Katariina Rantanen

Background

About Katariina Rantanen

As founder of CosmEthics, I am an entrepreneur within health tech, who believes in purpose-driven businesses that put mission and social purpose first. Our company has built an application, which is free for consumers, to help make healthier cosmetic choices by reading the barcode of a product. As a native Finn, I was brought up in the UK, and spent much of my youth in the US. We launched CosmEthics in 2014 at Tech Crunch Disrupt in London, after living in France, a two year period of both Ph.D research and perfumery work in Grasse. My background is a Masters in Entrepreneurship, and I have worked in both education (Assistant Professor), venture capital and business advisory roles. My past also involves voluntary help of cancer patients. My passion is promoting open data, helping people choose healthier cosmetics, and promoting strict adherence to legal compliance in the EU regarding ingredients used in cosmetics. CosmEthics was chosen as the "Hottest lifestyle startup trend of 2015", by Forbes, and the company has won multiple awards, and grown since to Europe's premium label data repository, and has impacted the EU regulations on microplastics. The company is angel and VC funded, and has teams in multiple countries. I have been able to use my prior knowledge (obtained from Ph.D research and VC investment Manager positions) of VC negotiation strategies in my current position. I have also helped startups grow and raise funding at Enterprise Helsinki, employed by the City of Helsinki. My passion is entrepreneurship both trough academic research and in practice. I have developed a program called "Entrepreneurship Internship" for increasing academic entrepreneurship and aiding in startup team building. The model has been adopted by Hanken, University of Helsinki and Haaga-Helia School of Applied Sciences. I was appointed as business advisor of the year, and have won the Mayor's prize for excellence. I have a Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship from Hanken, where I am in pre-examination for my doctoral degree. I have a strong expertise in research on innovative clusters and speak five languages: Finnish, English, Swedish, French and Italian.