30 Nov STOP PRESS Nov Nordic/Baltic Tech News, Events and Opportunities
Hello all and Welcome to our November newsletter…
? “Put the right people together – and great things happen” has always been our motto. We’ve certainly lived up to that in November and with our plans for the rest of the year!
This month has been full of big wins, (read on for the full lowdown) and are the result of months, if not years, of strategic work bringing the right people together to create historic opportunities in the Nordic tech space.
In Finland, Denmark and Sweden, our collaborations have, in November, seen massive achievements for our team – we’ve secured funding to deliver a 2 year international mentoring programme in Finland, brought together European investors and startups for impactful events, met with the European Commissioner for innovation and startups, and shared our views on what startups need to grow and scale and let’s not forget – planning the launch of Europe’s first international accelerator for high-growth tech leaders, led by women in 2022.
We’re buzzing about the great events, collaborations, and programmes we have lined up for you for the rest of the year and into 2022, in collaboration with our partners and community. So, read on, and learn how to join us as a startup, rockstar mentor, or as a partner, to take advantage of the opportunities we offer and the impact we’re delivering across the Nordic and Baltics.
“WOMEN IN TECH” COMMUNITY. LATEST NEWS…
? Yes, you’ve seen it on SOME. We’re taking our International Female Tech Founder programme to Finland, launching at our BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Slush event on 1 December 13.00 EEST. The event is so oversubscribed that we’ve had to close for registrations..sorry…it tells us – we’re plugging a big gap.
“The City of Helsinki and Tech Nordic Advocates launch an international growth programme for female tech founders”
We are extremely proud and excited to have secured funding from the City of Helsinki Innovation Fund to launch the “Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunner” programme which will be “officially” launched at our Slush event in Helsinki this week. Thank you to our Finnish and global partners, including NewCo Helsinki, Helsinki Partners, Magnusson, London Stock Exchange, KPMG, Netcompany and Global Tech Advocates – all working together to help amazing female tech innovators launch, grow and scale tech businesses.
“Creating more women entrepreneurs and diversity in tech is crucial to help Helsinki and Finland remain tech innovation frontrunners. There clearly is room for more female founders in the local tech scene,” says Tommo Koivusalo, Head of NewCo Helsinki and Tech Nordic Advocates global board. “The City of Helsinki’s funding will enable talented, ambitious local female entrepreneurs to take it to the next level.”
The Helsinki Female Tech Founder Frontrunner programme. The programme, which is now open for applications from interested founders and expert mentors, is part of Europe’s only international growth programme for women tech entrepreneurs and offers a proven way to tackle the key challenges that stop women from choosing to become tech entrepreneurs. Helsinki is a pioneer in tech innovation, entrepreneurship and FDI, however, only a small portion of its high growth/high-risk tech entrepreneurs are women. This Programme is all about changing that.
We will work closely with the wider tech ecosystem and women-in-tech networks in Finland and internationally, and the programme is governed by a steering group of partners and representatives from across the ecosystem, whom we are really grateful to be supporting us, including: NewCo Helsinki, The Shortcut, Helsinki Partners, The Startup Foundation, Women in Tech Finland, Helsinki Think Company, and Magnusson.
The programme in Helsinki will launch with the first module, with plans to include the accelerator and venture fund elements later on. The aim is to increase the number of women-led tech innovations and companies in Finland, and to help grow Helsinki’s business ecosystem by bringing in international mentors, experts and investors from TNA’s global tech/startup ecosystem.
Startup applications for the programme are now open or you can support the programme by joining the team of rockstar mentors here.
Women Founders/Co-Founders/C-Level Leaders – Are you ready to take your startup to the next level?
Join our 2022 “International Accelerator for High Growth Tech Companies led by Women”, which kicks off at the end January 2022 – starting with the first round of pre-accelerator boot camps…
Let us help you accelerate the scaleup of your tech business by learning from the best, inspirational tech entrepreneurs, investors, experts and partners – who have been there and done it in the tech world!
Who should apply?
Women founders/co-founders/c-level leaders (i.e. CEO, CTO, COO, CMO) of high-growth tech companies (who may have a male/any gender co-founder).
We are open for applications now. Learn more and apply here. Deadline is December 20th, 2021. Cohort 1 starts 31 January 2022.
The accelerator is supported by our amazing partners: Industriens Fond, Københavns Kommune, KPMG Denmark, Magnusson, Netcompany and the London Stock Exchange.
Dive deeper and learn more about the International Accelerator Programme, here and don’t forget – if you are ready to apply right now, click here.
NORDIC WOMEN IN TECH AWARDS
? We had a fantastic night with all of the other finalists at the Nordic Women in Tech Awards, where our CEO and Founder, Jeanette Carlsson was a finalist in the category of “Women in Tech – Advocate of the year“ and Ida Bjerga – Managing Director & Co-founder of Noise Studio, and mentee on Cohort 3 of our Women in Tech, International Mentoring Programme, was a finalist in the category of “Entrepreneur of the Year” – a big thanks to their team for a great night, in Copenhagen. Unfortunately we didn’t win an award this time, but many congratulations go to all of the inspirational women who were there, and also to those who were nominated, but didn’t make the final. Huge congratulations to all of the winners ? – amazing and positive role models for every “Woman in Tech” and we look forward to working with you, supporting you, and continuing to make great strides together, in the Nordic Tech ecosystem – and beyond: ⚡️Dora Palfi, Julia Flament-Wallin, Anne Gretland, Cecilia Videcél, Juliana Araújo, Mia Wagner and Anne Stampe Olesen, Raquelita Rós Aguilar, Sonni Christine Jakobsen, Dipika Baad, Freyja Thorarinsdottir, and Ida Marie Bjerre Jepsen. ?
NEWS FROM…SWEDEN 
Having the “right people” together, was on full display at our “Access Growth Finance” event in Stockholm, which was a huge success, and we certainly enjoyed being back amongst the Swedish tech community, delivering a “live” event for them, for the first time since February 2020.
The event, in partnership with Connect Sverige, the Microsoft Reactor and Epicenter Stockholm, had investors from across Europe join us including the London Stock Exchange, Mitsubishi Japan’s CVC, Promentum Equity Partners from Denmark, Crowdcube from the UK and other investors from Switzerland, the Nordics and the Baltics.
Investors, along with tech ecosystem partners and some fantastic startups, enjoyed an afternoon of networking, discussions and pitches – all focused on growing internationally, with a lot of great new business connections made – and even plans to take a Swedish CyberTech company in to Brazil!
Visit our website to read more about how we can help you to connect with the right people, through events and strategic initiatives.
As partners and jury members, we are proud to share that, on Friday November 19th, the 7 winners of the “Hack for Earth” Hackathon were announced.
For 2 weeks, 1370 teams from 121 countries participated in the hackathon and worked hard to come up with innovative solutions which will help solve the challenges earth is currently facing.
It was hosted in collaboration with the United Nations and the Swedish Pavilion at Expo2020 in Dubai, with a focus on finding real sustainable solutions for our future.
Our COO for Sweden, Barry O’Brien was involved in developing challenges for the teams – related to diversity and inclusion within the education category, and also judging the team’s solutions.
You can watch a recording the award’s ceremony here and see all of the winners here.
NEWS FROM 
Our CEO and Founder, Jeanette Carlsson, had the honour of being asked to meet EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth – Mariya Gabriel, and her cabinet from the European Commission, in Copenhagen at Matrikel1, to discuss our “Women in Tech” programmes, growing the tech ecosystem, and to plan some “Europe-wide” tech initiatives, which we are already following up on together.
There were some great discussions on the important topics of gender diversity, “what and how” startups need to scale up, our “Women in Tech” International Mentoring Programme, and had some inspirational insights from two female founders from our programme – Shakila Shaheen (She/Her) from My Med Gig, and Lillian Katrine Kofod from Vent2U ApS. TNA member Andrew Heneghan from Andgo Systems, and Frederik Jean Herold Ferbing and the Mesh Community also joined us to provide some expertise from their work in the Nordics.
Everyone enjoyed learning more about some of the successful EU programs and initiatives already making a big difference in these areas, such as GirlsGoCircular and WomenTechEU.
Stay tuned to our social media, as we’ll update you as we take action on the agreed next steps from the meeting…
OUR TEAM IS GROWING
We are excited to have a new team member join us, who is running our PR and community in Finland – let us introduce and offer up a warm welcome to Eeva Haaramo, an experienced freelance writer and journalist, who has covered the Finnish startup and tech scene for many years. She enjoys writing about entrepreneurs, innovation and industry trends in the Nordic region, and has a passion for fitness and green tech.
Reach out and connect with Eeva, and welcome her to the Tech Nordic Advocates community.
NEWS FROM…NORWAY 
Oslo – meets Hackney!
This is a really interesting collaboration – happening on December 3rd – between two cool ecosystems, that we want to highlight, and would like to see more of – across the tech space…
Some background – In 2013 the London Borough of Hackney and The City of Oslo signed their first “Memorandum of Understanding” and so the “Oslo Meets Hackney” annual series of events was born!
This year – Social entrepreneurs, startups, leaders in city administration and from cultural organisations will provide their insight and delve into how to help local entrepreneurship and the night time economy during and after the pandemic. Learn more, view the agenda and book your free ticket now.
NEWS FROM…THE BALTICS 
“Open data startup Okredo, led by CEO & co-founder Gerda Jurkoniene, PhD, have closed a €1 million seed funding round led by the Lithuanian Business Angels Fund and Presto Ventures, with support from Startup Wise Guys as well as several angel investors.”This is a fantastic boost to both the Lithuanian tech space, and the wider region, as we want more and more scaleup companies here, growing their services, which Okredo plan to do – providing more open data about companies: free credit scores, credit limits, company valuation and other ratios.You can read more about them and their round here.
STARTUP OF THE MONTH ?
Wow, what a massive achievement in seven years for Finnish food delivery company Wolt, who have been acquired in an all-stock deal valued at €7 billion, or $8.1 billion, by DoorDash. 
Finland-based Wolt was founded in 2014 by Miki Kuusi, who, upon the deal closing, will run DoorDash International. The company has over 4,000 employees across 23 countries and its technology enables users to easily discover and receive food via its platform.
UPCOMING EVENTS
How to help female founders launch, grow and scale tech businesses, 1 Dec, 13.00 (EEST) Slush
THIS IS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED FOR REGISTRATIONS DUE TO OVERSUBSCRIPTION
Want to hear from and talk to Tech Nordic Advocates, our Finnish and global partners, incl. Helsinki Business Hub, NewCo Helsinki, Magnusson, London Stock Exchange, KPMG and Global Tech Advocates HOW we’re helping amazing female innovators launch, grow and scale tech businesses? Then DON’T MISS our LIVE event (in front of Slush main conference) 1 December 13.00 (EEST).
International Talent As The Key To Unlocking Growth, 1 Dec, 18.00 (EEST) Slush
The Shortcut and Nordic Scalers, part of Nordic Innovation, are joining forces for this official Slush side event. The speakers will explore how integrating global talent will ultimately boost Finnish and Nordic high-growth scaleup companies and help the Nordics reach the next level of economic success.
Location: Maria 01, The Shortcut Lab, Lapinlahdenkatu 16, 00180 Helsinki, Finland.
Time: 18.00 – 20.00
Sign up to join the event here.
European Investment Screening – How The New UK and European FDI Screening Will Impact Businesses and Investors? 2 Dec, 10.30am (CET) Online
New FDI screening rules are now being introduced across Europe. In the UK, these new rules fall under the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, which will come into force on 4 January 2022.
Experts from the UK, Denmark, France and Germany, including our legal partner – Magnusson‘s Corporate M&A Partner, Nikolaj Juhl Hansen, will share insights into the new processes companies and investors need to take into account, so that they can continue to do business with confidence.
Online event
Thursday, 2 December 2021 – 10:30 am – 12:00 pm CET – Register here.
IMPORTANT INFO FROM OUR PARTNERS TO SUPPORT YOUR GROWTH
Looking for legal advice from the best in the business? Our legal partner Magnusson, has been recognized amongst “the crème de la crème of the European legal market” by being shortlisted for The Lawyer European Awards 2021- Law Firm of the Year under two categories: The Baltics, and Scandinavia and the Nordics.
Learn more here and learn how Magnusson can support you here ??
Interested to understand more about Crypto and Blockchain?
According to their latest findings, 4ire Labs are among the top recommended and reviewed blockchain development companies in Ukraine this 2021, as recognized by The Manifest!
TNA member 4ire Labs are our go-to experts, and recently, they launched their latest tech service – NFT Marketplace Development. They also offer many clear articles about crypto, NFT’s, and blockchain development PLUS expert guides that cover a lot on these new and fascinating technologies.
Read their latest articles here and learn more about how they can help you, by getting in touch here??
TNA TALKS THIS MONTH…
This months latest episode, on the topic of Sustainability, features Eva Grønbjerg Christensen, CEO and Founder ofSustainify, discussing sustainable investing, driving business growth during covid lockdowns, writing a book, plans for 2022 + lots more! Watch it here.
Connect with Eva via their website and also watch a quick intro to learn all about their solution here. Don’t forget to subscribe and watch previous episodes over on our YouTube Channel, featuring insights on starting and growing a tech company, securing investment, IPO’s and international expansion.
IN THE PRESS
This month, the press in Finland have been excited to share news of our collaborations and spread the word on what we are achieving with our great community. Check out the latest media attention we’ve received…
Good News from Finland featured an article about our upcoming international growth programme for female tech founders, with a focus on the opinion of Tommo Koivusalo, board chairperson at TNA and head of NewCo Helsinki. Tommo stressed that Helsinki and Finland must succeed in promoting female entrepreneurship and diversity in general in technology in order to remain at the forefront of global technology innovation.
Read the full article here.
Nord News wrote about the launch of the 2 year programme, featuring a quote from Tamara Gehring, Head of Western Europe and Nordics, Primary Capital Markets at the London Stock Exchange, one of the programme partners – “The London Stock Exchange is proud to continue our support for a dynamic group of individuals and entrepreneurs in Helsinki and the Nordic countries in cooperation with Tech Nordic Advocates. We look forward to working with Finnish and Nordic technology entrepreneurs and supporting ecosystem access.”
Read more details in the full article here.
The Helsinki Times ran an in-depth piece on the launch of our new Programme, featuring some great quotes from our partners and our CEO and Founder, Jeanette Carlsson, who was featured sharing insights on our success in Denmark so far, and the reasons for expanding the programme in to Finland in 2022 – “We have created more women tech entrepreneurs and helped stimulate the growth of existing tech businesses led by women, enabled access to international markets and capital to the tune of €1.5 million (and) that’s just the tip of the iceberg, which shows what can be achieved with the right support. Helsinki and Finland have huge unexploited female potential. We need those women for sustained innovation, competitiveness, growth, jobs and equality in tech, business and society as a whole.” The full article is available to read here.
FROM US…. RAISING CAPITAL TO SUPPORT YOUR GROWTH?
? Did you know we offer a Startup/Investor Scouting Programme, connecting fundraising startups/scaleups with suitable investors from our network? If you’re a startup/scaleup 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.
GLOBAL TECH ADVOCATES (GTA) NEWS
Russ Shaw, founder and CEO of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, recently returned from Lisbon and wrote this great article, where he assesses the key takeaways from Europe’s largest Tech Event: Web Summit 2021. Read it here – Lessons from Lisbon: Reflections on a week at Web Summit.
Our friend and “Women in Tech” programme mentor, Flavilla Fongang and the TLA Black Women in Tech community published their book this month – “The Voices in the Shadow” featuring 51 Black Women in Tech, which provides inspiring stories to young individuals, who are afraid to venture into the world of tech and to give guidance and support to those who are seeking to follow this pathway. Learn more about the book here – or see some highlights from the launch event here.
Our colleagues at Tech France Advocates shared this important report from Startup Genome that unearths some interesting insights on The Global Startup Ecosystem:
– The global startup economy is worth over $3.8 trillion in Ecosystem Value, more than the individual GDP of most G7 economies, not including the value of exits prior to 2018.
– There are now 79 ecosystems generating over $4 billion in value which is more than double the number identified in 2017.
– 91 ecosystems created unicorns in 2020.
Dive in and learn more here.
Remember: Tech Nordic Advocates is the Nordic/Baltic arm of Global Tech Advocates (GTA) – the world’s only global tech/startup ecosystem spanning 22 global tech hubs.
Did you know we have our own global tech news hub? Check out GTA Connects
GTA Hubs Launching Soon:
• Tech India Advocates formally launches on 3rd December
• Tech South West England Advocates soft launches on 21st January
• Tech Korea Advocates to launch in Q1 2022
• Tech UAE Advocates aiming for Q1 2022 launch
• Tech Berlin Advocates aiming for Q1 2022 launch
• Tech Nanjing Advocates to launch in 2022 (date tbc due to Covid)
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.