Maria 01 — Helsinki's Former Hospital Turned Public-Nonprofit Startup Campus

Maria Hospital, one of Helsinki's oldest hospital campuses, closed in 2014. Starting in 2016, the site was repurposed into Maria 01, a non-profit jointly owned by the Startup Foundation, Helsinki Enterprise Agency and the City of Helsinki, with development partners including construction firm YIT and pension fund Keva.

The campus hosts resident startups, investors and venture-capital funds under one roof, and has undergone phased physical expansion — from its original buildings to a new wing opened in October 2019, with a further expansion plan targeting 70,000 square metres.

By November 2019 the campus spanned 20,000 square metres, housing more than 120 startups, over 1,100 members and 12 venture-capital funds, with members raising €92 million that year. By 2025, per the City of Helsinki's March 2026 report, the community had grown to about 2,000 members and 230 startups, with a record €337 million raised in 2025 — up 230% year-on-year — with Maria 01's members and alumni, roughly 14% of Finland's startup population, capturing 22% of all domestic startup funding that year.

Funding concentration is significant: individual companies such as NestAi (€100 million) and Linear (€72.7 million) accounted for a large share of the 2025 total, so the aggregate figures partly reflect a handful of large raises rather than broad-based gains across all resident startups. The 70,000-square-metre expansion and its associated job targets also remain city-strategy projections rather than fully realised outcomes.