“Fundraising isn’t hard. At least not hard like impossible,” says Shipitwise.  Sander Gansen tells the story of how Shipitwise succeeded on the crowdfunding platform Funderbeam  to raise €176,000 below. As we were going through Startup Wise Guys accelerator, we met a variety of mentors and investors. But there was one we particularly liked. It was Kaidi Ruusalepp! She showed us …

Financial Technology, also known as FinTech has made robust strides over the last five years. It is becoming a pivotal part of the global economy. Being the technology that is meant to make financial services more efficient and effective for all, FinTech is just getting started. We should expect more growth in the sector, this fiscal year, and the rest …

Educational reform has never been more salient in the Nordics, as schools race to integrate digital competences into the core curriculum.  Ed-tech Foundry, an ed-tech company based in Norway, has some thoughts on how higher education can be reformed to prepare students for the future and the best way to use ed-tech learning tools. “Tell me and I forget, teach …

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 …

Creamfinance, a smart data powered lender has recently expanded its operations to Denmark, their sixth market entry in a span of 4 years since inception. The company headquartered in Poland has also seen steady healthy spikes in their ‘Principle Lent’ over these years. In 2015, this metric was Euro 60 millions with a CAGR of over 90% and this is …

A wireless smart meat thermometer is no longer on the backburner for the Finnish company Meater, who has take the concept of remote monitoring to ensure you cook the perfect meat every time. The night had begun quietly for friends and colleagues Teemu Nivala and Joseph Cruz a couple of years ago. Laughing and swapping stories over a few glasses …

Tallinn-based scientific collaboration platform Guaana is giving out 10 percent of the company to users for free, hoping to involve them more tightly in its quest to define a new, universal format for scientific projects. The effort has a similar to target to many equity crowdfunding campaigns on platforms like FundedByMe or Invesdor where startups sell equity not just to …

“Data provides knowledge, and knowledge about the audience is crucial in media relations,” says Joanna Drabent, CEO & Co-founder of Prowly.com. “Our research gives data for what we already expected: even the best story may get buried in journalists’ inboxes if sent out at a wrong moment.” Here’s a handy infographic about the best times to send out press releases …

Virtual reality (VR) might be booming around the world, but as the market begins to mature and competing companies gain some attention from the masses, certain countries are starting to move ahead. By Daniel Smyth As ever, Europe and North America find themselves locked in a battle for supremacy and in the last few months it seems as though the …

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 …

New York: In a few minutes, Danish BookBuses founder Oscar Aabech Jung will be entering the stage in front of 700 American investors. This is the day Oscar Aabech Jung and the rest of the Danish IT company Book Buses have been working towards the last months. “Demo Day” is for startup businesses looking to raise capital.  Though similar events …

As Ed-tech is becoming the next industry to watch in the Nordics, with success stories like Kahoot, DigiExam, and Funzi. We take a look at 3 major trends in the ed-tech world.   Adult education Ed-tech is often thought about in terms of “gamified” learning tools like Duolingo, but the real face of adult education is in the corporate world, …

Reykjavik-based Aldin Dynamics was born in early 2013, just in time to join the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines startup accelerator program.  Since then, they have been working deep in virtual reality (VR). “We build our content from the ground up for VR, and it’s meant to be experienced that way.  There are just so many different, unique mechanics that …

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 …

Denmark is riding on a green wave.  The country has been lauded for its focus on sustainable energy, recycling, and high quality of life.   The Danish startup Miljøskærm,  based at the science park at Scion DTU, uses all these values to make its defense against traffic noise – the company builds barriers out of old windmills. The Danish startup …