Bold Ideas and Real-World Inno­va­tion: A Peek into Print­o­Cent InnoFest 2025

For more than a decade, Print­o­Cent InnoFest has been an oppor­tu­ni­ty for fresh ideas to devel­op into real inno­va­tion. This year was no excep­tion.

InnoFest isn’t your aver­age tech event. Held annu­al­ly in Oulu, Fin­land, the event brings togeth­er stu­dents, researchers, star­tups, and sea­soned indus­try play­ers for two days of col­lab­o­ra­tion, rapid pro­to­typ­ing, and big-pic­ture think­ing.

Now in its 11th edi­tion, InnoFest has become a cor­ner­stone of the Print­ed Intel­li­gence ecosys­tem. Host­ed by Print­o­Cent, a pio­neer­ing plat­form in print­ed and hybrid elec­tron­ics, the event is both a cel­e­bra­tion of inno­va­tion and a chal­lenge to push it fur­ther. “We have three main aims: to bring new busi­ness­es out of Print­ed Intel­li­gence; net­work­ing; and, of course, rais­ing aware­ness of this new tech­nol­o­gy”, explains Satu Väinämö, Direc­tor of Print­o­Cent.

What is Print­ed Intel­li­gence, and Why Does It Mat­ter?

Print­ed Intel­li­gence refers to tech­nolo­gies cre­at­ed using print­ing tech­niques, allow­ing elec­tron­ics and smart func­tion­al­i­ties to be inte­grat­ed into flex­i­ble and low-cost sur­faces. Think bend­able sen­sors, wear­able healthtech devices, or even print­ed bat­ter­ies. It offers new pos­si­bil­i­ties across health, ener­gy, pack­ag­ing, and indus­tri­al design.

This field has been grow­ing steadi­ly in Oulu for over 25 years, and events like InnoFest play a key role in trans­lat­ing sci­en­tif­ic break­throughs into com­mer­cial solu­tions. The event is designed to encour­age exper­i­men­ta­tion: par­tic­i­pants work in mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary teams, receive expert men­tor­ship, and pitch their ideas to an audi­ence of poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tors and investors.

“Every year, the ideas are get­ting more devel­oped and more mature, and the tech­nol­o­gy is also more mature”, says Väinämö. “So, the ideas at the end of this one and a half day are more mar­ket-ready.”

Cre­ativ­i­ty, One-Minute Pitch­es, and Advice

We joined the sec­ond day of InnoFest to catch the final team pitch­es and the award cer­e­mo­ny. The for­mat is fast and fun: each team gets one minute to pitch their con­cept to a packed room.

This year’s ideas cov­ered a large array, touch­ing every­thing from envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty to health­care appli­ca­tions. What all the teams had in com­mon was an eager­ness to test assump­tions, share knowl­edge, and push the bound­aries of what print­ed tech­nolo­gies can do.

The after­noon also fea­tured an insight­ful ses­sion on region­al start­up oppor­tu­ni­ties, with Ville Saaren­pää (Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu), Katri­ina Kle­mo­la (Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences), Heik­ki Ail­in­pieti (Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu), and Jan Schmidt (Crazy Town) shar­ing what makes Oulu such a fer­tile ground for ear­ly-stage inno­va­tion. With the infra­struc­ture, the com­mu­ni­ty, and the momen­tum to sup­port bold new ideas, Oulu is a hot spot for those who are bridg­ing the gap between research and busi­ness.

The after­noon also saw a speech from Ville Heikki­nen from But­ter­fly Ven­tures, who shared a few insights on busi­ness in the health sec­tor: “investors look for ideas that can make the health­care process­es more effi­cient. A nor­mal require­ment, as in oth­er areas, is that there needs to be a big enough mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ty, the com­pa­ny needs to have a sus­tain­able com­pet­i­tive advan­tage, and the team needs to be able to exe­cute it in a time­ly man­ner.”

Out of the 15 com­pet­ing teams in InnoFest, many were relat­ed to the field of health­care.

Heikki­nen also offered advice for inno­va­tors nav­i­gat­ing the longer devel­op­ment cycles typ­i­cal in the field: “Specif­i­cal­ly in the MedTech field, we know that the approval process can be daunt­ing”, he com­ments. “To devel­op a busi­ness idea, you need to accept that the devel­op­ment cycle is long, focus on your business’s strengths, and find investors who think in the long term.”

And the Win­ners Are…

Of course, the day closed with the long-await­ed award cer­e­mo­ny, where the most promis­ing teams were rec­og­nized.

Wildest Idea Award: “Feet Not on the Ground”
The first prize of the day was award­ed to Baby Mon­i­tor.

“Our idea was a device that goes in the baby’s cloth­ing. With that, we can track the cry­ing sound. Accord­ing to the sound, our device will fig­ure out the rea­son behind the cry­ing”, explains Dil­ki Madub­hashani. “It would be espe­cial­ly impor­tant for par­ents who have had their first child.”

First Prize: Imme­di­ate Com­mer­cial Poten­tial
Chain Pep­tides was award­ed first place. Their solu­tion com­bines biosen­sors and antimi­cro­bial pep­tide-based ther­a­pies, enabling real-time mon­i­tor­ing of heal­ing and allow­ing for time­ly and per­son­al­ized wound man­age­ment.

“Chain Pep­tides is try­ing to solve the prob­lem of chron­ic wounds”, explains Tejesvi Mysore, a mem­ber of the win­ning team.  “When infec­tions are detect­ed very late, it can lead to ampu­ta­tion. So, our idea here is to devel­op devices that have sen­sors that can detect infec­tions in time, pre­vent­ing those ampu­ta­tions from hap­pen­ing.”

Both awards cel­e­brate dif­fer­ent but equal­ly impor­tant aspects of inno­va­tion: prac­ti­cal readi­ness for mar­ket, and the bold­ness to imag­ine some­thing entire­ly new. “I’m very hap­py to have this kind of oppor­tu­ni­ty, and I would like to invite all inno­va­tors to take part next year”, says Madub­hashani. “This is very impor­tant for peo­ple who have bold ideas and want to find out if they’ll stick or not. It is a very good plat­form to share those ideas.”

Why It Mat­ters (and Why Oulu Is the Place for It)

Beyond the pitch­es and prizes, Print­o­Cent InnoFest reminds us of some­thing big­ger: inno­va­tion doesn’t hap­pen in iso­la­tion. It takes com­mu­ni­ty, curios­i­ty, and space to test ideas before they’re ful­ly pol­ished. That is exact­ly the kind of oppor­tu­ni­ty that Oulu offers, and why it con­tin­ues to be an impor­tant site for Print­ed Intel­li­gence and emerg­ing tech. The city’s close-knit ecosys­tem con­nects acad­e­mia, pub­lic insti­tu­tions, star­tups, and glob­al com­pa­nies in a real col­lab­o­ra­tion web.

Events like InnoFest are a good exam­ple of why inno­va­tion shouldn’t be sole­ly lim­it­ed to closed labs or board­rooms, but devel­oped joint­ly by peo­ple who car­ry curios­i­ty, ambi­tion, and the wish to cre­ate some­thing new.

Text: Beat­riz Rocha, Health & Life Sci­ence, Busi­nes­sOulu
Cov­er Image: Print­o­Cent