We’ve also been busy this month helping our #startups accelerate and expand internationally. A huge thank you to everyone who took part and helped to make our Masterclass on Raising Capital in the US, hosted by the U.S. Embassy in the Kingdom of Denmark a success, incl. Maria Norsk, Commercial Specialist; Patrycja Dahl, Commercial Specialist; Chris Wilken, Senior Commercial Officer; Jennifer Hall Godfrey, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the USA; Karina Sotnik, CEO WorldUpStart, who led “How to construct a pitch to US investors & fundraise in the US”, a great US investor roundtable on “Fundraising – what are investors looking for?”  And to Suzanne Lauritzen, Founder / CEO, raffle.ai for adding her real life experience of fundraising in the US to the mix. So valuable.

Meanwhile, while on the USA, thank you very much to the Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot for the invitation and opportunity to talk about how we have built Tech Nordic Advocates into Northern Europe’s largest tech startup and women in tech community. Also, thank you to Deputy Mayor of London Rajesh Agrawal and London & Partners for a great evening of business and networking.

“WOMEN IN TECH” COMMUNITY.  HURRY UP APPLY NOW TO JOIN COHORT 3 OF OUR INTRNATIONAL MENTORING PROGRAMME

   In Finland, it’s not too late to join “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunners: Cohort 3 – our successful 6m international Mentoring Programme to help women launch new and grow existing businesses in the digital/technology space. More info and how to apply via the link. HURRY UP. APPLICATIONS CLOSING

Would you like to join an international network of mentors? And can you offer up five hours a month (meetings, email and document review time), to help an inspiring/early stage entrepreneur launch a digital/tech sector business, please register here:

 We’re thrilled to welcome Marit Wetterhus as our Tech Nordic Advocates and Women in Tech Ambassador for Norway. Marit is CEO and founder of Capassa, an independent fintech company – a Digital CFO for SMEs. Capassa ensures always updated, transparent financial information to all stakeholders, so they can make optimal financial decisions and secure a better financial future for SMEs. Marit is also the co-founder of Women in Tech – Norway/UK. She has over 25 years of experience in fintech, IT, media and telecommunications, and has been the CEO of four startups, a director at several large telecoms, IT, media and consulting firms, and a board member in two listed telecommunications companies. She is highly skilled in fintech, digitization, automation, cloud, data center establishment and operation, telecommunications, entrepreneurship, and strategy. Welcome again Marit, we’re delighted to have you onboard and here’s to a long and fruitful relationship!

NEWS FROM…SWEDEN 

Based on the concept of “Why buy when you can rent?” we have seen more and more start-ups springing up looking to capitalise on the increased interest. As part of a move to create the world’s biggest peer-to-peer rental platform, Sweden-based Hygglo has acquired UK-based Fat Llama in a €41 million deal. Fat Llama is a community marketplace where you can rent almost anything. Hygglo was founded in Stockholm back in 2016, and following the acquisition, the combined company is on course to become the world’s biggest and most sophisticated peer-to-peer rental platform.

NEWS FROM…FINLAND 

Another growing sector is edtech, as people look for new ways to move away from the idea of teaching in stuffy classrooms and new approaches to learning are continually being unveiled, Finnsh startup Kide Science (Kide) has just secured a capital investment of €1 million and has been awarded the Education Finland Award for its fresh approach to education. Developed by three female founders – Jenni Vartiainen, Sari Hurme-Mehtälä and Aino Kuronen, Kide’s mission is to get children excited about how the world around them works, while making things easier for teachers’ lives with ready-made lesson plans based upon a child’s sense of wonder.The new funding was led by Sparkmind Fund and Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd), and also included an R&D loan from Business Finland. This investment will take the company’s total seed funding to €3.2 million since launching in December 2017.

NEWS FROM…DENMARK 

? Our hearty congrats go out this month to Poikilingo, for receiving the Danish Film Institute grant. Paula Jota Pedersen and Leticia Maimann-Roland are part of Tech Nordic Advocates for High Growth Potential Tech Companies led by women, so we were especially thrilled to hear this news. The grant, that will support the development of the second part of Poikilingo’s app for the Danish market (the cultural part) will help the company’s evolvement into a language culture app to support the development of bilingual children.

NEWS FROM…NORWAY 

Now that the travel industry is getting back to something resembling normal, tech companies are busy looking at ways to make things easier for both providers and consumers. Oslo-based startup CHOOOSE’s technology provides automated emissions calculations across travelers’ entire journey – from air travel and accommodation to ground transportation. The technology has attracted widespread interest, with the funding injection coming via Amadeus Ventures.

NEWS FROM…THE BALTICS   

With the EU setting a target of tripling the number of publicly accessible charging points to 1 million by 2025, we can expect to see more and more deals like Lithuanian startup Elinta Charge’s recent €7 million cash injection for its electric vehicle charging solution. Founded in 2018, the green tech company designs and assembles stations for residential and commercial use and provides intelligent insights. In addition to its charging stations, the company’s platform provides cloud-based intelligent software for fleet managers, as well as operators of public spaces, offices, hospitality and other facilities. The recent €7 million funding round was led by AVIA Capital and LitCapital.

NEWS FROM…ICELAND 

Reykjavik-based plant-based seafood startup Loki Foods has collected $500,000 from Sustainable Food Ventures, MGMT Ventures, VegInvest, FoodHack, Swedish VC firm Kale United, Lifely VC, and other angel investors. With the latest round, the startup raised a total funding of $650K. Founded in 2022 by Bjorn Vidar Adalbjornsson and Christopher McClure, Loki Foods’ mission is to supply the world with sustainable, plant-based Arctic food that does not compromise on nutrition, taste, texture, cookability or affordability. The startup is currently getting ready to launch its first product, Loki Foods White Fish which is high in protein, omega-3s & 6s, free of microplastics and antibiotics and contains vitamins with a natural color appearance.

 START-UP OF THE MONTH 

As companies and individuals, we all want to do the “right thing” when it comes to climate change and the environment, right? But so often it’s difficult to know if our choice of electricity provider, or mode of transport is actually helping or not. With this in mind, Copenhagen-based startup Reel helps consumers make the right buying decisions and feel confident that they are helping the environment by transforming electricity procurement. Founded in 2020, Reel has developed a renewable energy contract solution called Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).

These agreements are signed between renewable energy developers and companies buying electricity for a long-term period at a fixed price. Renewable energy developers in turn, use PPAs to secure financing for the construction of new solar and wind parks. The proposition has proved to be attractive, with the company recently picking up €2.3 million in one of Denmark’s largest ever pre-seed investments.

UPCOMING EVENTS

As you’d expect after a summer break, it’s all go on the events front…..

 Short notice we realise, but we at TNA are partnering up with Denmark’s Vækstfonden for a Start-up and Investor Pitching Event on 31 August 2022. The “International Accelerator for High-Growth (Potential) Tech Companies led by Women,” event takes place at Vækstfonden, Strandvejen 104, Hellerup, from 14.30-17.30. Jens-Kristian Lütken, Mayor of Employment & Integration is submitting a welcome video, while among the topics to be covered are “Raising finance right now – what’s it like out there, including as a female founder.”

The high-profile list of those taking part includes Louise Junge, Nordic Business Development & Investor Relations, Funderbeam, Gregers Kronborg, Chairman, Non-Executive Director, Serial Entrepreneur, Advisor and Investor, Rulebreaker Ventures; Ulla Heurlin, Co-founder, Business Angel and Board Member. Nikolaj Juhl Hansen, Partner at Magnusson will be moderator. Big thanks of course, to Vækstfonden for hosting the event and to our partners: Industriens Fond, Københavns Kommune, KPMG, Magnusson, Netcompany, LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), Nordea

? TechBBQ has become an increasingly high-profile event on the yearly calendar in the Nordics, so we are pleased to announce that we will be a partner this year and have a stand at the event, which takes place in Copenhagen on September 14 and 15. Aiming to support and strengthen the Nordic startup ecosystem, the event has expanded rapidly since the first one in 2013. As well as high profile speakers and exhibitors, there is also an emphasis on wellbeing and environmental initiatives, hence the BBQ slant, that have  made it stand out on the annual calendar.

Meanwhile, our CEO Jeanette Carlsson will be delivering a Keynote Address at the Nordic Startup Festival 2022! The theme of this Virtual Startup Summit is “What’s the Nordic Secret Sauce for Building Unicorns.” Jeanette’s keynote will cover her career and the vision of TNA, what place it occupies in the startup ecosystem of the Nordics, the challenges and opportunities of building a multi-sided tech/startup community, women in tech and more. The event takes place on Wed, August 31, 2022, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM CEST and you can get an all-day pass here

TNA will also be a media partner at this year’s Open Banking Expo Europe event, where the largest community of Open Banking and Open Finance executives get together on September 30. The conference will shine a light on the innovators, regulators and policy makers from across the European ecosystem, and provide a platform to assess the latest progress, share the most exciting developments, analyze current regional trends, and discuss predictions for 2023 and beyond. You can register for tickets here.

And that’s not all, there are 20 free tickets available (worth €999) for Tech Nordic Advocates members. Get in touch here

And that’s still not all! On October 13 at Digital Hub Copenhagen, we’re teaming up with our Partner Netcompany for a great event convening the ecosystem to discuss the increasingly important role startups play in delivering sustainable growth and innovation and how important it is that we get everyone involved. Check out the “Tech Startups are a Catalyst for Sustainable Growth – How do We Get Everyone involved? “ programme and join the event here.

IMPORTANT INFO FROM OUR PARTNERS TO SUPPORT YOUR GROWTH 

If you are interested to expand from the Nordics and Baltics, into the UK, or any other 20+ places globally in our Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates network, reach out to us at Tech Nordic Advocates for an intro.

FROM US…RAISING CAPITAL TO SUPPORT GROWTH?

Did you know we offer a Start-up/Investor Scouting Programme, connecting fundraising start-ups/scaleups with suitable investors from our network? If you’re a start-up/scale-up raising funds, get in touch here. If you’re an investor looking for deal flow, please email us for an introduction.

OR COULD YOU DO WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM A FRIEND? 
Could a Mentor help you? Did you know that we offer a global mentoring programme matching our Advocates with mentors across the globe from our Global Tech Advocates network, spanning over 20 tech hubs globally? Join today (Solo membership or Business Membership) and get access to top quality mentors across all continents, who can help accelerate your growth.

Remember: Tech Nordic Advocates is the Nordic/Baltic arm of Global Tech Advocates (GTA) – the world’s only global tech/startup ecosystem spanning 21 global tech hubs.