreaker.vc, identity.vc, and Slush.

Mari Luukkainen

Mari Luukkainen

Founder

Viivi Marttinen

Viivi Marttinen

Community & Talent

Sini Ågrén

Sini Ågrén

Operations

Daria Galina

Daria Galina

Education

Herizon journey

2017–2018
  • Herizon founder Mari Luukkainen worked as the solo cross-functional growth operator at Freska, a Nordic home cleaning company. She scaled it from €200K to €13M revenue in just two years. Freska also built rapid upskilling programs to train home cleaners from the Philippines to the Nordics in just six weeks, with high cleaner satisfaction and strong client engagement.
2019–2021
  • While working in early-stage VC at Icebreaker.vc, Mari designed a rapid upskilling program to help B2B startups expand internationally. One of the first participants, a U.S. teacher unemployed in Finland for two years, joined a Finnish edtech startup, led their U.S. expansion, grew MRR from €100K to €400K, and supported a €10M+ Series A. Mari trained 100 individuals during this period with 94% employed immediately.
2022
  • Herizon Association was founded to scale the upskilling and employment model into its own standalone program.
2023
  • Herizon received its first grant of €100K.
  • Viivi Marttinen (ex-Supermetrics) joined to build community and talent programs, creating weekly activities for international talent. Viivi had scaled Supermetrics headcount from 10 to 300, managing HR, hiring, and operations.
  • 133 people employed through Herizon.
2024
  • Herizon piloted the University of Applied Sciences internship program and secured €500K+ in additional grants. The team began building proprietary software with Martti Laine, a former SaaS founder and software consultant for global companies.
  • 335 community members employed.
  • 1,605 community members in total.
  • €1M+ in monthly salaries generated.
2025
  • Sini Ågrén (ex-Slush, and an alumna of Mari's early growth hacking internship program) joined as COO.
  • Daria Galina (12+ years in executive and people operations) joined to scale operations across Europe.
  • Herizon migrated core operations to its own community portal and piloted an on-demand internship program for all international students in collaboration with partner schools.

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