Oulu offers the optimal ecosystem for cutting-edge ICT innovation and expertise. During our decades of global ICT leadership focused on technological breakthroughs and sustainable growth – we’ve learned that our edge doesn’t cut, it creates.
Welcome to the city on the edge.
Forward looking
ICT companies and talented professionals have plenty of options around the globe for the best place to invest their skills and resources. While most top ICT hotspots tend to stick close to crowded population centres and major manufacturing zones, one place proudly stands out far from these typical traits.
Every day,
3 billion people use
innovations that have been developed in Oulu, and 60% of global mobile phone traffic utilises network technology developed in Oulu.
“What we can count on from Oulu in one word is innovation.”
– Mr. Ville Salmi, Mediatek
Oulu, Finland,
a city of just 200,000 people, has pioneered cutting edge innovations across a broad range of technologies for decades. It has developed world-changing technologies in everything from texting, self-powered locking systems, and fitness tracking technologies – to paying for things with your phone and the world’s smallest processor. Oulu led the global development of 5G technology and is already spearheading the future of 6G.
Oulu’s winning recipe
combines major technical research universities; a thriving, highly collaborative ICT business sector; and a safe, affordable community that supports a healthy work-life balance. The recipe also includes a youthful spirit and an optimistic vision of the future. Global surveys routinely name Finns as “the happiest people in the world,” and Oulu currently has one of the youngest populations of any city in Europe. It also maintains an enviable cost of living compared to other tech hotspots.
the youngest and most highly educated populations in Europe
with an average age of 37.6 years, and 1 in 3 people holding a university degree.
“Oulu supports companies better than any city I have gotten to know.”
– Mr. Jussi Harvela, Tactotek
Today, a robust triple-helix of support
– the combined efforts and assets of the business sector, the local universities, and the entire community – have created an ICT business success environment that many other cities envy.
What this means
for an international company considering investing in a new R&D facility in Oulu, or for a brilliant start-up just beginning to impact the world, is that they can count on expert support and key resources during their onboarding. There are highly successful programs that actively match companies with the right suppliers, subcontractors and collaborators. And thanks to Oulu’s hard-won expertise in supporting new business growth, it’s well understood that helping a company decide to locate in Oulu is only the start of a longer-term integration process. In fact, a solid majority of ICT companies locating to Oulu continue to invest and grow their presence here.
“A high level of education, the safe society, and the clean environment, all made Oulu very attractive for my family.”
– Mr. Koki Okada, Rohm
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