Rising North on Steroids — New Year, New Team and New Bold Ideas 👏🤩
Rising North is preparing for the final year of funding. We are looking for projects that help Nordic startups thrive and increase collaboration between the countries as well as spread the awareness around the Nordic brand. On top of this, there is a new bigger team that will make sure bold and spread-headed projects get the attention they need.
Meet the young, ambitious and diverse duetto
Leading the Nordic operations at Slush 2015–2016, Eva Fogdell has organized several trips and events with the Nordic startup community, with the goal to strengthen Nordic collaboration and most importantly, help startups succeed both in the region as well as internationally. In addition, she has been actively working with the #NordicMade crew since the early days, which is the umbrella organisation for startup support organisations in the Nordic region. Eva’s true passion is to help and connect people, and she gets her energy from spending time with creative and ambitious people. Eva will be leading the Marketing Operations at Rising North.
NGOs and politics — Alex Proctor’s background in a nutshell. Having lead a national organisation for three years, several international projects and with the experience of numerous grant applications, Alex is now stepping in Rising North as Operations Manager. His interest in entrepreneurship and prevous experience with working at the accelerator program Startup Sauna has shifted his engagement into the startup ecosystem. Alex’s passion is process facilitation, be it events, discussions, or, grant application.
Where will our binoculars point this year? 🔭
During the past years, the Nordic region have overwhelmed with success stories — having generated 50 % of the billion-dollar exits in Europe, with world class companies like Skype, Supercell, Mojang and King and many more. On a global level, this means 7 % of the billion-dollar tech exits. (The Nordic Web) On top of that, the Nordics are know for our beautiful capitals, surrounded by a fantastic archipelago and most importantly a great place to live.
These successes have definitely put the spotlight on the Nordic region, and also attracted loads of capital and talent to the region. In fact, 36% of investors in Q1 2017 had never invested in the Nordics before — there is an increased interest in the region both among international and local funds. (The Nordic Web) However, like always, at some point the pace slows down, and the region is curiously chasing for the next big thing.
“According to the report, 61% of Nordic entrepreneurs agree or fully agree that the biggest challenge is in locating and recruiting qualified and skilled staff.”
To make sure that the next big thing will emerge soon, we need to make sure that the Nordic region provides the right tools for the companies. There are clearly challenges that can’t be ignored and need to be fixed. Based on a research done by Nordic Innovation, there is a lot to be done when it come to policies around immigration and labour market. For instance startup visas and personnel stock options programmes would make it easier for startups and scale-ups to attract talent, and most importantly retain it.
According to the report, 61% of Nordic entrepreneurs agree or fully agree that the biggest challenge is in locating and recruiting qualified and skilled staff. In addition to this, 76% of the Nordic entrepreneurs believe that locating and retaining key employees will be their biggest challenge when they develop their business. Attracting international talent is crucial for a small region.
We are eager to hear from you if you have ideas about how to tackle these challenges and fuel the discussion around the topics.
Rising North — merging the masterminds in the Nordic region
The Nordic startup hubs has during the past years become very united with a shared vision on building traction to the region on a global level. However, there still consists a barrier on doing stuff hands-on together. We are still individual countries with different strengths and weaknesses, so by learning from each other and combining the efforts, the potential of the region multiplies.
It is so much more easier to brag about the Nordics than the individual countries. Rising North wants to encourage and enable the region to collaborate more and provide the necessary resources for the entrepreneurs. We want to help the region become the most startup-friendly region in the world by giving fuel to great initiatives.
We are looking for projects that are tackling the challenges startups face on areas like Talent, Capital, Policy, Go-To-Market, Visibility and Representation. So far, we have funded projects within go-to-market, capital, visibility, talent and representation. Read more about the awesome projects on our website.
Apply to get up to 50 000€
Rising North is three-year project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and operated by the Finnish Startup Foundation. Applications sent to the fund are evaluated once a quarter. The next deadline is on March 1st. Projects organized jointly by at least three different Nordic organizations can apply for a grant of up to 50 000€. Previous projects and more information can be found at risingnorth.org.
Are you chewing on a great idea, but still without a co-organizer or just need some help on the way? Send us you idea here and we will get back to you with feedback!
