Time to announce the new projects in Rising North’s portfolio
Today, we are announcing the latest batch of projects financed by the fund. We received a record amount of applications, which might mean that these lucky 8 projects are the last ones to be included in Rising North’s portfolio. Check out the latest batch of funded projects in the end of this blogpost. But first, let’s take a look back.
Closing of an era
The Rising North fund was brought to life with the initiative of the Finnish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers back in 2016. The reigns were handed to Startup Foundation and so began the 1,5 M EUR pan-Nordic startup ecosystem impact fund. Having started off slowly in 2016, the fund has gradually stepped up its game. As of today, Rising North has granted funds to 42 individual projects, hence we are reaching the end of the grant pool.
During the three-year period, the majority of Rising North’s projects focus on helping startups scaling internationally as well as making the region more attractive for international talents.
The #NordicMade delegations to China, the USA and Singapore have proven to be an effective way to help Nordic startups with their go-to-market strategies and internationalization.
Another example of successful projects is Sino Track. The project took Nordic startups to China for an acceleration program. One of the attending startups, Flexsound Augumented Audio signed an investing and collaboration agreement with the innovation accelerator COMB+.
Making the Nordics the most attractive region for tech talents
Both attracting more talent to the region as well as making the region more attractive for existing talent, is essential to improve and grow the Nordic startup scene. The Techbiker Nordic project took 60 Nordic investors and startups founders for a bike tour from Copenhagen to Berlin. This was a huge success, and increased the cooperation between Nordic investors and a great opportunity for the the startup founders and investors to network in a slightly different setting that normally.
“The startup culture is very different in the Nordic countries, and we think that the companies can learn a lot from each other if they give each other the opportunity”, says Benjamin Ratz, main organizer of Techbikers Nordics.
Another example of a talent project is Nordic Talent Ambassadors that resulted in putting together the Join The Nordics website. The project aims gather Nordic talent ambassadors from around the world who shared their Nordic story, and in that way brand and communicate the career opportunities in the Nordics and make the region attractive for foreign talent.
Strengthening the Nordic collaboration within various verticals
Rising North has also funded several events and trips. A majority of them focus on strengthening the Nordic community around the selected vertical as well as introduce them to relevant networks internationally.
A few of examples are Nordic.AI festival, bringing together leading AI innovators from across the Nordics, VR-resan, helping Nordic VR/AR startups with business opportunities in Asia and Nordic Impact Investing Network, strengthening the impact community in the Nordics, and enabling Nordic impact startups and investors to meet face to face.
“VR-Resan gave us valuable insights to the ecosystem, vital connections as well as the courage to scale our company in Hong Kong” Johan Hagegård, IMRSV
Later on, IMRSV confirmed that the trip lead them to the establishment of several partnerships which started in early 2018. They are preparing to set up a subsidiary in Hong Kong later in 2018.
The new projects from Q2
Projects are evaluated by the Rising North Steering Board, which consists of entrepreneurs, investors and other ecosystem experts from the Nordics. They have the first hand knowledge of what the specific challenges are that companies are facing today. Like in the previous rounds, the Board had a tough time choosing the best projects but after long discussions the following projects got approved:
#Nordicmade to Hong Kong
Are you a startup looking to expand in Asia but don’t have the right network yet and need help on the way? #NordicMade to Hong Kong aims to identify Nordic startups ready to grow their business and R&D in the Asian market. It will offer the selected companies a partnership with The Hong Kong Science and Technology Park which has one of the best support programs for foreign startups looking to expand and innovate in Asia.
Main Organizer: Cloudberry Communications, Sweden
Hack Talks 2018
Technical recruiting is one of the biggest challenges for companies in the Nordics. Are you a deep tech enthusiasts and want to tap into the creative and development community? At Hack Talks, tech professionals will gain insight from gurus through workshops, keynotes, startup demos and meets. Providing opportunities to network and learn new and tangible skills, Hack Talks is the deeply technical cousin of Slush.
Main Organizer: Syysgraph, Sweden
Mapping the Nordic Startup and Investing Ecosystem
This initiative will create an overview of venture and investments expertise in the Nordic. They will gather information regarding startups and angel investments and create a platform that will provide a geographical map over all the Nordic countries. It will contain information about where to find different tech-industry clusters, incubators, events, current angel networks, educations and existing venture capital firms. It will save time and money for the investor looking for new investment targets as well as researchers.
Main Organizer: SweBan, Sweden
Nordic Kitchen
Today food entrepreneurs face high cost of entry to market. By offering workshops with guidance, access to commercial Kitchens & locations for selling, with the fraction of the cost, these individuals and ideas can come to life with minimal cost. By providing these culinary entrepreneurs the opportunity to test out their ideas and get them to market with cost effective measures, we increase the likelihood of these products scaling and being potential products for export or production in different areas.
Main Organizer: Michelsen Confections, Iceland
Nordic Open Innovation Tour 2018
Nordic Open Innovation Tour aims to promote Nordics as a single open innovation market for global corporations, increase cross-border startup-corporate collaboration within Nordics, and promote best practices of successful open innovation more widely. The project includes a series of Open Innovation Meetups in the Nordic capitals, together with publishing a guidebook and standard contracts for collaboration.
Main Organizer: IndustryHack, Finland
Scaling Nordic Healthtech business models for global reach
The project gives science-based and practical sparring to Nordic health startups to design and implement scalable and internationalization boosting business models. With the help from specialists within the medtech area, they will provide the companies an opportunity and platform to learn from their Nordic peers for better Nordic and global reach.
Main Organizer: Oulu University, Finland
Silicon Valley Playbook
This e-book is a guide and prepares Nordic start-ups, delegations and other key stakeholders travelling to Silicon Valley. The book will serve as a preparation package i.e. “Rules of Engagement”, providing access to the necessary insights and knowledge about the ecosystem, giving the reader a chance to prepare and realize a higher output from the efforts of going to Silicon Valley.
Main Organizer: Innovation Center Denmark Silicon Valley, Denmark
Singapore Startup Excursion
This initiative will take place in Singapore during Fall 2018. The idea is to invite early stage startup founders from entrepreneurship societies from around the Nordics. The trip enables founders to meet relevant contacts in Singapore as well as pitch on stage at Slush Singapore. The main focus is to create business opportunities between the Nordic and Asian markets.
Main Organizer: Hanken Entrepreneurship Society, Finland
Rising North is a fund that aims to help Nordic startups become global leaders. It finances unique spearhead projects and initiatives organized by Nordic organizations. The fund is finance by The Nordic Council of Ministers and operated by the Finnish non-profit Startup Foundation, which is founded in 2012 to support entrepreneurship and startups.
