Helsinki in the beginning of June was quite literally the hot-bed of start-up and investment activity in the Nordics. The beautiful 25°C weather complemented the hot new innovative solutions on display. Several events created the perfect melting-pot with which to showcase Finnish and Nordic talent to a wider audience of international visitors. Several key events took place during the week …
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We spend more time messaging on our phones than ever before. What would the most amazing visual messaging service look like? That was the question Norwegian company DeeMe, founded in 2014, started from. “This question became the DeeMe project, and today our vision is still the same. The world of social media is in constant change, and we keep on …
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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 …
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TactoTek, a leading manufacturer of 3D injection molded structural electronics (IMSE) solutions based in Oulu, Finland, announced today that it has been named a recipient of a €2.5 million EU Horizon 2020 award to mass produce injection molded electronics (IME) solutions. Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument of Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global …
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Little by little financial technology (FinTech) entrepreneurship has been chipping away at the once mighty banking industry, threatening to turn it into brick-and-mortar shell of its former self. Piqued by widespread frustration with impersonal services and fee bombardment, tech-savvy customers have been abandoning traditional banks in favor of digital banking services. Today’s consumers and business owners want banking services they …
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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 …
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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 …
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Ultrahack 2016, which launched at the beginning of June, invites participants to compete for more than 1 million euro investments plus other significant prizes. The investments will be awarded by Nestholma in cooperation with Ultrahack, surpassing previous investments in hackathons in Finland. The best teams have also an opportunity to meet FiBAN (Finnish Business Angels Network) investors after the finals. …
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Swedish Innovation Compass is the app helping entrepreneurs, researchers, and innovators to navigate the innovation support system in Sweden. The user is guided to everything relevant from venture capital, business incubators, government grants and more. After going through Lund University’s accelerator program, the app is sitting at over 5 000 downloads and now has a web version too. Recently, they …
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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 …
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The Button Corporation, which launched world’s first IoT physical push button from Helsinki in the Spring of 2014, has launched a new bttn Mini designed by award-winning Finnish industrial designer, Harri Koskinen, best known for his Block Lamp, a light-bulb held inside two shaped pieces of clear glass, which is exhibited in MoMA in New York City. Harri has designed …
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Realm has taken home the prestigious ‘Startup of the Year’ at the Nordic Startup Awards 2016. This is no surprise if you have followed the company’s explosive growth over the last 2 years. Realm has created a mobile database for developers globally to create advanced applications quickly and easily, and is now in the hands of 1 billion users. The …
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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 …
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On June 15-17th, Startup Extreme is inviting an exclusive group of investors, media, connectors, and founders to the small west coast town of Voss, Norway to get to know a selection of the coolest Nordic founders. The twist? Participants will get to know each other while enduring extreme sports in the Norwegian fjords. By having the attendees doing extreme sports …
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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) …
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Fintech is one of the biggest buzzwords in tech right now. Check out the below infographic to see how exactly how fintech is going to disrupt the financial world, including the best accelerators and investors, the leading fintech hubs, and global fintech investments. This article was compiled based on research by Dr.Discount, the Dutch number one source for online coupons …
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With virtual reality the next frontier for digital innovation, a growing number of Finnish companies are offering a pioneering look at things to come. Science fiction has always offered far-fetched future imaginings of various shapes and sizes. Sometimes, however, this crystal ball gazing also comes true. A self-driving car? Google now has the answer. Video conferencing? Thanks Skype. How about …
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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 …
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“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 …
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While the need for a better approach to diabetes management has been well established, healthcare solutions catering to such an approach has always been lacking. It is perhaps for this reason that Medilync not only won the best “IoT startup” award, but also the “People’s Choice” award in Nordic Startup Awards Icelandic final this year. Sigurjón Lydsson, CEO and Co-founder …
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