The pitch competition is aimed at pre-seed and seed stage startups. The startups will be judged by a panel of international investors and experts including Tuomas Pahlman, Board Member at FiBAN, Henry Nilert, Co-founder and CFO of MCB Finance and other professional business leaders. 

This is the final stage of the competition following a public vote of more than 5,000 votes cast whittling the top 30 entrants down to the final 15 with 9 out of the 15 finalists chosen represented by a female founder.

This year's Top15 companies fighting for glory, and of course for an investment, at the finals of Arctic15 Pitching Competition by NewCo Helsinki, are (in alphabetical order):

• BidrentoPro, an Estonian based residential rental property management software that helps landlords to find and manage their tenants.
• CHAOS, a Finnish urban forecasting company for real estate investors and city developers.
• DataCalculus, an Estonian based company providing easy-to-use and affordable software to employ basic to advanced data-analysis tools with complete data privacy.
• Equality Check, a Norweigan platform for crowdsourced employee reviews about organisations’ equality.
• Exponential Technologies - an AI-driven design of experiment software that allows users to conduct experiments and data analysis.
• Gigle, a Norweigan platform aimed at sourcing local performers, experiences, workshops and other event programs.
• Jeff App, a Latvian loan brokerage solution that utilises alternative data to boost financial inclusion.
• Lola & Lykke, a Finnish company focused on support mums from pregnancy to motherhood through design.
• Luonkos, a Finnish skin care product range that aims to revolutionise the world of cosmetics.
• NerdMentors, a platform that connects experts with those who want to learn from them.
• Statzon, a Finnish built global marketplace for industry data. It connects data users to data providers through an interactive platform.
• StepOut, a Finnish based digital platform that provides its users with an instant access to a variety of fitness & recreational activities happening around them.
• Supervisor.com, a Finnish AI powered load test for E-commerce and SaaS.
• Talbit, a Finnish platform for all employees to develop, learn new skills and reach their potential. 
• VibeVision, A Finnish based platform aimed at helping brands build emotional connections with their customers and employees.

This year's Arctic15 Pitching Competition is sponsored by NewCo Accelerator in Finland. Entrants were asked to submit their pitch deck and answer multiple choice questions to be in with a chance of making the public vote of 30 selected startups.

With Finland considered to have one of the most advanced angel business networks across the globe, the event aims to help startups embrace the challenges faced in 2020, through introducing startups directly to some of the most established venture capital investors. One of the highlights of this year’s event is the new 'Syndicates' feature, an angel investor focused network which organisers believe will result in the creation of multiple investor syndicates that will directly invest in winning startups at the competition.

Speaking ahead of the Pitch final competition, Timo Helenius, Head of Growth Services at NewCo Helsinki said: “NewCo Accelerator services are designed for high potential startup companies looking for external financing, but which have struggled to find a suitable service provider due to the global pandemic.

"Arctic15 provides a great platform to identify and connect with such growth-hungry companies, and we are very excited to be hosting the Pitching Competition and facilitate startups getting very much needed exposure and investment opportunities on the way to recovery from the financial crisis.”

The Arctic15 event itself, which evolved originally from a Pitch competition showcasing the best startups from across the Nordic and Baltic regions, has grown significantly in recent years becoming renowned for connecting leading European investors and startups. The Pitch competition finalists will also be considered and screened by all attending angel investors with a view of finding a match so they can lead in building a syndicate to invest through Arctic15 immediately.