The State of
Smart City Investment in the Nordics
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
Index 3-4 Introduction 5
About Us
6
Methodology and Disclaimers
7
Nordic Smart City Investment Overview
8
The Amount of Capital Invested into Nordic Smart City Startups
9
The Number of Investments into Nordic Smart City Startups
10-11
The Number of Smart City Investments by Country
12
The Amount of Capital Invested into Smart City Startups by Country
13
The Size of Nordic Smart City Investments
14
Recurrent Investors in Nordic Smart City Investments
15
Nordic Smart City Investments by Vertical
16-17
Interview with Mapillary from Sweden
18-19
Which Nordic Cities are Attracting the Most Smart City Investment?
20-21
Norway: The Number of Smart City Investments
22-23
Interview with Futurehome from Norway
24
Norway: Amount of Capital Invested into Smart City Startups
25
Norway: The Size of Smart City Investments
26
Norway: Smart City Investments by Vertical
27
Norway: Smart City Investments by City
28-29
Interview with Famly from Denmark
31
Final Thoughts
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The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
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Introduction DNB helps entrepreneurs and start-up companies to succeed in establishing their own businesses. We have taken the position as
KJERSTIN R. BRAATHEN Executive Vice President of DNB
the preferred bank for start-up companies. We now wish to help more companies in a growth phase so that together we can create more jobs and add value to the community around us. One of the key needs of companies in a growth phase is access to capital, whether to develop a new product, to enter a new market or to try out new technology. However, it is a challenging process to gain access to investors, a process which, for many, can claim too much time and require resources which are often scarce. We therefore wish to help facilitate meeting places between venture capital and growth companies so that companies can grow to the
Nordic Edge is one of Europe’s most impor-
next level.
tant arenas for knowledge exchange and a
Companies that are in a growth phase have
and creators of smarter businesses, smarter
told us that in addition to being able to
homes and smarter cities.
showcase what they do, they need places where they can share their experiences and expertise with others. They also wish to have easier access to capital and meeting places where they can meet investors. As for investors, they tell us that they would like help to find the best ideas and a place to share experiences with other investors. They also need to be continuously updated on new technology, industries, trends etc. Through initiatives such as the Angel Challenge and DNB NXT, DNB aims to stimulate the supply of further seed capital and provide venues where companies that are ready for investment meet private capital.
source of inspiration for decision makers
This is a relevant arena as a meeting place between early-stage companies and investors. This report shows that there is considerable capital flowing into the Nordic region and that Norway is moving in the right direction. It also shows the potential that lies in facilitating meeting places and the exchange of expertise between growth companies and investors. We wish all the participants at the Nordic Edge Expo the best of luck and hope that it will be a useful meeting place for all.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
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Introduction HERBJĂ˜RN TJELTVEIT CEO of Nordic Edge
The Smart City concept is all about creating better lives for citizens – in ways that do not harm the environment. For us, the Nordic welfare model is an important starting point. The Nordic countries are devoted to the key benefits of modernity – freedom, personal independence and opportunity. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway have well-developed welfare services, relatively small differences in income, and effective public institutions.
Furthermore, the Nordic countries have
In combination with the Nordic tradition of
integrated market economies, but with a
a well-functioning cooperation between the
strong sense of social responsibility. We like
public and private sector, this means that
to think that we are creative when it comes
there are plenty of opportunities for start-ups
to social programmes, but at the same time
and entrepreneurs in the Smart City area.
competitive in innovation and business.
Together I hope we can develop a new digital
This balance makes the Nordics an interesting starting point for anyone with smart city am-
Nordic welfare model, and at the same time create thriving international businesses.
bitions. We need innovation in both the public
One of the key factors for success is of course
and private sector to build a Smart City, and
funding. Nordic Edge is proud to present this
in order to develop efficient new services, we
first report on Smart City investments in
need a stronger cooperation between the
startups in the Nordics together with DNB and
two.
The Nordic Web.
The Smart City calls for a broad approach
Over the last few years there has been an
to innovation - products, services, markets,
interesting development in Smart City invest-
processes and organisational models that
ments in the Nordics. We are proud to present
create financial benefits or otherwise are of
the details on the following pages.
value to society.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
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About Us
THE NORDIC WEB The Nordic Web is the number one resource for data and analysis on the Nordic tech startup scene. The Nordic Web is relied on by investors, corporates and entrepreneurs as the most accurate and comprehensive source for understanding what’s truly happening in one of the most innovative regions in the world.
NORDIC EDGE Nordic Edge aims at being one of Europe’s most important arenas for knowledge exchange and inspiration to creators of smarter businesses, smarter homes and smarter cities. By bringing together the best thinkers and the best doers, Nordic Edge Expo is a not-to-be-missed arena for ideas exchange, inspiration, insights and action.
DNB DNB is Norway's largest financial services group and one of the largest in the Nordic region in terms of market capitalisation. We are a major operator in a number of industries. DNB is one of the world’s leading shipping banks and has a strong position in the energy sector, the fisheries and seafood industry. DNB is a strong banking partner for corporations operating in the telecom, media and technology sectors.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
Methodology and Disclaimers All data used in this report is from the proprietary dataset of The Nordic Web. The Nordic Web sources their data through a combination of automated and manual processes, monitoring 100+ sources on a daily basis, using both private and publicly available information. For the purposes of this report, we’ve looked at Smart City Investments from January 1st 2014 up until June 30th 2016, a period of two and a half years. Unless stated otherwise, this is the time period that we have used on each individual analysis. In terms of defining what constitutes a Smart City startup our criteria was based on ensuring a startup could comfortably fit under the following definitions:
• • • • • •
Smart Economy Smart Citizen Smart Living Smart Mobility Smart Environment Smart Government
If you have any questions regarding a clarification of our methodology or indeed any questions regarding this report, then please email me on neil@thenordicweb.com
NEIL S W MURRAY Founding Editor of The Nordic Web
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The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
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Nordic Smart City Investment Overview
170
investments
$314
million invested
19%
of investments in the Nordics in the last 2.5 years have had roots in Smart City
171%
2015 saw a 171% year on year increase in capital being invested into Nordic Smart City startups
7%
of capital invested into the Nordics in the last 2.5 years has gone to Smart City startups
54.12%
More than 1 in 2 Nordic Smart City investments are made into Smart Living Startups
25%
1 in 4 investments in Norway are made into Smart City startups, the highest percentage in the Nordics
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
The Amount of Capital Invested into Nordic Smart City Startups • • • •
Amount of Capital ($M) Invested into Nordic Smart Cirty Startups
The amount of capital has been growing at a consistent rate since 2014. 2015 should be considered a breakthrough year for Nordic Smart City investment, as the total amount was 171% more than 2014. Clearly this level of growth is hard to maintain, however 2016 is currently on course to see a still impressive 46% year on year growth. This will mean that 2016 should see Smart City investment in the Nordics pass $200 million for the first time.
218.72 200 180 160
149.48
140 120 100
Total
80 60
Projected
109.36 H1
55.09
40 20 0
2014
2015
2016
8 of 32
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics
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The Number of Investments into Nordic Smart City Startups • • • •
The number of investments has also been the subject of exponentially year on year growth, with 2015 seeing 100% more than investments than 2014. Interestingly, 2016 is currently on course to see an even faster percentage of growth, tracking a 164% increase on 2015 based on the first half of the year. Since the beginning of 2015, every quarter since has brought even more Smart City investments than the last. This indicates that the number of Smart City investments in the Nordics is continuing to rise even now and has yet to peak.
Nordic Smart City Investments by Year
148 120
Total Projected
80 56
40
74 H1
28
0
2014
2016
41 40
33
35 30
23
25 20
16
5
9 5
8
6
5
Q1 2015
10
12
Q4 2014
15
Q2 2016
Q1 2016
Q4 2015
Q3 2015
Q2 2015
Q3 2014
Q2 2014
0
Q1 2014
Nordic Smart City Investments by Quarter
2015
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 10 of 32
The Number of Smart City Investments by Country • • •
Sweden comfortably attracts the most Smart City investments, however, this is not surprising as due to its startup ecosystem being more mature than its Nordic neighbours, Sweden attracts more investments in all verticals. Finland come next, with Denmark and Norway wrestling for third place. Most importantly, it’s clear that Smart City investments are happening in all five Nordic countries.
Nordic Smart Citys Investments by Country
74
Denmark Finland
46
Iceland Norway Sweden
22
21 7
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 11 of 32
The Number of Smart City Investments by Country • • • •
% of Smart City Investments of Total Investments by Country
A more accurate way of determining how much of a part Smart City plays in each country's startup scene is to look at the percentage that investments into Smart City startups made up of the total number of investments. Using this criteria, Sweden actually fall behind Finland and Norway for Smart City investments. 1 in 4 investments in Norway are currently going into Smart City startups, the highest amount in the Nordics. Finland also fare well using this criteria, demonstrating that Smart City startups are an important part of their startup ecosystem.
24
24.71%
23.83%
22 20 18
18.64%
17.95%
16 14 13.1% 12 10
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 12 of 32
The Amount of Capital Invested into Nordic Smart City Startups by Country • • •
The Amount of Capital ($M) Invested into Smart City Startups by Country
As was the case with the number of investments, Sweden and Finland dominate when it comes to the amount of capital invested, accounting for over 70% of the capital invested in Nordic Smart CIty startups. Iceland fare very well for capital invested due to a number of larger investments, pointing to a Smart City scene with more mature companies. Denmark’s Smart City startups have raised less than $10 million, however this is mainly due to a number of undisclosed deals rather than a lack of them.
127.57 120 99.59
100 80 60
48.96 40 28.92 20 8.89 0
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 13 of 32
The Size of Nordic Smart City Investments • • •
The Number of Nordic Smart City Investments by Round Size
Assuming that the majority of undisclosed deals are early-stage investments, then over 50% of investments are happening under $1 million. This is clear evidence that Smart CIty is still an area that is a growing one, and still needs more capital and time before it is a more established vertical in the Nordics. However, four investments above $10 million does demonstrate that there is capital available for those companies that do require later stage money,
32
Undisclosed
45
<$500,000
20
$500,000-$1M
39
$1M-3M
18
$3-5M
12
$5-10M
$10M+
4
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 14 of 32
Recurrent Investors in Nordic Smart City Startups
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 15 of 32
Nordic Smart City Investments by Vertical • • •
Investments by Smart City Vertical
Smart Living startups dominate investments with more than 1 in 2 Smart City investments going to startups specialising in this area. Smart environment and Smart citizen are also fairly strong areas for attracting investment. Surprisingly, we tracked no investments for any startups operating in Smart Governments.
90
92
80 70 60 50 40 30
31 25
20 10
11
11
0
0
Smart Living
Smart Environment
Smart Citizen
Smart Mobility
Smart Economy
Smart Governance
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 16 of 32
Interview with Mapillary from Sweden
How did the idea for Mapillary come about? It started years before the first Mapillary photo. I’m a computer vision person and my work from undergraduate to PhD at Lund University all revolved around reconstructing scenes and recognizing objects from images. Already when I was doing my PhD I had an interest in building a system for collaboratively reconstructing places from photos, I just didn’t know who would use this and why. Later on, when I worked in the Bay Area and met people who were in need of street photos and data that no one could provide for them, I understood why it would make sense to build this collaborative photo collection. Then the timing was right technology-wise, also when it came to acceptance for crowdsourcing. That combined with a growing need triggered it all.
How did you go about testing and implementing the idea? Before we started Mapillary, I built a prototype iOS app and convinced two friends to bring their phones and map a newly-built area in the Malmö harbor. We collected some data on a cold Sunday morning and when I saw the results, it was clear that data from phones would be good enough. One of the friends who helped me that Sunday morning was my fellow PhD student Yubin Kuang who also became a co-founder of Mapillary. We teamed up with Johan Gyllenspetz and a few months later Peter Neubauer, to create the founding team. Then we simply built and released everything very early. When we launched officially we had only about 70k photos from people who had tested an early prototype. Then things just took off with people using Mapillary to map all sorts of interesting areas and the first year we spent almost all our time keeping up and scaling the system between the four of us.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 17 of 32
How have you found working with a consumer-
Mapillary to effect change in their own commu-
facing Smart City innovation?
nities.
Mapillary offers an innovative approach to cre-
We currently have about 2000 cities with good
ating street-level imagery by putting the power
coverage, where about 300 have very high cover-
of creating street-level imagery in the hands of
age, in some cases complete coverage.
everyone. We’re introducing scalability in the image capture side and in the data extraction side. Making delightful consumer-facing mobile apps has been one key to driving our growth, working in the open and listening to feedback is another. We’ve tapped into emerging trends which connect consumers to their local governments like civic activism, mobile mapping, open data, even autonomous driving. People have contributed ~80 million photos across 1.8 million kilometers globally to date.
Do you think there is a unique advantage working in Smart City innovation in Sweden or the Nordics? Swedish cities were early to join and many of them embrace open data policies, which is well aligned with our offering. The City of Helsingborg was the first city to provide us with millions of high-quality street-level photos. We have great coverage in many Danish cities but we don’t have relationships with the cities themselves there. It is all bottoms-up community of passionate
How many cities is Mapillary now being used and how has the appetite been for Mapillary in other cities?
citizens. The culture of startups and innovation in the Nordics has also influenced the public sector
Mapillary’s images and data are being used in
and we see government agencies here move
close to a hundred cities globally, across a vari-
at a faster pace with fewer reservations about
ety of small municipal projects, pilots in major
working with a startup like us.
metros, and community-driven initiatives. We’ve seen the strongest interest from cities with specific mandates to find new technology to solve existing problems like asset inventory, surveys, property appraisals, transportation planning, park trail mapping, and more. We’ve also been challenged by Smart Cities to tackle new problems related to civic engagement, i.e. how to empower citizens to capture and use data (in our case, street-level photos) in partnership with their local government. Adoption has been more challenging in parts of the world where government data tends to be closed, or where the market for municipal solutions is dominated by large, established companies (not startups). In those regions, we’ve seen wonderful response from consumers independently using
What does the next 12-18 months look like for Mapillary? Over the next 12-18 months we’d like Mapillary to be deeply integrated in every Smart City’s portfolio. In addition to providing the leading street-level imagery solution for specific use cases, we want to drive creative approaches to data collection across agencies and functions, including involving staff and engaged citizens. For example, it would be fantastic to have garbage trucks or city vehicles in every major Nordic city equipped to collect Mapillary photos for fresh data every day, week, or month.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 18 of 32
Which Nordic Cities are Attracting the Most Smart City Investment?
Reykjavik 7
47 Stockholm, Sweden
4 Tampere, Finland
2
Linkoping, Sweden
20
Helsinki, Finland
3 Lund, Sweden
2
Oulu, Finland
18
Oslo, Norway
2
1 Kuopio, Finland
18
Copenhagen, Denmark
2 Aarhus, Denmark
1 Odense, Denmark
13 Malmo, Sweden
2
Bergen, Norway
1 Ostersund, Sweden
11
2
Esbjerg, Denmark
1 Stavanger, Norway
Espoo, Finland
Uppsala, Sweden
8 Gothernburg, Sweden
2 Turku, Finland
7 Reykjavik, Iceland
2
Jyväskylä, Finland
1 Trondheim, Norway
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 19 of 32
Oulu 2
Ostersund 1 Kuopio 1
Trondheim 1
Oslo 18
Bergen 2
Tampere 4
Jyväskylä 2
Turku 2
Helsinki 20 Stavanger 1
Espoo 11
Uppsala 2 Gothernburg 8
Stockholm 47
Aarhus 2 Esbjerg 2
Linkoping 2 Copenhagen 18 Lund 3
Odense 1 Malmo 13
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 20 of 32
Norway: The Number of Smart City Investments • • •
Norwegian Smart City Investments by Year
Smart City became an area of interest for investors in Norway in 2015, after no investments in 2014. The first half of 2016 has already seen more investments than the whole of 2015, demonstrating that this is an area that’s dramatically on the rise in Norway. 2016 is now on course for more investments than the three previous years combined.
22
22 20 18 16 14 12 10
Total Projected
8 6
7
11 H1
2015
2016
4 2 0
0
2014
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 21 of 32
Norway: The Number of Smart City Investments
8 7
7 6 5 4
4 3
3
2 1
1
Q2 2015
1
Q1 2015
2
Q2 2016
Q1 2016
Q4 2015
Q3 2015
Q4 2014
0 Q3 2014
Norwegian Smart City Investments by Quarter
Q2 2016 saw as many investments as the whole of 2015.
Q2 2014
•
Breaking it down by quarter, it’s even clearer to see the dramatic increase in interest and capital into Smart City in Norway.
Q1 2014
•
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 22 of 32
Interview with Future Home from Norway How did the idea for Futurehome come about? In June 2012 Erik Stokkeland, co-founder
How did you go about testing and implementing the idea?
and CEO, spent all of his holiday pay from
Knowing that other smart home systems had
the installation company Bravida on a home
not made a breakthrough into the mass mar-
theatre system and creating his apartment
ket, we knew that they needed to create a us-
into a proper man cave. With a projector, Hi-Fi
er-friendly and affordable system to achieve
system, blu-ray player, Playstation etc, he was
market adoption. After further developing the
ready for a good home theatre experience.
system, we decided to recruit the least typ-
Nevertheless, the challenge was that every
ical customer of a smarthome to prove that
time he wanted to see TV, film or play Play-
Futurehome was meant to be for everyone.
station he had to get through between 4 to 5
With my grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birthday coming
remotes to get started. The question he was
up in autumn of 2013, the perfect present
left with was: Why must it be so complicated?
was a Futurehome smart home for her 90th
Universal controllers were already available on the market, but you needed to be able to remember all the different settings you had incorporated. Another option was a smart home system with integrated multimedia management. Being a trained technician, Erik had the experience from the industry and in hardware and teamed up with childhood friend, Bjarne who had expertise in software development. Within a short time they had already developed a software for smart homes that was compatible with the hardware already available in the hobby market. With this system they were able to control lighting, heating, alarm and multimedia right from the couch and actually turned it into a smart home system prototype.
birthday. Although she did not use the system herself as everything was automated, the real benefit was that our family now had full control over movement and temperature in the house and needed not to worry about a 90 year old living home alone.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 23 of 32
How have you found working with a consum-
How many Cities are you now present in and
er-facing Smart City innovation?
how has the appetite been for Futurehome
Working directly towards consumers makes
in other cities?
it much more rewarding getting feedback. Af-
Currently we have offices in Oslo and Stavan-
fecting peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives directly in a positive way
ger, but are working with partners in multiple
brings more emotions and appreciation than
parts of the Norway. The appetite has been
working business to business. This also makes
increasing year by year and has exploded
it more challenging and exciting, having to
lately and the organisation is growing at a fast
implement changes fast and adapt quickly to
pace. We are now looking for more partners
consumer behaviour and needs.
to work with, especially outside of Norway.
Do you think there is a unique advantage
What does the next 12-18 months look like for
working in Smart City innovation in Norway
Futurehome?
or the Nordics?
We have just launched some new cool fea-
The amount of internet connectivity and
tures not only for consumers, but for partners
smartphone adoption per capita in the Nor-
as well. Having worked on the features for a
dics makes the region a phenomenal testbed
long time with partners, it is going to be really
for innovation in the smarthome and Smart
interesting to see if the consumers continue to
City industry. Starting in a small country like
buy Futurehome and if the company growth
Norway and the Nordics is not a disadvantage
continues, but so far it is looking good.
at all, it gives the opportunity to create solutions for the general population that are way ahead of other regions and countries. Starting ahead doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean staying ahead, so the different parties in the Smart City ecosystem need to work fast, hard and together to reach the true potential.
We will also be looking for more forward leaning international partners to work with.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 24 of 32
Norway: Amount of Capital Invested into Smart City Startups • • •
Amount of Capital Invested ($M) in Norwegian Smart City Startups by Year
The amount of capital being invested into Norwegian Smart City startups is still a relatively modest amount when you make it relative to other verticals that are attracting capital. However, this is mainly due to the fact that the majority of investments are into new startups and are therefore relatively small in size. We can expect the amount of capital invested to continue to rise as the number of companies increase, as well as the growth of existing Norwegian Smart City startups.
20 16
Total Projected
25.18
24
14.69
12
12.59 H1
8 4 0
2015
2016
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 25 of 32
Norway: The Size of Smart City Investments • • •
Nirwegian Smart City Investments by Round Size
As is to be expected in an area that is increasingly on the rise in terms of popularity, the majority of investments happened at a very early stage. However, sizeable investments are also happening, hinting at a Smart City ecosystem in Norway that is beginning to mature. There has yet to be an investment above $10 million + yet though, providing us with a useful benchmark to keep an eye on in 2017 as to how things are maturing.
Undisclosed
5
<$500,000
7
$500,000-$1M
2
$1M-3M
3
$3-5M
2
$5-10M
2
$10M+
0
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 26 of 32
Norway: Smart City Investments by Vertical • • •
Smart Living and Smart Citizen startups dominate in Norway when it comes to investment, akin to the region as a whole. As could be seen by the Nordics as a whole, Smart Government remains an area that is struggling to attract investment. Smart Government was the only area not to receive investment, demonstrating a good variety of Smart City startups in Norway able to attract investment
Investments by Smart City Vertical 9
9
8 7 6
6 5 4
3
3 2
2
1
1 0
0
Smart Living
Smart Environment
Smart Citizen
Smart Mobility
Smart Economy
Smart Governance
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 27 of 32
Norway: Smart City Investments by City
Trondheim 1
Bergen 2
Stavanger 1
Oslo 18
18
Oslo, Norway
2
Bergen, Norway
1 Stavanger, Norway 1 Trondheim, Norway
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 28 of 32
Interview with Famly from Denmark How did the idea for Famly come about? The initial idea for Famly was an app that con-
How did you go about testing and implementing the idea?
nected information from a lot of different family
My co-founder and I are both huge fans of the
related sources. It would have been calendars,
Lean Startup movement. From day 1 we were
class schedules, communication from part time
very focused on building the product together
activities such as soccer practice and so on. We
with our users, working in small sprints and
quickly realised though, that integrating with
continuously getting feedback from actual users
all these different and a lot of the time very old
of the app. We convinced my daughter's nursery
systems, would become very challenging.
to take part in this process and develop the first
At the same time my daughter Olivia started at the local nursery, and from the parent side of things, we saw a demand for improved communication. When we started to dig into the nursery and daycare space we found out that a lot of administrative tasks were very time consuming, and a properly built digital solution could save them tremendous amounts of time. That was when we set out to create the perfect tool for parent communication and administrative tasks
version with us. We spent countless hours talking to the staff, learning about processes from the managers, and listening to what was important for the parents. We participated in staff meetings, board meetings, and parent meetings. Based on all the feedback we got, we developed an MVP and continued the development of that in small sprints. Today, 3 years later, we still use this process for the ongoing product development that happens every day.
in nurseries, daycares and preschools. How have you found working with a public-facing Smart City innovation? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been great working together with the very motivated staff at the different nurseries and daycares. The staff are so focused on the childrensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; development and well-being. Being able to support their everyday effort by creating tools that enable them to do their job better and help them save time, to spend with the kids instead, is very positive for us.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 29 of 32
How many cities is Famly now present in and
tools in the nurseries and daycares as well.
how has the appetite been for Famly in other
The not so great part about Denmark is the
cities?
market size. In Denmark the overall market
Today Famly is used with great success in more than 40 cities - half of them in Denmark where Famly is based, and the other half in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA. Today Famly has a very strong brand, and our customer base are extremely happy.
is not that large and 80% is public and run by municipalities. Today weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been in the market long enough to be taken serious by the municipalities, but in the beginning when we were new and small it was very hard to be taken serious by the municipalities.
We are scaling up on the commercial side of things, so we can help even more municipalities and organisations improve communication and save time on administrative tasks in nurseries and daycares.
What does the next 12-18 months look like for Famly? We recently closed a round of funding to expand the company as a whole. We have already hired new people in the commercial and
Do you think there is a unique advantage
customer support teams, but we also need to
working in Smart City innovation in Norway
hire people in marketing and development.
or the Nordics?
Besides expanding our marketshare in Den-
Starting out in Denmark has been both a blessing and a curse. Denmark was quite far ahead compared to the rest of the world in regards to adoption of smartphones and technology in general. Furthermore the government developed a similar system to Famly for schools 10 years back, so both parents and staff were kind of â&#x20AC;&#x153;warmed upâ&#x20AC;? for digital
mark, we are starting to get proper traction in the UK with our recently developed financial modules specifically targeted the UK market.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 30 of 32
Final Thoughts Originally I planned for an investor to have the last say in this report, with their thoughts on why Smart City was a strong investable opportunity. The investors I asked said that they were not experts in Smart City, and that they only invest in technology companies. However, these investors had invested in Smart City startups, but seemingly they didn’t know it. The reason why this is important and worth closing with is twofold. Smart City encompasses so much of what we do and how we live, that startups and investors are contributing to this area without even realising that they are, with technology at the forefront of it. Building on this, it’s staggering that 1 in 5 investments in the Nordics already contribute to a smarter city even without this wider realisation. As capital continues to flow into the Nordics and awareness of Smart City grows, I predict
NEIL S W MURRAY
that not only we will continue to see exponen-
Founding Editor of The Nordic Web
tial growth in Smart City investments, but also in the number of dedicated Nordic Smart City startups as well. After all, as we’ve proved in this report, we have an excellent start to kick on from.
The State of Smart City Investment in the Nordics 31 of 32
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