The UK and Singapore regulators are joining forces to form a so-called “fintech bridge” in a bid to both bolster Singapore’s fintech credentials and strengthen UK links to Asia.  The Nordics, which are competing with Singapore to become the next fintech hub, will surely be left in the dust. In a joint statement with the UKs Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) …

“There are 2 main views, both well qualified.  One is the venture capital situation in the US, which says that VCs do much more than provide capital – they help companies grow.  Another view is that more than 95% of VCs add 0 value to companies, and perhaps 70 or 80% add negative value.” This is how Bakhrom Ibragimov of …

With new national strategies focused on increasing digitalization and technical competencies, the Nordic countries are facing an urgent need to innovate within education.  A strong ed-tech cluster can help address this. The public sector has traditionally been lacking in it’s abilities to focus on innovation, which is why often, industry organizations and NGO’s  help pick up the slack.  When all …

The story of Tradeshift has become somewhat legendary in Nordic entrepreneurial circles. The company was “founded on Twitter”, after one of Tradeshift’s founders Christian Lanng responded to a tweet by serial entrepreneur Morten Lund asking about interesting work being done to make government more efficient. Lang tweeted back about some of the projects he was doing with his colleagues Mikkel …

It is a relatively nascent segment within the broader fintech sector, but investments in insurance-tech have soared in the first quarter of 2016.  Is insurance-tech the next big thing? According to CB Insights, the first quarter of 2016 saw early stage investments break all previous records for the same period in previous years.  Over $55 million has been invested in …

Lemonsqueeze helps European startups scale into the US market from their offices in Brooklyn.  Now, the company will be expanding internationally themselves – back to founder Mik Strøyberg’s home country, Denmark, and much more.  For the first time, local startups will have access to Lemonsqueeze’s specialized knowledge in reaching outside of their home market. While the Nordics are one of …

Across the Nordic region, schools are looking to use ed-tech solutions to create a more individualized educational experience for students through adaptive and interactive learning, and help teachers better manage their classrooms.  While ed-tech companies rush to fill this need, it is worth remembering that it takes more than hardware to make adaptive and interactive learning a success. Ed-tech has …

Scandinavia’s biggest awards show for startups, the Nordic Startup Awards, has published their shortlist for the best startups of the year out of 740 nominees. In May, the Nordic startup ecosystem gathers to pay tribute to the biggest stars in the scene.  Promising businesses, entrepreneurs, and community builders are honored with awards such as Startup of the Year, Best Newcomer, …

Startup Tourism, a new 10-week accelerator program held in Iceland from February 1st, 2016, is now in full swing.   As the number of tourists in Iceland increases exponentially, startups rush to fill the challenges that arise. Oddur Sturluson, managing director of Startup Tourism, believes there has been a paradigm shift among tourism companies in Iceland, spurned by recent history. “After …

VR technology has reached unprecedented momentum.  According to CB insights, AR and VR startups raised $658 million in equity financing last year, and Florida based Magic Leap set a new bar for funding when it raised a $794 million round led by Alibaba in February 2016. The Nordics have a slew of startups in this niche including Breakroom, Moggles, and …

You just saw a really cool TED talk on, say lab-grown organs, and want to learn more about it, but you don’t know anything about biotechnology.  Google scholar would be a good place to start – if you knew the right keywords to search for.  Enter Iris.AI. Iris.AI can use the TED talk as input and find exactly what you’re …

A new report by BDO and Danske Bank singles out Nordic fintech disrupters as medicine for “sick” banking industry, and emphasizes the need for both fintech startups and traditional banks to form symbiotic relationships if they want to create true positive disruption. “The Fintech Disruptors Report: Nordic Edition” analyzes current trends in the fintech industry across Europe and the Nordic …

“Ed-tech is boiling over here in Sweden”, says Jannie Jeppesen, founder of Ed-tech Sweden. But the community remains a black hole for Swedes – and even ed-tech companies themselves.  Ed-tech Sweden is now launching the first ever mapping of the ed-tech ecosystem in partnership with Silicon Vikings, to build transparency from the ground up, and get ed-tech on the agenda. …

Juwan Lee has spent over 30 years working around the world in financial services, before leaving money management to create NexChange, a global social network for the financial services industry. Armed with in-depth experience from the worlds major financial capitals, he shares his insights for the Nordic countries. Fintech, such as electronic finance, digital wallets, and cryptocurrencies, are changing the …

The Cloakroom, a Danish startup specializing in providing men with an online personal shopper, has been acquired by the similar German company Modomoto. The Cloakroom, founded by Kasper Brandi Petersen and Asbjørn Jørgensen, works by putting customers in touch with a personal shopper, who will select outfits that are sent to the customer.  The customer can then select the items …

A number of countries are competing to become the world’s first economy to ditch paper currency.  NexChange recently reported that Kevin Jenkins,  managing director of Visa Europe, stated that within five years, cash will be seen as “a peculiar way of paying for things.” But one region stands out as the front runners in the race to become cashless:  the …

Bloomberg has released their annual ranking countries based on their ability to innovate in six equally weighted metrics, and all of the Nordics placed in the top 30. Sweden ranked highest in 3rd place, with Finland and Denmark in 7th and 9th place, respectively.  Iceland ranked at number 28. The economies were scored on 6 equally weighted factors including research …

This past weekend Brussels hosted the first ever Hackathon dedicated to Virtual Reality (VR) in Europe, where close to 100 participants took over the co-working space Co.station to hack the next generation of VR technologies. The event was hosted by a collaboration of MIC.Brussels and impulse.brussels, who supports the development of companies using VR.  20% of the participants came from …

The VR Hackathon in Brussels kicked off last night, bringing with it the promise of a new world of VR in 2016 and a healthy dose of viking tech-savvy – 20% of the participants came from the surprising VR stronghold of Denmark. Perhaps a sign of things to come,  a surprising number of pitches came from outside the VR stronghold …

According to the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Index, Denmark ranks as the highest country in Europe and is number four worldwide, after the United States, Canada, and Australia. This means Denmark is in the top 5 performing countries globally, moving 2 places up from 2015.  But what is Denmark is doing better than other countries? Education is the way forward The …