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30 Sep HOT September Nordic/Baltic Tech News, Events and Opportunities

Hello all and Welcome to our September newsletter…

🔥 🔥 What a month it’s been for us at TNA Towers! New Tech Nordic Advocates members, a whirl of activity, ongoing programmes, prestigious events, a new venture fund, partnerships, offers for YOU, extremely exciting funding news and a memorable TechBBQ and Oslo Innovation Week! Let’s go…

FIRSTLY, A WARM WELCOME TO NEW TNA MEMBERS
We all love to grow, and the bigger our community, the more we can help YOU grow your tech businesses. And so, we’re pleased to welcome ProtoVerse a scalable Web3 infrastructure provider, building state of the art, non-custodial development solutions that require no coding skills. “A main driver of the phenomenal growth of the web is the widespread use of “Page Building” tools, which allow the average Joe with no programming skills to quickly get their message out. We are bringing that to Web3 with Cre8dApp.  The simplification of the dApp creation process will allow large segments of the crypto space to jump the chasm into mass adoption. Cre8dApp is uniquely positioned to both ignite and benefit from the profound growth potential of the mainstream market. As a new member of Tech Nordic Advocates, we are excited to have access to the contacts and experience of the group as we continue our search for complementary mentors and funding partners”, says Kasper Mathias, Chief of Sales,  ProtoVerse

A warm welcome also to Katja Thrane. An entrepreneur, Katja, at Ground Control understands the myriad of challenges facing startup founders. With 10+ years’ experience growing startups, Ground Control offers flexible, efficient expertise, tailored to small business needs, so that founders can focus on making their brands soar. Services include monthly founder mentoring sessions, brand strategy development, employer brand execution, external agency management and interim marketing director level support.

Not a Tech Nordic Advocates member yet? You don’t know what you’re missing! Check out HOW WE HELP YOU GROW AND SCALE YOUR TECH SECTOR BUSINESS HERE, How to become a solo Tech Nordic Advocates member HERE and how to become a Business Member HERE

WOMEN IN TECH COMMUNITY 🔥 STOP PRESS – NEW FUNDING IN DENMARK
We’re excited to announce that the Danish Industry Foundation (IF) headline funding partner of our 3 module international female tech founder growth programme “Denmark as Female Tech Founder Frontrunner” has awarded us NEW funding for all 3 modules of the programme for the next 3 years from 2022-25.  Charlotte Kjeldsen Krarup, Director of Development at the IF says: “We want more Danish entrepreneurs to reach high growth rates. But right now, the talent pool is not utilized well enough. Only few women venture into entrepreneurship and even fewer get funding from business angels and venture funds. This must change. We have to encourage more female talents to start up their own businesses and we also have to help investors and guide them in the right direction. Gender inequality must be eliminated, and we would like to lead that change.”  Stine Bosse, Chairman, Tech Nordic Advocates, says, “The fact that the Industry Foundation supports female entrepreneurs this way is of great importance for not only the women directly encouraged. It’s also an inspiration for other women.”

With this 3-year funding, we appreciate that the IF see the results and impact the Programme has created to date, and importantly, that if we want to deliver long-term results and impact, we need long-term funding.  Full press release here


APPLY NOW!!!
Applications to join the 2023 Programme are now open to (prospective) female tech founders in Denmark (Module 1) and tech companies with high growth potential, led by women (Module 2). Module 3: Diversity Venture Fund just launched (see below) is open to all capital raising female tech founders/leaders in Denmark on an ongoing basis until end 2025. HURRY UP and apply to the 2023 Modules 1 or 2 Cohort 1 intake  HERE!

HERE’S WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:

Want to see some real life examples?

🏆 Let’s start with HUGE congratulations to Stine Kalmer Jørgensen from Cohort 1 of this year’s Accelerator for tech companies with high growth potential, led by women. Stine is Founder/ CEO of Dreamplan.io, a fintech operator that uses AI and Human centred interfaces to give clients access to wealth management digitally.  Supported by our legal partner Magnusson, Stine and Dreamplan.io have secured a banking license for Dreamplan.io‘s technology, now driving international expansion. WOW. BIG NEWS!. So well done  Stine Kalmer Jørgensen

And another one:

🏆 Congratulations also to UQualio and Co-founder/CEO Hatla Færch Johnsen also from Cohort 1 of the Accelerator for being listed on GoodFirm’s Best E-Learning Software 2022 for understanding the correct learning user interface of the market and designed E-Learning solutions accordingly. Read more

.. and many more success stories..

ANOTHER STOP PRESS: JUST LAUNCHED: NEW DIVERSITY VENTURE FUND
Sadly, access to capital remains a roadblock for many female founders. So we’re delighted to announce we’ve set up a new groundbreaking Diversity Venture Fund to Improve Access to Capital for Female Tech Founders and boost deal flow for investors committed to investing in female tech founders and playing by a ‘same-rule-for-all’ code of conduct to ensure a fair fundraising process and level playing field for all. The New Diversity Venture Fund includes a rapidly increasing number of Danish, Nordic, UK, US and Canadian investors. Says Kevin Smith, Managing Partner of Sana Capital, London: “Sana Capital is delighted to be supporting Tech Nordic Advocates Diversity Venture Fund. Sana applauds and supports any programme that seeks to address this challenge and our thanks go to Jeanette Carlsson, Thuri Kledal, PhD💫 and the team at TNA for spearheading this important initiative, supported by the Danish Industry Foundation. Awareness is growing of this issue, but we have a long way to go. Programmes like this are important in accelerating our journey to a more inclusive venture ecosystem where we don’t lose innovation and talent through funding imbalance”.

The not-for-profit Diversity Venture Fund is governed by a Danish/International Steering Group including DanBan, PreSeed Ventures, 2150VC, Promentum Equity Partners, Funderbeam, Kanata Ventures, London Stock Exchange, other international investors and our legal partner Magnusson. More here.

ON THE SUBJECT OF FUNDING …🔥 …. MORE SUCCESSES

Huge congrats to Jette Louise Larsen, Founder/ CEO of  Myplan International also from Cohort 1 of our Accelerator for high-growth potential tech companies, led by women on securing a DKK 530,000 grant from the Danish Innovation Fund to develop Minplan – a suicide safety plan and self-help tool in the form of an app, to help manage suicidal crises. Myplan International is on a serious growth and international expansion journey. What a success story in such an important area too.

FINLAND – CONGRATS TO COHORT 1 OF “HELSINKI FEMALE TECH FOUNDER FRONTRUNNERS” ON COMPLETING THE PROGRAMME A big “well done” this month to everyone on Cohort 1 of “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunners”for completing the 6 month Module 1 international mentoring programme. It’s been HUGELY inspiring to meet you all and help you launch and grow your tech sector businesses AND yourselves as tech founders. Very well done to all on Cohort 1. See who they are HERE. Needless to say: A HUGE THANK YOU to the 100-plus Finnish and international mentors, experts and partners, who have provided unrivalled mentoring support, expertise, webinars, training sessions and “Office Hours” to help these talented tech founders and their businesses reach their full potential. We couldn’t do it without you!  See who they all are HERE.

And what a great end of Programme party we had at Apotek Wine Barin Helsinki. It was humbling to hear the gratitude of the mentees and your reflections on the programme. Congrats to you all. You are now officially – not strangers – we won’t let you go – but “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunner”  Alumni and very much part of our Community

Success stories? For sure:

 BIG congrats to Anna Fatima Sambou, founder ofMunKamu from Cohort 1, who has been nominated for the Nordic Women in Tech Awards 2022! MunKamu is a social enterprise helping senior citizens use technology to connect to Kamus, who provide companionship and local support. Well done Anna. And best of luck for the competition.

 

Congrats also to Alejandra Cobos, founder & CEO at MindMatters also from Cohort 1 on being selected amongst other early-stage founders to move to Silicon Valley for this autumn! WOW!!! We met Ale in her early days and it’s been great to see the progress and growth she has achieved through her hard work and the programme’s support. You rock Ale!

 

 Not  forgetting Veera Virintie also from Cohort 1 who, together with her team, has developed a new science-based method to improve your focus.Silta Focus is a one-month online training programme where you learn the skill to focus to get things done, reach your goals and lower the risk of burnout. Who doesn’t need that? So here’s Veera’s offer to you: For the next Focus training starting October 3rd, Veera offers TNAers a 40% discount off the list price of €99 with the code TNA40. Read about Slita Focus here

WHETTED YOUR APPETITE?  COHORT 3 LAUNCHING TODAY!!!
Read the above and thought, if they can do it, so can I? We hope so. Creating more female tech founder role models is a key programme goal. With all endings come new beginnings. So, TODAY, we’re launching Cohort 3 of the “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunners”. Are you a woman with an appetite and good business idea for a tech sector business? Perhaps just launched one? Don’t despair – we can squeeze you in. HURRY UP AND APPLY HERE NOW!

While we’re passionate about our female tech founder growth programme to help correct the gender imbalance in tech entrepreneurship, as you know, TNA support and welcome all founders of any gender, race, background or orientation. So here’s what we’ve been doing for everyone – and how great it was to meet so many of you.

 NORDIC STARTUP FESTIVAL, STOCKHOLM
Just as we’d gone to press last month, we were excited to participate in and speak at the Nordic Startup Festival in Stockholm. Thank you to Naimul Abd, the team and partners for putting together a great online event. Our founder/CEO really enjoyed her keynote session .

Nordic Startup Festival 2022

SUCCESS AT TECH BBQ 2022, COPENHAGEN
Thank you to our friends at Tech BBQ for putting together an extremely busy, inspiring and fruitful event. We had barely a second to spare with a constant stream of visitors to our stand and a great turnout for our Keynote International Panel: Shooting for the top: “Denmark as Female Tech Founder Frontrunner” – Big News and the International Perspective.


Thanks to the amazing speakers: Nikolaj Juhl Hansen, Managing Partner, Magnusson, Yuri Navarro, Managing Partner, Kanata Ventures, Canada,Ayuna Nechaeva, Head of Europe, Primary Markets, LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) and Co-Chair WIN UK and Lena Andersson founder Go! Running Tours. We were also able to use the event to unveil the news about our TNA Industriens Fond 3-year funding for all 3 modules of our #international #femaletechfounder #growth #programme (See above). A massive thank you to all our partners for the panel discussions, fireside chats and support. See you next year!

 FINTECH WEEK, COPENHAGEN
Thank you to our London VC friends at Outward VC, Upfin and Dreamcraft for hosting a great #Fintech Angel drinks party in Copenhagen during Fintech Week in Copenhagen. Great to meet amazing founders, business angels and of course get together with Outward VC, Upfin and Dreamcraft. Excited about further collaboration to come

 HOW TO ACCESS AND RAISE FINANCE IN THE UK, BRITISH EMBASSY

Thank you to HE Emma Kate Hopkins, British Ambassador to #Denmark and team for hosting us for a well-received “Access to the UK Market and Raising Capital” event @BritishEmbassy #Copenhagen #Denmark this week.

Thank you as well to Christina Schiøtt Liaos for a great talk on access to the #UK #market , Priya Guha MBE for her expert insight on raising #capital in the #UK and fellow panellists Scott Haughton, Maria Flyvbjerg Bo and Christian Kumar for a lively panel debate. We hear that speed dating was useful to all and was certainly fun
NEWS FROM…SWEDEN 
Congrats to Swedish startup Billogram who have received a new capital investment of €15 million from Swisscom Ventures. Among the first in Sweden to digitalise paper invoices efficiently, they use tech to help companies improve customer relations through enhanced and automated payment and invoicing services. This fresh funding injection will help Billogram expand across Europe.

NEWS FROM…FINLAND 
Finnish cleantech startup Tracegrow has brought its total fundraising to €2.5 million since last summer after receiving a new investment injection from Nordic FoodTech VC. The company has developed a method of producing organic certified fertilisers that reduce carbon emissions and enhance crop productivity compared to traditional methods, from used alkaline batteries.

NEWS FROM…DENMARK 
👏 Champagne corks are popping (amid plenty of hard work) at E-commerce startup Medusa, who have secured some €7.98 million in Seed funding. Founded in 2021, Medusa take a developer-first approach to e-commerce platforms by making web shops more tailored to each individual business and target audience.

NEWS FROM…NORWAY 
It was all go in Norway this week at the annual Oslo Innovation Week, with events and workshops all across the city. We of course were there and enjoyed meeting all at the International Networking Reception, “How do we Accelerate Adoption of Technology for our Future Cities?” under the banner “Scaling for Global Success” hosted by the British Embassy, led by Ane Birkeland.

Thank you to Startup Norway for hosting the “Female Investors Breakfast” yesterday. We really enjoyed it and to our amazing TNA Norway Ambassador Marit Wetterhus, Founder/CEO of Capassa for all her hard work for us

NEWS FROM…THE BALTICS   
With travel very much back on the agenda, we are seeing a glut of new deals in that space. Eddy Travels, a Lithuania-based AI travel assistant, has been acquired by New York-based ancillary travel product marketplace, TripAdd in a deal said to be worth several millions of Euros. Powered by machine learning and AI, Eddy Travels is a fully automatic chatbot designed for websites, mobile apps, blogs, and social messaging applications.

🚀 START-UP OF THE MONTH  
Estonian Healthtech startup Antegenes is leading the way in cancer prevention with its genetic tests that will help detect cancers earlier and hence lead to a better treatment rate. Founded in 2018, and based in Tartu, Antegenes’ tests assess patients’ personal risks of getting breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer and skin melanoma, and include recommendations for further personalised cancer prevention. The company has recently raised €1.6 million from investors in a Seed round.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Want to take your business global? Come meet the leaders from our Global Tech Advocates family from across 27 global tech hub at this year’s global summit 7-11 November in Bangalore, hosted by Tech India Advocates. We’ll be there of course to represent the Nordics and Baltics and connect with and open up new opportunities for you all with tech leaders from around the world across the global Tech Advocates footprint.

For more information on how to join the Global Tech Advocates Summit, drop us a line HERE

 Heading to Slush? We have 2 events this year

16 November 2022,  9.30-16.00 EEST. Pre-Slush MASTERCLASS: How to raise finance and build networks in the U.S
Interested in raising finance and how to build diverse networks in the U.S? Come join this high-profile event, co-funded by the U.S Government through the U.S: Embassy in Finland, to learn more, meet great US investors, experts, tech companies who have expanded to the U.S: and many others from the U.S. who will help you access, build diverse networks and raise finance in the U.S.

More details, Programme and venue info and how to join HERE

18 November 2022, 12.30-14.30 EEST: “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunners”
Are you a woman with a business idea in the digital/technology sector? An aspiring entrepreneur who could do with a little help from a friend to get your business launched or help to grow your early stage digital/technology sector startup? Or a mentor, investor, expert or potential programme partner who would love to learn how “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunners” – as part of Europe’s only international female tech founder growth programme – is helping to create new and grow early stage tech businesses in Finland, led by women? Come join our Slush side event, co-hosted by our Programme partner Helsinki Partners to learn more.

More details, Programme and venue info and how to join HERE

  23 November, 14.30-17.30 + networking drinks, Digital Hub Denmark: Startups Are A Catalyst For Sustainable Growth. How Do We Get Everyone Involved?
On November 23 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.

OFFERS FROM OUR PARTNERS TO SUPPORT YOUR GROWTH 

Remember we announced our new partnership with Hubspot for Startups last month?


We promised that great offers would come your way as a result. So here it is: Hubspot for Startups offer TNA startup members a whopping 30% discount instantly to enable you to unlock Hubspot for Startups suite of tools to help you rapidly expand your business with a simple, user-friendly, and cost-effective suite of tools and resources.What are you waiting for?  Join us now, to take advantage of this great offer HERE

Times are busy as ever at our legal partner Magnusson Sweden who have been involved  in a raft of deals in the technology sector. One saw the company advising on the Spotlight Stock Market in connection with the listing of railway Metrics and Dynamics, another on International M&A transactions and one on the acquisition of EDIGard. Meanwhile, Magnusson were involved in two online events on FDIs in September – one run by the Department for International Trade and the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark (details here). The other was a webinar arranged by Aktive Ejere, where Nikolaj Juhl Hansen was the principal speaker. More info here

September has once again been a busy time at 4IRE, our “go to” guides for all things blockchain, who participated in the biggest Web3 event of the year, NEARCON 2022 in Lisbon. More here
Meanwhile 4IRE offers a White-Label Centralised Exchange Solution, allowing clients to significantly reduce time and cost for deployment. For more details, fill in the contact form here

NEWS FROM TECH NORDIC ADVOCATES TEAM
  IN FINLAND, we’re saying hello and goodbye! We’re delighted to announce our new chairman Tommo Koivusalo. Tommo takes over from Magnusson Finland chairman Ville Salonen, who has been serving as Chairman of Tech Nordic Advocates Finland since our launch. We would like to thank Ville for his support in launching Tech Nordic Advocates and also as Chair and supporter of “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunner” – our international female tech founder growth programme.

 In Denmark, we welcome Thuri Kledal to our team, as Manager of our recently launched Diversity Venture Fund. Thuri has a background in health tech as Founder/CEO of VR-Nature – a virtual reality-enabled tool to help relax anxious patients, and plenty of experience of pitching to investors and clients and securing deals. A very warm welcome to Thuri, who has already hit the ground running.

While on the subject of great team members, congratulations also to our very own Jeanette Carlsson CEO #TNA for being nominated Nordic Women in Tech Awards NWiTA2022 finalist in the category Women in Tech advocate of the year. It recognises an inspirational organisation or person for their accomplishments as leaders in business and visionaries of technology who have made a difference in their community and have gone out of their way to support the cause of attracting more women to the tech industry over the last 24 months. We naturally wish Jeanette all the very best in the award ceremony in Gothenburg in October.

GLOBAL TECH ADVOCATES NEWS 

Launch of Tech UAE Advocates 10th October

As always there’s plenty going on in our global tech family Global Tech Advocates. On 10th October, Global Tech Advocates expands to the Middle East with the launch of Tech UAE Advocates at GITEX GLOBAL, led by Omar Hassan. In Dubai October 10? Why don’t you join us. Register here

Did you know we have our own global tech magazine? Check out GTA Connects 
Check out also our Tech for Net Zero ‘Resource Hub’ via the link

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.