This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

Yellow diggers are shoring up mounds of Earth, as construction workers prepare to lay the foundations for three new buildings at Maria 01, a nonprofit hub for startups that opened in 2016 and is partly funded by local taxpayers. It's a key part of Finland's ambition to be at the heart of Europe's startup culture.

"Right now we are the largest startup hub in the Nordics," said chief executive Sarita Runeberg. "But what we're actually aiming at becoming is that it will be one of the very, very biggest ones in Europe, if not the biggest."

She added: "The whole place is really based on community. So apart from actually like offices, there's going to be a lot of event spaces, a lot of kind of possibilities for people to meet each other and in that sense find different kinds of resources to help grow their businesses.”

Runeberg said that’s because Finnish business culture tends to encourage collaboration rather than competition.

Finland is a small country with a population of 5.5 million, yet it’s already spawned 12 unicorn startups – businesses worth $1 billion or more. That includes several gaming companies and the food delivery platform Wolt, which was acquired by its U.S. rival DoorDash in 2022.

But it’s not as well known globally as other European startup hubs, such as in Sweden and the UK – something the country’s right wing coalition is trying to change.

"Finland is committed to becoming a global leader as a startup and growth company ecosystem," said Marjo Ilmari, who works for Business Finland, the government agency that promotes investment and innovation. She provides support and advice to entrepreneurs. "And really, it's not just about rankings. The real goal there is to create an environment where our groundbreaking startups can emerge and really tackle the global challenges. And also meanwhile drive growth in the Finnish economy."

One part of the agency’s strategy is attracting more global tech talent by offering startup visas and marketing the country’s transparent business culture, abundant nature and free education.

"Maybe the weather is not the nicest in Finland always, but there's the quality of life,” said Ilmari. “So in Finland, you don't really have to choose between building a high growth company and enjoying life, because you can do both."

But whether all this is enough for Finland to compete with Europe’s more established startup hubs is up for debate.

Mikael Pentikainen, who represents smaller businesses in his role as chief executive of the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, said the government has recently lost support among entrepreneurs after raising a sales tax 25.5%, the highest rate in Western Europe. He's also worried about the economy.

"Well I think we have in the international comparison we have high taxes and low, salaries,” said Pentikainen. “We haven't had growth in the Finnish economy now for more than 10 years and that's, that's of course, causing difficulties for many entrepreneurs."

At Maria 01’s existing offices, some of the international founders are taking a break to play pool. There’s also a sauna – a big Finnish tradition - and an ice swimming club.

Most people here are confident hubs like this one can help attract more founders and investments. But that might create new challenges.

"The advantage of the ecosystem right now is this kind of ‘small town everybody knows each other.’ So if I reach out to somebody, it's quite likely eight out of ten times that they will respond,” said Jack Parker, a British founder who runs a health tech startup. “Scaling that up to a large scale, there is the risk of actually losing that element of it."

Another concern is the geopolitical rift between the U.S. and Europe over how to tackle the war in Ukraine. Finland is on the border with Russia, and some fear investors and founders will place their bets elsewhere if tensions escalate further.