Norway

Last week I had a pleasure to join the 2nd ever NORDEEP 2023 Summit, to see and hear what’s happening in Deep Tech scene within the Nordics. The opening keynote insights were given by Risto Siilasmaa, and that paved the way for this 2 days conference for a good crowd of attendees mainly from Finalnd and other Nordic countries. Risto …

The Norwegian medical startup projects HoloCare and Illumie were present at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Robert Stigliano After a cancellation in 2020, and an online-only version in 2021, South by Southwest was back this year to it’s full, pre-pandemic glory, showcasing the trends and technologies influencing our collective future. One of this year’s themes was imagining society in …

In this blog post, Katapult Group CEO, Fredrik Winther assesses the fast-changing landscape of venture, and why venture investors need to re-think strategy. By Frederik Winther The venture capital industry broke all records in 2021, and it led to systemic changes as to how it operates. Not long ago start-ups fought for the investors, these days investors are fighting to …

With Chilean insurance tech startup Betterfly now sharing prestigious unicorn status with fellow portfolio company, Esusu, Norwegian VC Katapult has gained its second accelerator-bred impact unicorn in one week. Katapult first discovered and invested in Betterfly at the early Seed stage in mid-2019 with further investment via their follow-on fund in mid-2020. With Betterfly already reaching Unicorn status and $1 …

It is often argued that the Nordic Model offers an environment where value-driven innovation can flourish, meaning innovation that improves society by creating value for all stakeholders in an ethical and responsible way.  Anchored in a liberal market and a strong societal structure,  the Nordic Model is reputed for creating more ethical companies that seek to improve society for the …

Sky Mavis, the creators of Axie Infinity, have announced a $152M USD Series B round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Accel and Paradigm. The round will be used to further build out a global team, scale infrastructure, and build their own distribution platform to support game developers to create blockchain-enabled games. By Kalie Moore …

Since launching its report on who funds whom in the Nordics, together with partners like Startup Sweden and NVCA, the team at Unconventional Ventures have been busy. They recently launched the UV Syndicate, giving everyone the opportunity to co-invest in, by UV vetted, startups at pre-seed and seed stages. Today they announce the first digital accelerator targeting underrepresented founders based …

Norwegian startup Playpulse has successfully launched their gaming bikes in an activity park for children in a shopping mall in Shenzhen, China, part of the China Bay Area and a major startup hub. The company’s mission is to turn exercise into a fully-fledged computer gaming experience, boosting exercise motivation and battling sedentary lifestyles across the globe. After launching in Norway …

Spiff app, a Norwegian app soft-launched on iOS this summer, became available for Android users  last week to promote “social saving”, and is the first company to bring this concept to the Norwegian market. Carl-Nicolai Wessmann, Founder & CEO of Spiff, said in a press release: “We are the first to bring the concept of social saving to the Norwegian …

50 people have joined forces to build a unique creative retreat out of the former airport on the idyllic island in the Northern Norway, Lofoten.  Here, in the intersection of nature, sky and ocean, tech, gaming and art you can explore and create. Where is it? Værøy is an island in the Lofoten Islands archipelago in the Northern Norway. These …

Insubalance, the Food Supplement That Can Prevent Diabetes With the number of diabetes patients on the rise, the Norwegian startup Lion Healthcare has focused on shifting from the traditional healthcare that includes treatment once the disease is diagnosed and instead is positioning a solution that would prevent the pre and early-stage type 2 diabetes. The experienced team led by Zy …

Inaccurate Time-Tracking Is Over Mathias Mikkelsen was working at an agency and was really frustrated by the inaccurate methods that businesses were using to track time. That’s why he decided to create Timely and help everyone who needs to track their time for work or simply control their time. The startup was founded in December 2013 and currently counts 24 …

Making Law Work More Flexible and Transparent While working as a business lawyer, Merete Nygaard always thought about the inaccessibility of law for most people being unfair, as the law should be the foundation of the society, defining rules in everyday living. She always believed that the routine work which leads to the billing of hours in law firms is …

Sharing the Noble Goals of the UN for Clean Water In a world where water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of the global population, a  Norwegian startup embarked on a mission with a noble cause – provide cheap water by making proven method for water purification far more efficient. Founded by three young Norwegian and Indian entrepreneurs Aquasolis Global …

Fixing the Problem of the Carbon Markets Established with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emission, the carbon markets use tradable carbon credits as permits for the release of certain amounts of carbon dioxide by the industries. Making carbon emissions tradable means pricing the pollution which in turn should lead to less pollution. Yet despite their noble goal, the carbon …

The Youth of Today Is the Future of tomorrow No matter how hard the generations of yesterday tried to rid the world of poverty, hunger, water scarcity, lack of healthcare and plethora of other problems, the fact is many of the challenges still remain active and the responsibility to solve them now lies before the youth of today. YSI, a …

Efficient and Easy-For-Use Finance Management App About 75% of consumers never review or renegotiate their service providers like banks, electricity, insurance etc because it can be confusing and time-consuming figuring out what the best deals and terms are, so consumers stay with the same provider. In order to bring order and efficiency into the services handling process, Payr developed a …

Startups from across the world are now invited to apply for round three of Katapult Accelerator in Oslo, Norway. To be selected, the startups must be early-stage and use exponential technology like blockchain or AI to solve a social or environmental challenge. “The Katapult Accelerator is the world’s first global for-profit accelerator focusing solely on impact and exponential technology. 200 …

Industrial inspections are a risky job.  To inspect overhead power lines, for example, a person usually has to climb up a high tension wire, deal with wind and weather conditions, and on top of that, perform a detailed inspection.  Droneplan, a startup based in Latvia, is creating intelligent flight planning software to enable drones to perform autonomous inspection. Droneplan started …

Didrik Dimmen helped co-found FlowMotion ONE, a smartphone stabilizer that was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter earlier this year.  They recently took home the “Best Newcomer” award at the Norwegian Startup Awards, and have built a passionate global userbase. We caught up with Didrik to ask him a few questions about his entrepreneur journey and the Norwegian startup ecosystem. What is your most …