Week in review - what's happened in Scandinavia's tech scene lately

This is a post with Nordic 9's notes on what we saw interesting on the emerging tech scene from Scandinavia in the last period. Have you done or seen something worth noting? Let us know.

1. Scandinavia has more money than projects to invest in. There is increasingly plenty of money available for tech investments in the whole Nordic region. Lots of money. Hunting for projects. At all stages.

Just recently two more new funds were announced: Tripod (Norway) - $300M & Alpha Nordic Capital (Sweden) - $170M.

The past 11 months of 2016 also saw an overall higher level of commitments, compared to previous years* - more small bets (almost double than in 2015 - i.e. 715 vs 419) with more money invested than in previous years combined.

2. Speaking of small frequent bets - there are three investing champions on the early stage levels coming from Sweden:

Wellstreet has made at least 12 investments in 10 months. And 2 more through a proxy. Wellstreet is a Stockholm-based VC house, was founded in February 2016 and makes early stage investments.

Angel investors from Sweden Jonas Nordlander and Filip Engelbert (they usually invest together) have made 6 investments in the last 6 months. That's a very nice appetite for angel level -  in fairness, some of them were followup investments, at higher than seed levels.

3. VR, VR, VR. A bit hyped, of course, as it's still an exploratory area in an emerging ecosystem. But it is so hyped that VR Kits have become *the* 2016 Christmas gift to make in Sweden.

Fwiw, there's been 30 VR-related investments in Scandinavia in the past 12 months.

4. There are more frequent events in the bigger Scandinavian cities, especially suited for entrepreneurs wannabes. Plenty of workshops. Gala Awards. Seminars. Pitches of all sorts. New working spaces. New tech hubs (Europe's biggest one). Good vibe coming from all 5 countries. Just make sure you pick the right ones.

5. Speaking of events - next week Slush is happening and everybody and their mother is going to be there. Everybody. And it's so cool nowadays to brag you will be at Slush that it's become even more cooler to say you're not going to attend. For some experienced ones it certainly reminds of Le Web, circa 10 years ago.

Slush is one of the important mainstream tech events from Europe, and has been sold out for a while. Personally we're more intrigued by the Music and Sports verticals, smart extensions, will definitely check them out.

6. Increasingly many incoming foreigners, at least in Stockholm. Which is very good, as multicultural is a proper creative environment - English is heard almost in every corner of Stockholm's city center. And not from tourists, mind you.

7. The government is involved. Sure, not always successfully, or in the right direction (Tayyab, higher taxes, drones, more regulation) but compared to others in Europe, they seem very active in keeping up with the times.

Some notable developments from the past days:

- Swedish virtual national currency
- Mobility as a service implemented by Finland - all you can eat monthly fee for any transportation means within Helsinki (taxis and car sharing included)
- Space agency investments
- Solar electricity 98% tax reductions

It's a good signal coming right from the top.

8. A little note announced Sean Percival's next gig in Scandinavia, which is managing a startup accelerator in Stavanger, the third largest city in Norway.

Why is it notable though? Because he is an outsider in a rather closed Scandinavian game. He's tried for some time with the Nordic version of 500 Startups and didn't work out. He didn't seem to adapt, he quit and now he starts over. The new context looks good, surrounded by experienced local people, money should do for a long term stretch. He's got a lot to show and there's business to be done. Good luck!

9. Speaking of Norway...

2 of the 3 largest investments in the last 45 days were from Norway. (The Future Group and Questback)
3 of largest 5 in the last 90 days were also from Norway-related companies. (Questback, The Future Group, Kolonial)

However...

This is in spite of a seemingly not-so-friendly entrepreneurial context, as there is also the other side of the coin:

We have not found good enough quality (of tech startup investment) in Norway, and this is due to the oil bubble. Expertise and capital tend to have gone that way. As such it has been a period where there has been considerably more dealflow coming from Sweden, Finland and Denmark than from Norway because we have had such a powerful shift towards oil-related activities.

In the dotcom period, 1999-2001, Norway was on the map as much as the other Nordic countries. We got up Stepstone, Real, Opera and other great companies. But when the tide began, it continued in Sweden, while in Norway there was a sentiment shift that made capital directed at the oil sector opportunities.

The quote is from Tellef Torleifsson, one of Northzone co-founders. Northzone has been the most active VC shop from Scandinavia, with almost 30 transactions made in the past 24 months.

10. Urb-it. Keep an eye on it, that guy Mats knows what he's doing and he thinks big. We bet that in a few years Urb-It is going to face a huge transition from a Swedish media darling to an international media darling. Because unicorn odds.

*The data comes from using the software features that Nordic 9 provides over a database consisting of more than 5000 startups and investors and more than 2000 investment deals tracked in the last 10 years. All from Scandinavia. Try it out.