Last year, the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, launched the first Young Transatlantic Innovative Leaders Initiative, an international exchange program focused on the themes of entrepreneurship skills and enhanced Euro-Atlantic integration. They selected 45 young professionals from 41 European countries, including some of the Nordics and Baltics. During the program, the fellows spent time in …

Last week, Helga Valfells, CEO of NSA Ventures in Iceland, along with two of the funds’ investment managers, Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir and Hekla Arnadottir, announced that they have left NSA Ventures to start their own VC fund, Crowberry Capital. According to the team at Crowberry Capital, NSA has been reviewing its’ investment strategy since 2012 and will now become a …

In May this year, Nordic Startup Bits writer, Thorunn Jonsdottir, was at infoShare in Gdansk listening to Kaspar Korjus, who’s leading the e-residency project on behalf of the Estonian government. She was intrigued and decided to apply. Three months later, after applying online and appearing at the embassy of Estonia in Berlin, she had her e-residency card. But what exactly …

Triin Kask, co-founder and CMO/CFO of Estonian based Greenhouse CI, profiled earlier on Nordic Startup Bits, took the stage at infoShare 2016 to share her experience in handling organizational crisis in different growth stages and how founders must stay humble in the face of exponential growth, which creates crisis and turbulence for a company.  Triin’s talk was based on Larry …

Peak, the successful UK-based brain training app, backed in part by Creandum, has launched in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden with localised versions to the native languages of each country. Peak is the app that trains your cognitive function with challenging and fun games, exercising skills such as memory, focus, attention, problem solving, and mental agility. They also offer non-traditional games …

The semi-finals of the Nordic Startup Awards are now finished. This series of events promotes and celebrates startups in the Nordic region.  Country winners are chosen for each country, and the finalists move upwards to a grand ceremony held in Iceland at the end of May. Winners in Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have been announced in regional ceremonies …

Icelandic startup KeyWe is creating an app that ties together an emotional, visual, and logical approach to learning. Olafur Stefansson and Halldor Thorsteinsson are brothers in law and co-founders of the ed-tech startup KeyWe. I’m meeting with them at  the Innovation House in Seltjarnarnes, Iceland for a chat about their startup. They arrive on time. Composed and confident, with a spark …

Finnish ed-tech startup Funzi starts with a premise you may be familiar with – learning on a mobile phone. But their unique focus on emerging markets has people around the world sitting up and taking notice. Funzi is reinventing how learning is delivered – not in terms of content, but in terms of the delivery of learning to the individual. …

Nordic businesses represented their region on Deloitte’s EMEA Fast500 List in 2015, with Swedish based iZettle as runner up, Norwegian Clean Marine and Etrinell in the top ten, and six of fourteen Icelandic companies on the country’s Fast50 making it to the Fast500. Earlier this week, Deloitte announced the fourteenth Fast500 List for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The list includes …

Last week, Deloitte announced the winners of the Rising Star Awards in Iceland, with Kúla 3D and Authenteq winning this year’s title after pitching to a panel of judges at the final event. The other four companies that made it to the finals were Flygildi, Solid Clouds, Dent & Buckle, and GeoSilica. Kúla 3D was founded by Íris Ólafsdóttir, a seasoned entrepreneur …

Ultrahack is part of Europe’s biggest hackathon leading up to the annual Slush conference. You can join with your pre-existing software or start from scratch during the online pre-game period lasting until October 30th or join the 48 hour hackathon taking place in Helsinki on November 6-8. Here are six reasons to join Ultrahack: Ultrahack has top notch industry players to provide never-before-published …

Crowdfunding as a fundraising method has had tremendous momentum in recent years, with multiple platforms competing for the multi-billion dollar pie.   What does the future hold? Crowdfunding as alternative finance has been on the rise for the past few years, with around €710 thousand being raised in 2010, €14.4 billlion in 2014, and an estimated €83 billion in 2025, …

The SXSW of Europe, the Reeperbahn Festival, has introduced a special focus on startups – with a twist on the traditional pitch format reflecting the neighborhood’s seedy roots. The Reeperbahn and The Große Freiheit (or the Big Freedom) are part of the red light district of Hamburg, Germany. Back in the 1600’s, the North side of the Reeperbahn belonged to …

Inspired by SXSW, Reeperbahn Festival is Germany’s largest club festival and since its debut in 2006 it has grown to become one of the most important meeting places for the music industry worldwide. In 2009, the organizers introduced a business and startup space at the conference and has partnered with Hamburg Startups to highlight the local and international startup scene …

StartupLab Oslo is home to Norway’s – and the world’s – next big innovations. It’s my first visit to Norway and on day one I already felt at home. Had my ancestors made different life choices over a thousand years ago I would probably be happily living in Oslo today. It feels like a larger and more diverse version of …

Business competitions are a tricky concept. They are based around the idea of a group of humans evaluating (read: judging) teams and their ideas, and trying to overcome any biases they have in the process. Judges are basically asked to evaluate unquantifiable things with their very human and biased brains. They then make a judgement based on what they know …

I’m standing in the foyer of the Innovation House in Gloucester, MA. In the kitchen to my left people are cleaning up after lunch and starting preparations for an afternoon garden party hosted by Vivaldi later that day. Located in a beautiful 18th century mansion north of Boston, the Innovation House is locally known as the White House of Magnolia. Hosting visitors …

Last week, leading games VC London Venture Partners (“LVP”) and Klang Games signed an investment agreement  to back the gaming company’s future projects, including the upcoming mobile and tablet game, ReRunners. LVP will not only be financially investing in the game developer but also offering valuable knowledge of publishing within the gaming industry. Oddur Magnússon, Developer and Co-Founder of Berlin-based Klang Games, commented: “We …

Garage Technology Ventures, Norway’s StartupLab, and Silicon Valley-based MAD-Partners announced earlier this month the launch of Silicon Valley Catalyst, a new joint venture to fund and grow brilliant emerging European technology companies that are ready to launch in the U.S. The collaboration brings together a team of experienced Silicon Valley and Nordic venture players to provide investment capital and intensive …

The Nordic One project strives to create an ecosystem for young and experienced entrepreneurs alike with a focus on international growth from day one. Starting a company is a daunting task, no matter which market one starts out in. But being from a city in the Nordic region that would be considered a town in the US – perhaps a …