Wow, what an event it’s been. And officially just half way done So, the annual Slush Side Event, the Singa karaoke Chaos, finished the day1 of Slush 2024. In traditional Day1 afterparty. Bur before all the chaos, here’s a quick wrap up: The day 1 of Slush 2024 in Helsinki delivered a vibrant mix of innovation, networking, and forward-looking discussions. …
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Live events are making their comeback: Arctic15 in Helsinki, Finland
The Arctic15 Helsinki takes place on June, 7-8, 2022. Before the unforeseen pandemic hiatus, the event attracted over 1500+ Startups, VCs, CVCs, Angels, and Investors to get together. For this year, the arranging committee has some realistic numbers drafted: “We aim for 300+ investors, 450+ startups, 150+ corporates, a maximum of 2000 attendees and again – the name of the …
Read More »Nordic startups building radical transparency into tech
Getting through the Nordic winter is trying at the best of times. The previous months have provided few hours of sunshine but an infinite amount of “recommendations” (it is to date not legal for the Swedish government to e.g. enforce a lockdown) formulated in almost as many ways as there are media outlets. The Nordics are the societies in the …
Read More »5 Nordic mar-tech startups to watch
Buoyed by the immense growth of ecommerce, the martech industry continues to go from strength to strength. In the Nordics, Sweden has already established a healthy set of martech companies. If you want to know what to expect from the future of martech in the Nordic countries, keep an eye on these 5 Nordic martech startups. Boost.ai Founded in Norway, …
Read More »Media Honeypot 2019: Media startups connect with legacy companies, but struggle to get funding
The Media Honeypot series of events started in Helsinki in 2016. Now, three years, and several events later, it the go-to event for media startups. Heikki Rotko, the founder of Media Honeypot, says that Media Honeypot was born out of a desire to connect startups with their business partners to create the media we as customers deserve. The aim of …
Read More »Finland’s Neverthink believes in distraction on demand
While content might be king, the choice not to choose it yourself has proven to be just as popular. For the founders of Neverthink, the need for a background companion has turned a simple idea into a global success. By Elisa Häggström In an era of video on demand, where favorite series and movies are never more than a few …
Read More »Kieku Labs CEO on AI in podcasts: “AI can do the legwork for you”
Kieku Labs is technology company creating a personal audio listening stream. Kieku is an independent direct community of speakers and listeners. Kieku is both voices from the street and studio, a place for anyone to connect with audience. Kieku Labs was founded in Helsinki 2016. Kieku offers an easy way to listen to content that is selectively curated for your …
Read More »Infographic: 115 facts you never knew about social media
It can be hard to keep fresh content in front of your audience – especially in the fast-paced world of social media. skilled.co has put together a massive treasure trove full of social media statistics, tips and tricks – 115 of them. So, read along and take a look at the social media statistics infographic to learn a thing or …
Read More »Acast: Revolutionizing podcasts
In 2013, the two founders behind the podcast app Acast, Måns Ulvestam and Karl Rosander, discovered a resurgence of podcasting happening in Sweden. When looking into the Swedish ecosystem, they found an amateur landscape where all the important parts were broken or didn’t exist. These parts included metrics, monetisation, and discovery, as well as sharing. “This is the reason we …
Read More »Finland at the VR frontline
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 …
Read More »Media Honeypot organizers: “startups die before getting deals”
Media Honeypot, a “reverse pitching” event for startups and the traditional media industry, was held in Helsinki on April 6, 2016. I sat down with organizers Heikki “Hegu” Rotko, a long time media executive professional and Dmitri Sarle & Jan Ameri from Arctic Startup. Heikki was recently at SXSW with me as part of the Team Finland Nordic Lighthouse program, …
Read More »Live coverage: Deep networking in the deal room
Live from Media Honeypot: I visited the deal room just before lunchtime and talked to Tuomas Maisala from Spinno, who was tasked with overseeing the matchmaking process. Though busy, the large room was running like clockwork. Tuomas has years of experience under his belt arranging such events and whilst it was mainly an automated process, it still required talented human …
Read More »SoMe Index, a new social media analytics tool, launches at Media Honeypot
EzyInsights, a Finnish startup that has developed a social media analytics tool aimed at content providers, has launched a new product, the “SoMe Index”, at Media Honeypot 2016. The SoMe Index streamlines how content is accesses across all of the main social media platforms by finding the most relevant content to increase organic traffic. Duane Atkins from Ezyinsights hit the …
Read More »Media Honeypot aims to help traditional medias innovate – with help from startups
This week, between the 5th and 6th of April, selected technology start-ups will meet face-to-face with top media brands from the region at Media Honeypot, a new event in Helsinki. Media Honeypot, hosted by Arctic Startup and Partners, brings together media houses and startups providing innovative media solutions, in order to find leads and get the best most innovative solutions …
Read More »Virtual Reality comes to Swedish Fashion Week
While exclusivity has always been a part of the allure at Stockholm’s elite Fashion Week, this year one designer gave unprecedented access to her collection— through virtual reality. Swedish fashion designer Ida Klamborn, in cooperation with the communications company Tele2 have started a project dubbed the Democratic Front Row. Klamborn and others say that young people are the source of inspiration designers, so …
Read More »Think twice before investing in these industries
Investing in startups is not an easy job. As an investor, you are not only betting on a specific startup and team, but often on a market that doesn’t exist yet. Even the best team in the world is doomed to fail if it undertakes the wrong market. The opposite is not always true. One of the biggest mistakes venture …
Read More »Hobbyists ready to disrupt industry at first virtual reality hackathon in Europe
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 …
Read More »Kula 3D turns your smartphone into a 3D camera
Íris Ólafsdóttir, an Icelandic entrepreneur, is the visionary and CEO of Kúla 3D. A self-described amateur photographer, Íris devised a product that brings photography into the third dimension. Kúla 3D creates camera accessories that turn your smartphone (and other cameras) into 3D cameras. The idea for the product was conceptualized during Íris’ maternity leave. Íris noticed a toy reflected in …
Read More »Socius curates moments into stories
The real-time publishing platform Socius captures and curates content shared on the social web to create unique and engaging stories. Socius just closed their seed round after 2,5 years of development that includes an accelerated 3 months in Axel Springer’s accelerator in Berlin. There investors include 500 Startups and Raw Invest (Bergen based firm). Their final sum of 1.300.000 Nok …
Read More »Be human, be thoughtful, be better – the themes to consider next, after NEXT15
The two-day tech conference Next, which happened in the middle of the four-day Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, was an introduction to the new technologies that will shape of how we will live and work in the future. But what about the ethics behind these technologies? It all comes down to the kind of legacy we are leaving and what we …
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