Nowadays, it's more than just a responsibility for businesses to be sustainable. It certainly should be a must! And as we look forward to reviving the European economy, we should prioritize ideas and innovations that strive to create a better future for everyone. We need to empower teams that build sustainable solutions and use open innovation and support systems to help create an economy that is more green.
And one way to help such teams is through acceleration programs aimed at a sustainable future.

During the first Swedbank Seedtalks of 2021, we will be partnering up with TechChill to talk about how acceleration programs can help startups stay true to their cause and how they can help companies drive sustainability. As guests, we will have participants from both accelerators and startups who will dive deep into the topic of how acceleration can lead to a more significant impact.

During the event, we'll try to answer the following questions:

How do we accelerate the growth of sustainable startups?

What role can corporates and market stakeholders play in the acceleration of growth?

What are the pros and cons of participating in an acceleration program?

What are the extra steps such programs take to ensure that sustainability is a priority?

What are the main gains for startups that have gone through such programs?

We'll be joined by:

Marcus Hølland Eikeland, Program Director at KatapultOcean.
Marcus is a 4-time founder with a software developer background. For the last seven years, he has led a global consultancy company, helping clients design and launch corporate acceleration and startup programs. Today, Marcus works as Program Director of Katapult Ocean - a VC sustainability fund focused on accelerating Ocean Tech startups from all over the world. In his spare time, Marcus also volunteers to educate the next generation entrepreneurs through Startup Weekend where he serves as a global facilitator and is a proud member of the TechStars team.

Āris Brencis, Sourcing Manager at X-Europe.
Since joining the startup ecosystem, Āris has been managing investor, startup, and community relations at TechChill as well as worked on the sourcing of startups for the X-Europe acceleration program. He is an experienced EU accredited conference interpreter and also has previously worked both in government institutions and the NGO Sector.

Ru Wikmann, Co-founder & CEO at BeeSage.
After 15 years abroad Ru returned to Riga and started BeeSage, when he stumbled upon a problem in beekeeping and found partners at a hackathon. Since then, BeeSage has been a part of the Buildit accelerator as well as the X-Europe accelerator. The company is on a mission to enable bees to share knowledge with the human race. Ru is a technology enthusiast with a marketing background and a self-taught web developer.

The panel discussion will be moderated by:

Adriana Kaulina, Sustainability Officer at SwedbankLatvija
Adriana is responsible for the development, management, and implementation of Swedbank's sustainability strategy. The ambition is to be one of the most sustainable financial sector companies in the world.

The meetup will be LIVESTREAMED on Facebook, starting at 4.00pm on Thursday, February 25.

Swedbank Seedtalks stands for planting seeds of knowledge through discussion. Join us online to discover new approaches and challenge your assumptions about technology, startups, and innovation.

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AGENDA

16:00 - 16:05 Opening remarks
16:05 - 16:15 Keynote by Marcus Hølland Eikeland, Program Director at KatapultOcean
16:15 - 17:00 Panel discussion