Report by sarafinsdottir

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

ANNUAL REPORT 2016

National competition ,

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NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

TIMELINE

Regional competition

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

A LETTER FROM THE CEO Dear Friends, Thank you for being a part of this year’s Nordic Startup Awards. With its third time running, NSA has reached even bigger heights and we are happy to share our accomplishments with you in this report. The Startup Awards started as a concept in 2012 to provide a spotlight focus to startups in the Nordic region. We firmly believe that in the Nordic Startup scene, nationality is not important. But the exchange of talent and technology is crucial. We want to support this by gathering and also celebrating the Nordic ecosystem. We want the Nordic startup- scene to be comparable to the scenes in London and Berlin, and we believe the best way to do this, is by closer co-operation by this Awards series. The awards stand to represent the entire startup ecosystem - from the startups themselves to the people behind them, and the organisations that work alongside the ecosystem to make the great things possible. Nordic Startup Awards 2015 was powered by Nordic Innovation and held in Helsinki, Finland with Arctic Startup as our hosts. It was a marvellous end to a great award season with 650 attendees from across the region. ecosystem. We would not have been able to have such a successful season without the support from our amazing sponsors and partners - public and private. So thank you once again. See you again next year! Kim Balle CEO and Co-Founder

“We firmly believe that in the Nordic Startup scene, nationality is not important. But the exchange of talent and technology is crucial.” Kim Balle, CEO

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

Daero voles eosam, quae od

Dear Friends, Thank you for being a part of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nordic Startup Awards. With its third time running, NSA has reached even bigger heights and we are happy to share our accomplishments with you in this report. The Startup Awards started as a concept in 2012 to provide a spotlight focus to startups in the Nordic region. We firmly believe that in the Nordic Startup scene, nationality is not important. But the exchange of talent and technology is crucial. We want to support this by gathering and also celebrating the Nordic ecosystem. We want the Nordic startup- scene to be comparable to the scenes in London and Berlin, and we believe the best way to do this, is by closer co-operation by this Awards series. The awards stand to represent the entire startup ecosystem - from the startups themselves to the people behind them, and the organisations that work alongside the ecosystem to make the great things possible.

Daero voles eosam, quae od

Nordic Startup Awards 2015 was powered by Nordic Innovation and held in Helsinki, Finland with Arctic Startup as our hosts. It was a marvellous end to a great award season with 650 attendees from across the region. ecosystem. We would not have been able to have such a successful season without the support from our amazing sponsors and partners - public and private. So thank you once again. See you again next year! Kim Balle CEO and Co-Founder

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

NSA IN NUMBERS

22 05

categories representing startups, individuals and ecosystem supporters jury members

national finals 1800 attendees

grand finale 600 attendees

14.000 50 14

votes

national winners

regional winners

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Awards

REACH

EVENTS

The 2015 Nordic Startup Awards featured 10 categories representing startups, individuals and ecosystem supporters. We had 22 star-studded jury members ranging from top entrepreneurs to investors and ecosystem supporters. All this led to 50 national winners and 10 regional winners.

This year also marked the break of a new record for us at Nordic Startup Awards: nearly 15000 votes and a staggering 550 nominations across all categories.

For the first time ever, every Nordic country held a National event for the National Finals gathering a whopping 1800 attendees in all. Our Grand Final was held in Helsinki, Finland by Arctic Startup after Arctic 15 and gathered 650 attendees and finalists from all the Nordic countries.

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

Award Categories Startup of the Year Startup that has shown the greatest development over the last year based on growth, impact, sales, product and/or services. Criteria: growth, revenue, society impact, international scope.

Best Newcomer Startup with up to 2 years of age that has shown a promising track based on growth, impact, sales, product and/or services.

Criteria: personal money used to start the business, growth, age of the startup, revenue.

Best Investment Company An investment company that has displayed the best investment acumen over the last year. This could be defined as an exit, early investment of a notable startup or realisation of an earlier investment. Criteria: investments, exits, minimum $ invested.

Criteria: growth, revenue, funds raised, social impact, team size.

Best Business Angel

Best Bootstrapped

An individual investor that has displayed the best investment acumen in startups over the last year, based on seed stage investments.

Startup that has shown the greatest development over the last year based on growth, impact, sales, product and/or services, with no funding.

Criteria: investments, exits, minimum $ invested, experience.

Founder of the Year

Startup Media of the Year

Best Accelerator Program

Best Student Startup

An individual that has shown notable achievements over the last year. Notable achievements could be fund raising, great customer growth, good financials, great leadership. Criteria: growth, funds raised, skills, leadership, founderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s age.

An individual or company that has displayed passion for the startup scene by providing insightful and impacting coverage as either a blogger or a journalist. It could be based on stories shared with impact, original/ creative angles, perseverance interest in the topic.

The accelerator program that has created the best environment for growth and innovation and fostered the startups with the best financial results.

Best student startup idea based on research from Nordic universities.

CTO Hero of the Year

Criteria: growth, creativity, society impact, international scope, age.

An individual that has shown notable achievements with a big impact over the last year. Notable achievements could be accomplishments in product development, fund raising, great customer growth, good financials, and great leadership.

Best Office Space

Criteria: accomplishments in product development, knowledge/education, leadership, experience, CTOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s age, startupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s age.

An office space that deserves the recognition for its help & services to the startup ecosystem, and for creating an environment that fosters innovation. Criteria: companies/individuals in the office space, startup residence time, culture & environment, service & support, community activity, price and lease term.

Criteria: funding offered, equity (%), success rate, knowledge, critical resources available, startups in the program.

Best Social Tech Startup

Criteria: to be announced. Finalists and winners will be chosen in collaboration with Venture Cup.

Best IoT Startup Startup that has shown the greatest development based on a technology that focuses on the interaction between IT, data and society.

Startup with a product or service within the field of social entrepreneurship that have created the most impact and or growth.

Criteria: to be announced.

Criteria: social responsibility type: environment/philanthropy, problem solved or intended to solve, team size, uniqueness, revenue.

Startup that has shown the greatest development over the last year by either adapting, developing and/ or implementing a disruptive technological innovation.

Best Exponential Startup

Criteria: to be announced.

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

WHY NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS?

Welovestartups Denmark

Startup Sweden Sweden

Startup Norway Norway

Klak Innovit Iceland

Arctic Startup Finland

Trendsonline.dk is the niche media for digital entrepreneurs and startups in Denmark. We focus on early stage digital entrepreneurship and startups across all industries and we help the world understand how startups are going to change the way we work and live.

Startup Sweden is the gateway to the Swedish Startup Ecosystem. We aim to help entrepreneurs and investors investigate the Swedish startup scene.

Startup Norway’s mission is to put Norway’s startup scene on the international startup map. Startup Norway believes that increasing attention towards our region to international journalists, investors and customers will help Norwegian startups to scale and grow internationally.

Klak Innovit is a non-profit, privately owned startup center, which purpose is to accelerate businesses for high growth and to connect Icelandic entrepreneurs with leading industry experts, and the world’s most successful startup ecosystems.

ArcticStartup is an independent technology blog that reports on startups and growth entrepreneurship from the Nordic and Baltic countries. Their goal is to provide exceptional coverage of the news and trends needed to support a developed entrepreneurship community in Northern Europe.

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS WINNERS

For the first time ever, every Nordic country held a National event for the National Finals gathering a whopping 1800 attendees in all.

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

THE NORDIC REGION 65 natust, te dolo officipsam

Vadsz

ísaf safö ördur

Troms romsø ø

65 natust, te dolo officipsam

Saudharkrokur Akureyri Borgarnes Keflavik

Reykjavik Selfoss

Egilsstadir Bodø Bod ø Rovaniemi

Luleå Lule å

Oulu

Steinkjer

65 natust, te dolo officipsam

Umeå Ume å

FINLAND

Trondheim

Östersund Molde Härn rnö ösand

SWEDEN

65 natust, te dolo officipsam

Mikkeli

NORWAY Hermansverk Lillehammer Hamar

Gävle

Turku

Bergen

Helsinki

Falun Mariehamn

Oslo

Uppsala

Drammen

Väster sterà às Moss

Tønsberg

Örebro

Skien

Stavanger

65 natust, te dolo officipsam

Karlstad

Stockholm Nykö Nyk öping

Arendal Linkö Link öpingen

Kristiansand

Visby

Göteborg

65 natust, te dolo officipsam

Jönk nkö öpingen

Aalborg Växj xjö ö Kalmar Halmstad Viborg Karlskrona

DENMARK

Vejle

København (Copenhagen) Malmö Malm ö

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS WINNERS

For the first time ever, every Nordic country held a National event for the National Finals gathering a whopping 1800 attendees in all.

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

OVERVIEW The Nordic Startup Awards are a series of awards committed to celebrating Nordic ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit across the startup ecosystem. Though only started in 2012, Nordic Startup Awards has now grown to build the Global Startup Awards (GSA) with the aim of connecting regions on a global level. The Global Startup Awards include Nordic Startup Awards, Central European Startup Awards (2014) and our latest addition in 2015, ASEAN Startup Awards. Global Startup Awards has two major goals: Connecting, celebrating and supporting national, regional and global ecosystems and gathering data about these ecosystems and creating a map for everyone to use. The Awards are carried out in two rounds. First, national semi-finals are held in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Then, semi-finalists move on to the Grand Finale and compete to become the region’s champions. The Grand Finale is a great chance to network and gain international exposure.

Global Startup Awards has two major goals: • Connecting, celebrating and supporting national, regional and global ecosystems • Gathering data about these ecosystems and creating a map for everyone to use.

For each of all the Nordic countries for NSA there is a country partner organisation that is responsible for the national event and marketing. It owns the exclusive right to represent NSA. A CPO can work with local partners. Here are our country partners: 12

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

COUNTRY PARTNERS

Welovestartups Denmark

Startup Sweden Sweden

Startup Norway Norway

Klak Innovit Iceland

Arctic Startup Finland

Startup Sweden is the gateway to the Swedish Startup Ecosystem. We aim to help entrepreneurs and investors investigate the Swedish startup scene.

NORDIC STARTUP AWARDS

PREVIOUS WINNERS

Welovestartups Denmark Trendsonline.dk is he niche media for digital entrepreneurs and startups in Denmark. We focus on early stage digital

Startup Sweden Sweden Startup Sweden is the gateway to the Swedish Startup Ecosystem. We aim to help entrepreneurs and investors investigate the

Startup Norway Norway Startup Norway’s mission is to put Norway’s startup scene on the international startup map. Startup Norway believes

Klak Innovit Iceland Klak Innovit is a non-profit, privately owned startup center, which purpose is to accelerate businesses for high growth and to

Welovestartups Denmark Trendsonline.dk is he niche media for digital entrepreneurs and startups in Denmark. We focus on early stage digital

Startup Sweden Sweden Startup Sweden is the gateway to the Swedish Startup Ecosystem. We aim to help entrepreneurs and investors investigate the

Startup Norway Norway Startup Norway’s mission is to put Norway’s startup scene on the international startup map. Startup Norway believes

Klak Innovit Iceland Klak Innovit is a non-profit, privately owned startup center, which purpose is to accelerate businesses for high growth and to