Virta won Polar Bear Pitching competition

On a cold February night representatives from 18 different startups descended into a hole in the frozen Baltic Sea.

One by one they pitched their revolutionary ideas to the audience. There was no time limit - you could stay in the freezing-cold water as long as you wanted.

Virta's Olli Kananen and Nicolai Woyczechowski were able to convince the judges on the importance of electric vehicle charging services. In addition to the actual content the pitch got high points for being extremely entertaining - Virta's representatives used each other's backs as canvases.

18 startups from around the world participated in the finals in Oulu, Finland. The international competition got applications from 16 different countries. The goal of the competition was to gain positive publicity for the participating companies and for Oulu, an area known for eg. Nokia's R&D.

Virta's victory and the competition was noted well by the international press. Der Spiegel interviewed Nicolai Woyczechowski about the victory and Newsweek wrote a long reportage about the exotic competition.

A video of the winning pitch can be found on Youtube: