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Catching Up with NA3M Games — Slush 2014’s Demo Showcase Winner

Located in Amman, Jordan and Copenhagen, Denmark, NA3M Games develops entertaining games, animated series and webcomics that are inspired by Arab culture. NA3M was founded in 2013 and has already released 7 games, and to top it off, it was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, interviewed by Becky Anderson on CNN, and featured in large …

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Largest US digital health accelerator ventures to the Nordics

The NYC based StartUp Health, a global digital health organization boasting the world’s largest portfolio of companies.  Yesterday, the Finnish Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, Finpro, and Team Finland announced the launch of StartUp Health Finland. StartUp Health Finland will be based at the Health Innovation Village in the Finnish Capital Helsinki, which houses a collection of Nordic health tech …

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5 reasons to visit Ultrahack 2016

NordicStartupBits.com

Running from the airport to the bus, trying to find my way over to a place called Bruno, using Google maps in desperation trying to find to this place. Finally arriving, sweaty, tired and confused — But I made it. I made it to Ultrahack 2015. Let me give you 5 good reasons to go to Helsinki in November. 1.  First of …

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Cooperative urban planning platform Butterfly Effect takes home grand prize at Ultrahack

The grand prize at Ultrahack 2015 went to the Butterfly Effect Project, who participated in the Civic Tech Track sponsored by Forum Virium. The project aims to enhance the way cities handle urban planning, by creating a platform for citizen involvement. The team, led by Natalia Remee, an architect by training from Northern Mexico, came from diverse backgrounds and nationalities:  …

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In Helsinki, developers volunteer for startups

Wouldn’t it be great to have skilled developers volunteering to hack on your startup? Sounds like a dream? It might. but that’s exactly what’s going on at Ultrahack this weekend. Almost 400 developers are gathered in Helsinki for Ultrahack, part of Slush Hacks, to hack this weekend. Most of them have their on their startups, but some extraordinary people are …

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How the auto industry is being disrupted

Mobile phones have changed the way people experience the world. People daily use digital interfaces, as software has become  integrated into the products we use in our lives and work. By extension, people now have certain expectations for a UI (user interface), where the interaction between humans and machines occurs. But how does this affect the traditional industries? Olli Laiho …

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An interview with Marta Sjögren, Principal at Northzone

Marta Sjögren’s debut to the venture capital world resulted from a passion for innovation and a desire to make an impact in the world. Today, she is the Principal at Northzone,a Danish VC, nd focuses on companies in the early stage. Northzone, established in 1996, is a leading technology investor. Today Northzone has raised over $700 million and invested in …

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Food startups to watch

In 2014, Fortune Magazine  broke down how hot the food industry is among venture capitalists. In in 2013 alone, VCs had allocated $2.8 billion into food-related startups. Various factors, including sustainability, health, and digitalization, influence the food industry, making it increasingly diversified and interesting. Fascinating concepts and services are evolving around food. EntoCube, PlateCulture and EpicFoods are among the startups …

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UBI Awards gives top prizes to Nordic incubators

The UBI Global Awards, held this year on October 26th,  is an annual ceremony announcing the top rankings of business incubators and accelerators worldwide. Since 2013, UBI Global has done comprehensive benchmarking of over 400 incubator programs across 70 countries. This year, Swedish and Finnish accelerators took home top rankings, including Finland favorite Startup Sauna and the prestigious Uppsala Innovation …

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Buy t­-shirts – save water

Nordicstartupbits.com

Eco-­consumption is a growing trend in Finland, thanks to Pure Waste Textiles – a Finnish startup revolutionizing the way clothes are made. This article was originally posted on Arctic Startup. About five years ago, the founders of Costo, a Finnish company that produces accessories from unused materials in the textile industry, decided to explore opportunities to go further and produce …

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New Breed of Computers Taking Over the World?

Solu Machines is developing a radically new approach to computers by reshaping how devices and people coexist in the connected world. Will this small group of innovative people from a basement in Helsinki be able to alter the course of an entire industry? The founder and CEO of Solu Machines, Kristoffer Lawson, talks about why they chose to take on …

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Learning Through Gaming

NordicStartupBits.com

Today, the way we learn differs significantly from the past. Much has changed over a relatively short period of time, and will continue to do so. Developed education technology, or ed-tech, has been fundamental in altering our learning style.  One fascinating part of the field includes educational games, which have received much attention and interest. This year, Slush will welcome …

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6 Reasons to Join Slush Ultrahack 2015

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 …

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Nordic investment analysis: Q3

This analysis of Q3 investments in the Nordics is based on a combination of publicly available and proprietary data gathered by Index. In Q3, tech startups based in the Nordic countries collectively raised $296.5 million in 73 rounds. This falls short of Q1 for the region by 21.9 percent. Compared to Q2, it comes in significantly lower ($812.8 million total) …

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The Future of Crowdfunding

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, …

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Interview with Urska Srsen, Co-founder and CCO of Bellabeat

Urska Srsen met her co-founder Sandro Mur on a kitesurfing trip in Croatia. For her, becoming an entrepreneur was a very spontaneous and almost accidental process. Something that started as a project ended up as a business. It all started when Urska’s friend Sandro contacted her mother, one of the leading obstetrical gynecologists in Europe, and started to inquire about …

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The Nordics in the Spotlight at Reeperbahn Festival 2015

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 …

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Announcing: Recruiting at Slush 2015

Slush 2015 will, for the first time ever, feature a Recruiting Area. The focus is to eventually make recruiting an as important part of the event for startups as funding and media coverage are today. The ability to build and grow the team is crucial for flourishing the next generation of world-conquering companies. This year’s Slush will include an unprecedented …

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Sleep Tracking Device 25 Years in the Making

With sleep measurement and gadgets both being red hot topics on crowdfunding platforms, when one of the companies combining the two says, “We made a strict decision not to do an Indigogo or Kickstarter campaign,” it does raise some questions. This article was originally posted on HYBE. Heikki Räisänen, CEO and primary owner of Emfit, a 25-year old company which earlier this year brought …

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