Finnish AI News Startup Freepress Secures €1 Million to Break Down Language Barriers in Global News
Finnish Freepress plans international expansion with revenue-sharing model that gives publishers up to 50% of platform income. The model positions Freepress as both a tech company and a media infrastructure play.
Text by Martti Asikainen, 16.12.2025 | Photo by Freepress
Finnish news technology startup Freepress has raised €1 million in seed funding as it prepares to take its AI-powered multilingual news platform to international markets, the company announced this month.
Founded in 2023 by property entrepreneur Joel Uussaari and software veteran Aleksi Kaistinen, Freepress uses artificial intelligence to analyse hundreds of thousands of news articles from multiple countries and generate concise summaries in users’ native languages. The platform launched in Finland in autumn 2025 and quickly climbed to top positions in the App Store’s news categories.
Revenue Model Rewards Publishers
At the heart of Freepress’s strategy is an unusual approach to the contentious relationship between tech platforms and traditional media: the company pledges to share up to half its revenue with publishers whose content appears on the service.
“Through Freepress, publishers can reach readers outside their own language and market area,” said CEO Joel Uussaari. “For publishers, this means reaching audiences far beyond their home market.”
The model positions Freepress as both a technology company and a media infrastructure play. Whilst the platform offers AI-generated news summaries free of charge, it also hosts original journalistic content from partner publishers, who receive a portion of revenue from both consumer and business subscribers.
The company is currently in discussions with several international media outlets and has secured a partnership with Reuters, whose international news feed will be available on the platform from January 2026.
How It Actually Works
Freepress functions as a virtual news editor, processing vast volumes of publicly available and licensed articles to extract key information. Users can follow news from various countries in real time or set the app to monitor specific topics automatically. When major international outlets publish stories on subjects a user cares about — climate change, for instance — Freepress sends an automatic alert.
The platform covers categories including business and economy, culture, entertainment, environment, lifestyle, politics, science and technology, society, sports, and international security. Beyond its consumer app, Freepress is developing business tools for media monitoring, content management, and market behaviour forecasting.
Industry Veterans in AI-Era
The seed round was led by Stephen Industries Inc., the investment vehicle of Finnish tech investor Kustaa Poutiainen, and included several experienced Finnish investors.
The company has assembled an advisory board of prominent Finnish media and technology figures, including technology expert Erkki Heilakka; former editor-in-chief and management consultant Jussi Tuulensuu; Mikael Pentikäinen, former editor-in-chief of both the Finnish News Agency and Helsingin Sanomat who now leads the Confederation of Finnish Entrepreneurs; and Jaakko Lindgren of Dottir Law, who specialises in copyright and AI regulation.
Pentikäinen, who also serves as Freepress’s editorial adviser and board member, described the service as representing “the news media of the AI era — capable of unprecedented scalability.”
“Freepress gives its users access to a news feed they would never otherwise see. It opens up the world in multiple languages from around the globe,” he said.
Scaling and Expanding
The fresh capital will be allocated to product development, infrastructure scaling, and expanding the platform to new languages and markets. The company aims to enter international markets in partnership with local publishers, creating what it describes as a symbiotic relationship where technology amplifies quality journalism rather than displacing it.
As AI-generated content continues to disrupt traditional media business models, Freepress’s approach of positioning itself as a partner to publishers — rather than a competitor — sets it apart in an increasingly crowded field. Whether this model can succeed at scale remains to be seen, but the company’s early traction in Finland and backing from media veterans suggests the industry is watching closely.
Founded in September 2023 and based in Tampere, Finland, Freepress operates an AI-driven news platform that makes global news accessible across languages. The company is currently available in Finland with plans for international expansion in 2026.
Finnish AI Region
2022-2025.
Media contacts