In March 2017, #nordicmade companies took over SXSW at the #nordicmade booth.  With a helpful boost from the Rising North fund, the #nordicmade program included a pitch night, an investor dinner, a partnership with the John Lennon Educational Tourbus and a SaunaBus from Finland. However, it was a challenge for the Nordics to stand out in a sea of thousands …

Now in it’s sixth year, Europe’s largest interdisciplinary festival, Tech Open Air, is uniting the international tech and creative scene in Berlin on July 11-14th after World Tour stops in cities like L.A., Tokyo and Austin, with 20,000 attendees from around the world expected to join.  Tech Open Air (TOA) enters its 6th and largest edition to date with four …

bSaka founders Matilda Waldner, Kicki Hallberg, and Sandra  Ny met while work as sheep-shearers in Stavanger, Norway.  They found they shared an entrepreneurial mindset, and 6 years later had founded their first company, along with their friend Henrik Moricz, a lifestyle brand and clothing line designed to offer environmentally friendly and timeless clothing. In their personal lives, the founders are …

For the last few years, the Nordics have tried to gain a foothold at SXSW, the unparalleled tech festival that collectively  brings  over $300 million to the city of Austin, Texas, every March.  Every year, over 80,000 registrants stream into the conference, trade shows, and festivals.  Past keynote speakers have included President Barack Obama, and this year saw Joe Biden, …

In Finland, the sauna is a way of life.  It is not just a place to ease muscle pain after a hard workout, but a place for relaxing, drinking, and even doing business.  That’s why as part of the #nordicmade trip to South By Southwest Interactive, the annual tech festival in Austin, Texas, leading sauna heater manufacturer HARVIA brought a …

Rising North is a fund that aims to help Nordic startups become global leaders. The fund was launched in October 2016 with a NASDAQ bell ringing as part of the #nordicmade trip to New York. In her keynote speech at the fund’s launch, Helga Valfells, CEO of NSA Ventures, Iceland, and Steering Board Member at Rising North, said: “In the Nordics …

The world’s smartest apartment building is Apartimentum, located in Hamburg. It is the brainchild of Xing founder Lars Hinrichs, who has since become an active investor in cutting-edge tech. Apartimentum, which officially opens it’s doors to the public next month, is a converted turn of the century building.  The facade of the building is the only historical remnant of the …

Tinnitracks is a digital health startup that treats tinnitus through an inventive audio therapy app which works by manipulating the frequencies in music. After capturing the top prize at the Reeperbahn Startup Pitch in 2013 and becoming available on German insurance, they have tackled global market entry at a faster pace than many of their peers. In 2015, they captured …

Last week, the second ever #Nordicmade tour touched down in NYC to meet the local startup ecosystem, including Lemonsqueeze.  #Nordicmade is collaborative initiative between the five Nordic countries founded in Copenhagen in 2014, to increase cross-border collaboration and promote Nordic startups internationally. #Nordicmade’s NYC tour was whirlwind trip that took the 12 Nordic founders on a whirlwind tour of the …

Realm,  a Danish Startup making responsive applications, has announced the Realm Mobile Platform, the mobile database powering the world’s most responsive applications.  In short, they can now deliver live data synchronization to between users. This is a step forward in the world of mobile app development.  If a company wants to create an app that includes, say, real-time messaging, they …

After 15 years at H&M, Jordan Nasser has joined the Stockholm-based start-up company Looklet, a fast-growing fashion and tech B2B start-up. Jordan Nasser was the Global Head of Digital at H&M, working with all the digital channels for the international fashion retailer from 2008-2014. An early digital media adopter,  he oversaw the implementation of social media platforms for the retail …

Virtual reality (VR) might be booming around the world, but as the market begins to mature and competing companies gain some attention from the masses, certain countries are starting to move ahead. By Daniel Smyth As ever, Europe and North America find themselves locked in a battle for supremacy and in the last few months it seems as though the …

As Ed-tech is becoming the next industry to watch in the Nordics, with success stories like Kahoot, DigiExam, and Funzi. We take a look at 3 major trends in the ed-tech world.   Adult education Ed-tech is often thought about in terms of “gamified” learning tools like Duolingo, but the real face of adult education is in the corporate world, …

It started as a university project to ensure that the creators could get a ticket to the Roskilde Festival.  But after four yeas of development on a hobby basis at the festival, the project has now become a living.  Meet Peefence, the startup that makes mobile urinals. The Roskilde Festival is a large annual music festival in Denmark that is …

The Nordics have a natural advantage when it comes to education technology, including strong school systems, technical expertise, and forward-thinking municipalities who put digitalization on the agenda. What is holding back ed-tech development in the region? Many startups in the Nordics struggle with the VC investment bottleneck and finding the right talent. However as Hanna Kristín Skaftadóttir of Mimi Creations …

At Infoshare 2016, Rachel Milgram  of InnovIL shared an investor’s perspective on startup funding.  Rachel’s expertise comes from years of working closely with VC’s and business angels to evaluate companies seeking investment and help match them with the right opportunities. “The fundamentals are never going to change”, says Rachel.  “When an investor looks at an idea, they will always look …

At Infoshare 2016, Richard Kastelein, of Blockchain News  shared a beginners guide to blockchain, and why this technology will change the way we do business – and how the principles of blockchain are actually older than you think. Over the next 10 years, blockchain technology will change the way we do business.  Although it is not a magic bullet, it …

Start-up founders who focus on issues of resource preservation, resource recovery and recycling, often lack access to funding opportunities, as they have difficulty competing the b2b scale-ups that investors see as big money. That is why in 2014 Green Alley, a strategic circular economy investor based in Berlin, initiated the annual Green Alley Award, Europe’s first start-up competition for entrepreneurs wanting …

Design and creativity took free rein at the Maker area at this year’s Roskilde festival, where on Tuesday night makers competed to created the silliest robots. An arsenal of glue guns and soldering irons were snatched up by festival guests Tuesday, who were invited to join in building silly and fun robots.  The building culminated in a tournament on Tuesday …

The Nordic Startup Awards grand finale took place in the Harpa Center in Reykjavik, Iceland, and hosted collaboration with Icelandic Startups.  Attendees from all over the Nordics gathered to celebrate the best startups, accelerators, and investors of the year. Kim Balle, founder of the Nordic Startup Awards, spoke about why the awards are so important for the startup ecosystem. “We …