Finnish blog ArcticStartup is preparing to hold its third annual Arctic15 conference on the 27/28 May in Helsinki and, as its official title (Arctic 15: Exit Path) suggests, it looks set to deliver value for the whole startup lifecycle, from inception right up to exit. And matching David to Goliath is one of its primary aims.

Building on the technological foundations laid by the likes of BlackBerry and Nokia, Senseg - the latest in a long line of disruptive Finnish startups - is aiming to revolutionise the way we interact with our smartphones and tablets. Following on from a successful $6million fundraise led by NXP Semiconductors, Senseg is ramping up the commercialisation of its "Feelscreen" haptics technology, which allows smart device users to "feel" different textures directly on their screen.

Payments solutions business Pay Corporation, part of Boxhill Technologies PLC, has signed an agreement with CRM software business Bright Office, further extending its reach outside of the gaming and lottery sectors.

On Friday 1st November, the Crowdfunding: Deep Impact Conference will be offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear from the founders of various crowdfunding platforms, as well as meet with likeminded business owners and investors. 

Finland might not be on most people's startup radars, but to my mind, it's a country we might all do well to pay a little more attention to in the new few years.

Monitise plc (LSE: MONI.L) is the global trusted enabler in Mobile Money solutions, with proven technology and expertise to enable financial institutions and other service providers to offer a wide range of mobile banking, payments and commerce services to their customers in developed, emerging and hybrid territories.

SoundOut is a web based music technology and data company using crowdsourcing and the wisdom of crowds to predict the market potential and demographic resonance of new music.

Seamless is a great example of Ecosystem Economics™ in action in the financial services sector. Seamless are a global mobile payments company that provides prepaid top-up systems and mobile payment services for mobile operators, distributors, retailers and consumers.

Even by the standards of Silicon Valley, where dramatic predictions are as common as hot dinners, to say that “Retail is Dead” is still quite shocking. What, you mean dead dead, not just say, resting? Yes, that is what Marc Andreessen of Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz recently told PandoDaily's Sarah Lacy.