A common thought, though perhaps a naive one, is that the online fashion retail market is saturated and there’s no room for newcomers to have any mainstream success. While it’s true that technology pretty much allows anyone to knock up a web-store, source cheap products or sell on behalf of a larger company, it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for …

$6-7000 per position, 12 weeks, and a one in ten ‘bad hire’ rate: these are the potential pitfalls awaiting the recruiter according to RelinkLabs. Founded in 2013, the Copenhagen-based company are launching a new API to streamline the recruitment process. The first of its kind, it will generate insights based on proprietary data products to help match profiles against job …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …