About Herizon
Nordic Future, Global Minds
Our mission is to connect international talent with Nordic opportunities, ensuring a diverse and thriving future.
We believe the Nordic way of life deserves to thrive
Herizon is a nonprofit connecting international talent already in the region with career opportunities.
We are dedicated to ensuring the Nordic way of life thrives by connecting international talent with the right opportunities.
Through strategic partnerships with companies, cities, and educational institutions, we foster diversity, innovation, and growth across the region.
As a nonprofit with a startup twist, Herizon stands out for its economic efficiency, spending only €1,000 per international talent integrated into the workforce.
Our data-driven strategy ensures precise, impactful interventions, while our partnerships across tech and business sectors address critical skill shortages and foster innovation.
With our model we aim to build a more inclusive and sustainable future for the Nordics, where every talent can contribute and succeed.
Community members
Monthly salaries generated (2023)
Employed (2023)
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We leverage startup experience to drive impact
With a track record of bringing startup agility and growth to the tech industry, we're leveraging our expertise to drive real impact.
"I trained and employed 100 international talents while solving my problem of finding motivated and diverse talent to accelerate my portfolio's global go-to-market."
Mari Luukkainen, Founder
Herizon story
From bottleneck to breakthrough
While working at an early-stage VC, Mari Luukkainen faced a challenge: how to help over 100 B2B startups accelerate their international growth and secure funding.
To address this, she created a rapid upskilling program with techniques learned at Freska to quickly train highly-educated talents in global go-to-market strategies.
One of the first participants was a teacher from the U.S. who had been unemployed in Finland for two years. After upskilling, she led a Finnish edutech startup’s expansion into the U.S., growing their monthly recurring revenue from €100K+ to €400K+, helping them secure over €10M in Series A funding.
It was the first demonstration untapped potential of international talent.
Herizon has since evolved from a side project at a VC firm into a self-sustaining nonprofit. We now implement various rapid upskilling models and other services to improve the employment of international talent, making us the most cost-efficient player in this space in Finland.
Today, we help over 200 people get employed annually, and our team, known for scaling major Nordic tech companies, aims to employ 100,000, driving diversity and inclusion in the Finnish ecosystem.
Join Herizon movement
Be part of a transformative effort to connect international talent with opportunities in the Nordics.
Together we can create a more diverse, inclusive, and thriving community that benefits everyone.
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Integration and empowerment for talent -
Diverse talent pool for companies
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Bridge to the diverse companies for the public sector
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Research & development
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Partner with a can-do attitude
Herizon team
We're building impact as we built our startups.
Mari Luukkainen
Founder
As Head of Growth of Freska, Mari scaled the nowadays leading home-cleaning player of the Nordics from <€200K to €13M in 2 years.
Currently Mari is a venture capital investor investing in European, UK, and US startups in Article 9 diversity fund identity.vc.
mari@herizon.io
Viivi Marttinen
Head of Community & Talent
As the first People Ops of Supermetrics, Viivi experienced scaling the headcount from 10 to 300 taking care of HR, hiring, and office management.
viivi@herizon.io
Sini Ågrén
Head of Quality & Special Projects
As Growth Manager at Flowhaven, Sini drove strategic OKRs, securing $16M in Series A funding. Previously, she excelled as a Team Lead at Slush.
sini@herizon.io
Martti Laine
CTO
Formerly a SaaS founder and freelance engineer/software consultant who worked with some of the largest and industry-leading companies in the world.
martti@herizon.io
Sofi Laakso
Growth Associate
At Icebreaker.vc, Sofi managed dealflow of a €140M early-stage fund, while at Slush, she led its expansion
sofi@herizon.io
Daria Galina
Talent & Community Coordinator
With 12+ years in executive operations, people operations, and project management, Daria has excelled in high-pressure environments and driving operational excellence.
daria@herizon.io
Let's get in touch
Leave your contact details, we'll contact you
Address:
Herizon ry
Käenkuja 3 A
00500 Helsinki
Contacts:
Email: hello@herizon.io