Nordic Innovation House opens in Silicon Valley
Nordic Innovation House, a co-working space, incubator and resource center for Nordic tech companies, debuted today.
The new initiative is funded by an alliance of Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic and Danish governments as well as Nordic Innovation, an institution supported by Nordic governments that works to promote cross-border trade and innovation.
As seen in the success of firms like Skype and Rovio, there is a long technology history between the Nordic region and America that has created employment for thousands of Americans and Nordics, strengthening ties between both regions.
“Nordic countries generally score high on international benchmarks for innovation and competitiveness”, tells Anne Lidgard to Nordic Startup Bits and continues
“Through Nordic Innovation House and its community, we are able to lower the barriers and provide a launching pad for the next Skype or the next Zendesk so they can make inroads into the Silicon Valley business scene. In addition, we connect startups to high-quality mentors, a network of investors and funding opportunities as well as provide other business connections.”
The Nordic region has a vibrant technology ecosystem that has produced leading technology companies such as Spotify, Skype, Nokia, Zendesk, MySQL, Unity Technologies, Rovio, Supercell, Mojang and Spotify.
Nordic Innovation House started as a Norwegian initiative by Innovation Norway, following its success, they decided to expand the offering to startups from all Nordic countries. By doing that, the community of high-quality startups and the network is getting stronger. Right now Nordic Innovation House hosts 45 companies and hopes to increase this number significantly within the year.
Nordic countries generally score high on international benchmarks for innovation and competitiveness, but lack the scaleability of young startups.
“Two recent studies on entrepreneurship indicate that the Nordic region is lagging behind when it comes to the ability to scale young companies. This is where Nordic Innovation House can make a difference. We are looking forward to discovering new, disruptive ideas that lead to bringing successful Nordic companies to the United States and helping them flourish.”, saids senior innovative advisor Hans Christian Bjørne at Nordic Innovation
Nordic Innovation House is located at 470 Ramona Street in Palo Alto. It is co-funded by Nordic Innovation and the Nordic country government agencies responsible for business growth within their respective countries
