Today I finally get to spill the beans on something exciting we’ve been working on for some time now. Reaktor Polte goes Japan! And I couldn’t be more proud of how.

No, were not “BIG in Japan.” Yet. But we do have a permanent presence in an awesome startup ecosystem. Aki Saarinen joins the Polte team as partner. Within the past year, he has settled into the Tokyo tech scene with amazing integrity. A respected speaker in tech conferences, he’s completely at ease discussing the big picture of the Japanese startup culture with the biggest movers and shakers.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the welcome in Japan. Reaktor’s skill and working methods combined with the Japanese technology powerhouses is an explosive match. To be honest, so much so, we find ourselves severely understaffed and looking to hire 20 developers there.

We couldn’t dream of a better time to launch. Slush Asia has ballooned into something entirely unprecedented in Japan. Local organisers have adopted the fearless and irreverent energy of the original Slush, all the while doing things their own way.

Reaktor Polte offers Japanese early-stage startups a chance at that same energy. Companies we invest in will join a strong and active community of some of Finland’s hottest startups. They’ll also have the same permanent hotline to their professional peers inside Reaktor. How to ship software fast with a small team, how to design UX appealing to western customers – these, for example, are topics present every day. I know we’ll never stop debating them.

The Polte manifesto is really about funding from builders to builders. People who genuinely make things, code and design. Small teams that punch way above their weight. Entrepreneurs a banker simply wouldn’t understand. Teams that can first show the world what they’re about, then raise serious money.

There is a space neglected by the slowly changing venture capital industry where the deal sizes just don’t motivate big investors. But that is where the action is. And most of the fun.

Polte is all about the power of the clan and we’re all, startups and partners alike, really looking forward to kicking some dinosaur ass together with our Japanese kindred spirits.

First photo: Jussi Hellsten