Events

Slush is finished and if you’re anything like most people you felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities: from exciting startups and world-famous experts, to inspiring talks and promising parties. So where should you focus your time to get the most out of it next time around? Last week I set out to find the best practical advice to …

November weekend in Helsinki for most of us doesn’t sound like the time of our lives – it’s dark, cold and windy in the seaside city. To make matters worse, the Finnish word for November, Marraskuu, by it’s etymological meaning means the month of death, marras origin from the same word family as Latins mors and French’s mort, death – …

Blockchain technology is becoming more and more demanded worldwide, and today we all have a unique opportunity to witness “the biggest innovation after the Internet itself” gaining a growing number of implementations – both within and outside the financial sector. This significant process inevitably goes hand in hand with massive informational support – and, consequently, cross-industry popularization of Blockchain. And …

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 …

In the startup world the role of an investor is to take “capital off the table”. This means that an entrepreneur can focus on delivering the product, without constantly needing to worry about resources. One of the promises of basic income is to do just that, not only for entrepreneurs but for all of us. But that’s only the beginning. …

It was perhaps significant that the recent Oslo Innovation Week (OIW) five-day series of events was preceded by a forty-eight hour Techfugees hackathon where more than one hundred data scientists, engineers, user experience designers and entrepreneurs united in teams to build prototypes alongside refugees, to find solutions to enable better integration into Norwegian society. the Techfugees Hackathon Techfugees is a …

Among the many happenings during the recent Oslo Innovation Week, Start-up Guide Oslo was officially released at a launch party hosted by MESH. Start-up Everywhere has previously published Start-up guides for cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin and many others with second editions in the planning stage. Now, it is Oslo’s time to shine. Audrey Camp, a co-author of the guide …

“Power Couples” was the theme for the recent Oslo Innovation Week (OIW) and quite fitting that Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway (pictures above, interacting with the AV1 robot) attended the opening ceremony at Skur 13, the indoor skate hall alongside the regenerated harbour in Oslo. Oslo Innovation Week is hosted by the City of Oslo and …

A delegation of Nordic startups rang the bell at the Nasdaq in New York on October 11th, as part of the #NordicMade showcase. #NordicMade is a community initiative that aims to build bridges between global tech regions and strengthen Nordic cooperation.  The bell-ringing also signaled the launch of a new €1.5 million Nordic fund. Helga Valfells, CEO of NSA Ventures, …

The Messukeskus Expo and Convention Center in Helsinki came alive for 2 days in early October, as the impressive Nordic Business Forum hit town with 5,700 executives attending from over 30 countries. Added to these were up to 10,000 global viewers via live-streaming. The speaker list for previous annual Nordic Business Forum events, with themes such as Impact, Leadership and …

Two weeks ago in the basement of Helsinki’s historic Kulttuuritalo (designed by Alvar Aalto and opened in 1958) a packed crowd took part in the Ultrahack MyData Hackathon kickoff, marking the start of the 48 hour intensive effort. Around eighty selected hackers from more than twenty teams gathered. A handful had traveled to Helsinki from Estonia, Norway, Netherlands, Austria, Germany …

The first ever Helsinki Blockchain Conference 2016 will take place at Microsoft Flux open space, and will be the first high-profile, dedicated Blockchain event in Nordic Region. Blockchain is hailed as one of the most revolutionary technologies of the past few decades. Right now the industry is experiencing an intense influx of investment – the volume of funds invested in …

The Startup Passion training and mentoring programme run in partnership with Cursor OY, Finland, has just had their third successful major event. A five-day training course on lean startup, customer development and storytelling, amongst other key topics. Participants drawn from a range countries had the opportunity to strengthen the basic foundations of their startup ideas and gain an even deeper …

A competition for the Internet of Things has been launched by three of Northern Europe’s largest  companies: Tetra Pak, Scania and Nobia. The goal is to develop game-changing solutions for everything from kitchens to trucks to packaging, through the creation of a technical prototype with a business focus. Participants in the competition will receive free access to IBM’s development tool …

Impact Iceland 2016 is crowdfunding Iceland’s first conference on social entrepreneurship on Karolina Fund.  It will be the first in a series of conferences in Iceland focusing on social innovation as a profitable, sustainable, and impactful response to today’s challenges. Tanja Wohlrab-Ryan writes at Startup Iceland about making Iceland not only a vibrant startup community, but a hub of social …

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 …

Sustainability is more than an environmental concept – it’s big business too.  At the Impact Investor Ball last week, several startups pitched their products for a more sustainable future.  Lean Green was one of them.  The company has developed a festival chair in biodegradable and recyclable cardboard. The chair has been a hit at Roskilde Festival, the annual music festival …

Last Thursday, the Microsoft Flux space in Helsinki played host to a panel and workshop by the FACE Entrepreneurship group. FACE stands for Failure Aversion Change in Europe, and they have been making their way around select European cities to promote beyond the traditionally media-sexy aspects of business and technology in the start-up ecosystem by digging deeper into the emotional …

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 …

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 …