The MyData 2016 Conference is an international event  dedicated to helping people manage and reuse their personal data currently controlled by companies and governments. The conference will bring industry leaders to Helsinki later this summer in an effort to drive forward this important topic. MyData is an initiative led by Open Knowledge Finland  and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology …

Peak, the successful UK-based brain training app, backed in part by Creandum, has launched in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden with localised versions to the native languages of each country. Peak is the app that trains your cognitive function with challenging and fun games, exercising skills such as memory, focus, attention, problem solving, and mental agility. They also offer non-traditional games …

With new national strategies focused on increasing digitalization and technical competencies, the Nordic countries are facing an urgent need to innovate within education.  A strong ed-tech cluster can help address this. The public sector has traditionally been lacking in it’s abilities to focus on innovation, which is why often, industry organizations and NGO’s  help pick up the slack.  When all …

The story of Tradeshift has become somewhat legendary in Nordic entrepreneurial circles. The company was “founded on Twitter”, after one of Tradeshift’s founders Christian Lanng responded to a tweet by serial entrepreneur Morten Lund asking about interesting work being done to make government more efficient. Lang tweeted back about some of the projects he was doing with his colleagues Mikkel …

Gamification is a term that’s been sweeping through Europe and Scandinavia like wild fire, inspiring business, educational institutions and individuals alike to achieve more by making everyday tasks more rewarding… but, what exactly is gamification, how does it work, where is it used and why is it suddenly becoming so popular? WHAT: Simply stated, gamification is the application of game-like …

Stockholm-based Identitrade, founded by Phillip Hallenborg in 2014, is on a mission: to unlock the web for trusted consumers. B2C companies need to create best in class user journeys for online domains and devices. Increasingly, they need to do so in the context of commercial partnerships. Today consumers cannot flow freely between domains – they are subject to signups, logins …

The growing variety of threats to IT security represents an expansive future for the Finnish company Nixu, who are making cyber security services to keep the digital society running. Overlooking the sea in the Espoo suburb of Keilaniemi, it seems somehow fitting that a world globe is situated inside the meeting room at Nixu’s office. “Our strategy is to be …

On April 23, in packed Münchenbryggeriet in Sweden, Startup Day 2016 through open the doors to the Swedish startup scene.  The event included 10 keynote speakers with a well-maintained gender balance, an Impact Expo offering resources for growing startup,   fintech panel discussion, Nordic Startup Awards, and well done startup pitches. After the hype around the event is gone and …

When you surf the internet, different companies gather your data in the form of so-called cookies, which are used to, for example, tailor advertising.  Now, the Danish ISP Waoo has developed a new plugin that allows you to donate your data to charity. On the internet, your data is used daily by companies, who are interested to find out how …

The semi-finals of the Nordic Startup Awards are now finished. This series of events promotes and celebrates startups in the Nordic region.  Country winners are chosen for each country, and the finalists move upwards to a grand ceremony held in Iceland at the end of May. Winners in Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have been announced in regional ceremonies …

Idtracker is a company that was born out of necessity. Sindre Hagen, CEO, had his identity stolen and the company came into being to essentially get to the bottom the case.  Idtracker aims to get to the bottom of identity theft. During the process of trying to obtain further information on his case, Sindre noticed that he was not getting …

Fintech is increasingly changing the way business is done globally. For the first time in history, both start-ups and established businesses have easy access to alternative sources of finance. Check out the below infographic on 10 statistics about fintech that will blow your mind. Fintech, or the provision of financial services through technological devices, has made it easier for borrowers …

The InnoFrugal Conference acts as a forum for best practices, policy analysis, sharing the latest thinking and highlighting success in frugal innovation. The second annual InnoFrugal event was held last week at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre in Vantaa, a few minutes north of Helsinki. Co-organised by the non-profit Nordic Frugal Innovation Society and the Ministry For Foreign affairs Finland, …

A common claim that comes at the crossroads of technology and finance is that eventually most people will be replaced by machines.  It’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”.  But is it that simple? By Andrew Woodman Inevitably, the topic of robots vs humans came up during a panel discussion in an event hosted by the Hong Kong Computer …

COCOA Invest founders Omar Shaikh and Lars Buur think the Nordics are often overlooked and under-served when it comes to personal finance. A London native, Omar sought to bring some of his expertise from his homelands financial sector to the Nordics.  He began collaborating with Lars, who was based in Denmark, and COCOA Invest was born. While they were both …