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Introduction Alan Mamedi Alexander Ljung Anders Hordvei Mjåset Andreas Ehn Andreas Saari Anita Schjøll Brede Anne Worsøe Anette Nordvall Ari Helgason Aurore Belfrage Benjamin Ratz Benjamin Webb Camilla Hessellund Lastein Carl Waldekranz Christopher Thür Claes Mikko Nilsen Daniel Ek David Helgason Ekaterina Gianelli Elin Elkehag Elina Berglund Emil Eifrem Erik Engellau-Nilsson Gulnaz Khusainova Hampus Jakobsson Helga Valfells, Hekla Arnardóttir and Jenný Ruth Hrafnsdóttir Hilmar Veigar Pétursson Hjalmar Winbladh HRH Crown Prince Haakon Ida Tin Ilkka Kivimäki IIkka Paananen Isabelle Ringnes Jan Erik Solem 3
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41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
Jane Walerud Jessica Blechingberg Jessica Schultz Joel Hellermark Johan Attby Johan Bakken and Tobias Bæck Johan Brand Johan Brenner Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner Jonas Nordlander and Filip Engelbert Kaj Hed Karen Dolva Karolina Miller Kim Balle Klaus Nyengaard Laila Pawlak Lauga Oskarsdottir Linda Liukas Maddy Savage Maja Adriaensen Maral Kalajian Margrethe Vestager Maria De La Croix Maria Ritola Marianne Vikkula Marta Sjögren Martin Ferro-Thomsen Martin Hauge Matthew Smith Michael Bak Mik Strøyberg Miki Kuusi Mikkel Svane Morten Lund Natalia Brzezinski 4
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76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
Niklas Adalberth Neil S W Murray Niklas Zennström and Mattias Ljungman Nikolaj Nyholm Nils-Erik Jansson Pär-Jörgen Pärson Paul Bragiel Peter Carlsson Peter Sunde Peter Vesterbacka Pia Ella Elmegård Riccardo Zacconi Riku Seppälä, Lasse Lehtinen and Aleksi Partanen Risto Siilasmaa Salóme Guðmundsdóttir Sam Myers Sandy Errestad Sebastian Siemiatkowski Sissel Hansen Sophia Bendz Tharald Nustad Thomas Madsen-Mygdal Thomas Walle and Kjartan Slette Thor Fridriksson Tine Thygesen Tommy Ahlers Tommy Andersen and Eric Lagier Tomas Bennich Tyler Crowley Voitto Kangas Zenia Francker
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INTRODUCTION The Nordic 100 is an annual list recognising the 100 most impactful and influential figures in the Nordic tech scene each year. Individuals at the forefront of shaping and positioning the region as one of the world’s most important innovation hubs. We recognise investors, entrepreneurs and community builders that are playing important roles in the region and are influencing what tomorrow looks like in the Nordics, and indeed the world. We hope that this hard-copy booklet will serve as a handbook for attendees of Slush to better understand who the key people from the Nordics are, providing you with an easy and actionable resource for engaging with the Nordic ecosystem all year round. Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate and to my fellow judges on the panel who ultimately decided this year’s The Nordic 100: Robin Wauters (Tech.eu), Natalia Brzezinski (Symposium), Salóme Guðmundsdóttir (Icelandic Startups) and Marianne Vikkula (Slush). And thank you for reading! Neil S W Murray (Founder of The Nordic Web) neil@thenordicweb.com
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ALAN MAMEDI Alan is the CEO of Truecaller. Under Alan’s leadership Truecaller has experienced dramatic growth with over 100 million monthly active and its popularity in India regularly competing with Facebook as the most used app. With close to $100 million raised, from investors including Atomico, KPCB and Sequoia, Alan certainly has the capital to match his global ambitions.
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ALEXANDER LJUNG Although based in Berlin, and Soundcloud technically classified as a German company, there is no doubting that Swedish Alexander is an impactful player not just in the Nordics but also in Europe. Soundcloud is yet another music-based company that originated in Stockholm, and yet another that has grown on a global scale. 2017 has seen Alexander step aside as CEO, as Soundcloud continued their rollercoaster journey. One thing is certain though, Alexander is one of the most influential entrepreneurs the Nordics has produced in recent years.
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ANDERS HORDVEI MJÅSET Anders started his first company just over 10 years ago. The unnatural, governmental feel of the startup scene inspired him to start MESH after a failed startup attempt (within recruiting) and one company sold in 2011 (within transportation). MESH has grown to become Norway’s central startup hub, with 10.000m2 accommodating 700 core members, 750 events annually and 50.000 annual guests. One year ago, MESH and Founders House (Startup Village) merged. The new company has ambitious expansion plans for its network, services and spaces going forward. In addition to this he has a central role in regards to the Norwegian government and opposition party as an advisor and he holds several board positions in startups and other organisations.
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ANDREAS EHN Andreas Ehn is a board member and angel investor in several companies. He is frequently hired as an advisor by promising startups, venture capital funds and corporates. Previously he was Spotify’s first employee and chief technology officer, where he brought together the world-class tech team that designed and built the platform and product for the music service. Before Spotify he worked for the Swedish online-gaming company Stardoll. He is Wrapp’s co-founder and was its CTO until fall 2014.
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ANDREAS SAARI Andreas Saari is the Co-Founder & CEO of Wave Ventures, the first student-run venture capital fund in the Nordics. Wave Ventures aims to back the boldest founders and their ideas that arise from the university communities across the Nordics. Previously, Andreas ran the startup and investor operations at Slush, and has spent this year developing new program concepts there. Andreas studies industrial engineering & management at Aalto University and loves complex systems, biotech and material tech, languages, downhill biking and learning furiously about everything.
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ANITA SCHJØLL BREDE Anita is the CEO & Co-Founder of Iris.ai; an artificial intelligence startup announced by Fast Company to be one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies in AI in 2017. Iris.ai is an AI Science assistant, able to read, digest and connect scientific knowledge - that will grow up to be the world’s first AI Researcher within a decade. Set out to democratize access to science, Iris.ai can today reduce R&D time to map out existing research with 90%. Anita joined the SingularityU Denmark as AI Faculty in 2017, after being the first Norwegian to attend their GSP program at NASA in 2015. She is a board member of Ulstein Group, a 100-year old renowned ship design company. She is a highly sought after public speaker, one of Inspiring Fifty Nordic’s most inspiring women in tech, twice TEDx speaker, SingularityU GGC Awards winner, 500 startups and TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield alumni.
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ANNE WORSØE Anne is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Bakken & Bæck, a digital studio that design, develop and fund digital products and new ventures, focusing on machine learning and blockchain technology. She is one of the co-founders of Oslo.AI, the local partner of Nordic.AI, and co-organized and hosted the first Nordic AI Summit in Oslo this year. Anne is also a tech columnist in Dagens Næringsliv, the leading Norwegian industry newspaper. As a side-project, Anne is an angel investor, especially passionate about mobilizing more female funders and empowering female founders. She’s working with a group of angel investor networks in Norway and abroad, investing in early-stage tech startups with international ambitions and (preferably) a female co-founder. While holding a 4 years assignment as the Director of Innovation Norway in San Francisco, Anne initiated and co-founded the co-working space Nordic Innovation House in Palo Alto, as well as TINC, a 4 week incubation program for Nordic tech startups in U.S. More than 100 Nordic startups have participated in TINC Silicon Valley.
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ANETTE NORDVALL After 17 years on the US East coast Anette returned to Sweden to continue investing in telecom and local deep tech companies with Stockholm Business Angels. In 2013 she started Advising Cap A to set up their first Nordic fund. Anette’s investment portfolio holds over 40 companies. In 2016 Anette received the Vinnova-Wallenberg fellowship to Stanford, CA, at Nordic Innovation House, Palo Alto, CA, researching early-stage and Angel investing in Silicon Valley. Anette is also the co-founder of Nordic Business Angels.
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ARI HELGASON Ari is a Principal at Index Ventures in London where he invests across the Nordics with a particular focus on software and deep tech. Born in Reykjavik and growing up in Copenhagen, Ari is a former entrepreneur with both an operating and investing background. He’s excited about the way software fundamentally reshapes industries and especially enjoys working hands-on with founders as they navigate the early stages of scaling a business. Before joining Index, Ari was at Dawn Capital in London where he invested in and worked with SaaS and open source companies in both Europe and the US. Prior to that, Ari co-founded the SaaS workflow management company WOAH Sales and ecommerce startup Fabricly — the former right out of university.
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AURORE BELFRAGE Aurore Belfrage heads up EQT Ventures’ early stage initiative Together. Aurore is experienced and slightly obsessive about building tech businesses, either as a co-founder or investor. She’s a news junkie, ex-scrap dealer, speechwriter and aubergine lover. Aurore started her operational career as a scrap dealer in Stena Metall Group where she was managing director for the Czech and Italian scrap yards. 2011 she co-founded the global gift card startup Wrapp with Skype founder and Linkedin founder as early investors. During 2014-2015 she hosted a no-nonsense road show across the Middle East about the power of entrepreneurship – “Saluting the Naive and Crazy”.
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BENJAMIN RATZ As the Operating Partner, Benjamin Ratz is the full-time force behind Nordic Makers – a hands-on seed investor created by the founders of huge Nordic companies like Sitecore, Unity, Justeat, Zendesk and many more – leading 13 new investments in 12 months. He joined Nordic Makers in Stockholm having spent the last couple of years in Tel Aviv with an early-stage VC. Benjamin started his career in public policy and later practised law. This year he also co-organized Techbikers – a charity bike ride bringing together 50+ investors and founders to bike from Copenhagen to Berlin and raise over €100 000 for charity – and gathered a cruise ship with Nordic founders to discuss quantum game theory.
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BENJAMIN WEBB Since 2012, Benjamin’s agency, Deliberate PR has been leveraging the UK media’s ongoing cultural and social obsession with all things Nordic in order to introduce the region’s leading startups to the English-speaking world. Deliberate PR has represented leading startup concepts from Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Berlin, Helsinki - and now Oslo - including Tictail, Fishbrain, Lifesum, Football Addicts, Toca Boca, CELLINK, Magine, Peakon, Inkbay, Next Games, and No Isolation. Deliberate PR has also provided support to community-defining events such as Symposium Stockholm, STING Day, and launched the THINGS hardware space at KTH. Deliberate PR has also provided consultancy to a number of Nordic VCs. Benjamin has spoken at ecosystem events for the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and Startup Grind. A significant proportion of major international news features on the emergent Nordic ecosystems (Forbes, Mashable, Inc, Telegraph, Politico etc.) have been arranged by Benjamin’s agency.
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CAMILLA HESSELLUND LASTEIN Camilla is the founder and CEO of Lix. At age 20 she dropped out of her own education to make education better for everyone else. Netflix and Spotify came and won the film and music industry. That is what Lix is doing for textbooks. In just 2.5 years, Camilla gathered an impressive team and raised a total of $7.5M from prominent investors such as David Helgason (founder of Unity), Anders Holch Povlsen (owner of Bestseller) and Tommy Ahlers (ZYB, Podio). Camilla’s mission is to make education personalised and accessible all over the world.
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CARL WALDEKRANZ Carl Waldekranz is the co-founder and CEO of Tictail, home to the world’s best independent brands. With a background in fashion, design and art, Carl established Tictail with the goal of empowering self-made entrepreneurs to build a global brand. Today the company is the home to businesses from across 150 countries with offices in Stockholm and New York. Prior to founding Tictail in 2012, Carl Waldekranz worked as Art Director at Identity Works, a brand development agency in Stockholm. In 2006, after leaving school, Carl co-founded a company called Super Strikers, where he did design work for a number of companies including Spotify and Wrapp. He successfully sold the company to a competitor at the age of 23.
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CHRISTOPHER THÜR Christopher Thür is co-founder and CEO of Yousician, a startup founded in Finland in 2010. Yousician (formerly known as Ovelin) is a music gaming company with a relentless drive. They make the world a more musical place by changing the way people learn to play musical instruments. Games by Yousician make the learning process itself fun and entertaining. Yousician has been featured two times as ‘Editor’s Choice’ in the Apple App Store and won a “Best of 2016 Apps” award from Google Play. Chris himself is learning to play the guitar.
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CLAES MIKKO NILSEN Claes Mikko Nilsen is a Finnish-Norwegian, quick-witted character, well known for his pitch moderator skills. Claes Mikko is the co-founder and first director of Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN), which is one of the largest and most active angel networks in Europe with over 600 approved angels, actively inspiring private startup investing. FiBAN received the Finnish Internationalization Award of the President of the Republic in November 2017. Currently, Claes Mikko is the Managing Director of Nordic Business Angel Network (NordicBAN), which is driven by active business angels and launching its activity fall 2018. NordicBAN represents over 10 Nordic & Baltic business angel networks, linking over 1700 business angels, sharing angel investing best practices and supporting the matching of syndication ready startups. In addition to angel activity, Claes Mikko has an entrepreneurial background and during his studies was part of establishing student entrepreneurship society BoostTurku.
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DANIEL EK Daniel Ek founded Spotify 2006 and serves as its CEO. Daniel is a serial entrepreneur and technologist who started his first company in 1997 at the age of 14 before co-founding Spotify in 2006 together with Martin Lorentzon. Spotify is currently Europe’s most valuable privately-held VC-backed technology company and is expected to be one of Europe’s largest ever tech IPOs in 2018. Prior to Spotify, Daniel founded Advertigo, the online advertising company acquired by TradeDoubler, having previously held senior roles at Nordic auction company Tradera (acquired by Ebay). He also served as Chief Technology Officer at Stardoll, the fashion & entertainment community for tweens.
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DAVID HELGASON David Helgason is a technologist, founder of Unity, non-exec director to others, and a restless entrepreneur with a passion for creating feedback loops between innovation and teams and products, applying new and old business models to changing industries, and pushing people to do the very best they can do. David’s background is in programming, an assortment of university dabbling, creating companies, and helping entrepreneurs. He served as CEO of Unity Technologies since co-founding it in 2003 and until October 2014, with an unflinching vision to democratize game development, and to develop technology and business models for the next phase of the games industry.
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EKATERINA GIANELLI Ekaterina is an investor at Inventure, a Nordic venture capital firm investing in seed and early-stage technology startups. Based out of Helsinki, Ekaterina is an active community builder, and has been contributing to multiple initiatives strengthening the Nordic tech ecosystem. Previously, Ekaterina has been operationally involved in scaling Fjord, the design & innovation consultancy (acquired by Accenture Interactive in 2013), and a Nordic adtech startup Kiosked. Drawing on her experiences, she actively bridges the gap between design, business, and technology.
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ELIN ELKEHAG Elin Elkehag is a Swedish born serial entrepreneur. She founded the Internet of Things company company Stilla in 2015 and went from an idea to a patent pending hardware product in 100 days. In 2016, together with her team, she launched a crowdfunding campaign for their first product: Stilla Motion a tiny motion alarm for bags and other items of importance. It reached its funding goal in 10 hours. Stilla now has paying customers in 53 countries and its first retail partner, AT&T in the US, is one of the largest telecom operators in the world. Before becoming a full-time entrepreneur Ms. Elkehag worked with growth and innovation within various multinational corporations and she has fifteen years of international experience in the Telecom, Media, and Strategy Consulting world. Elin is usually based in San Francisco but commutes frequently to Sweden to spend time with her Stockholm-based ‘Team Stilla’ members, customers and investors.
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ELINA BERGLUND Dr. Elina Berglund is the CTO and co-founder of Natural Cycles the fertility app, which allows women to help prevent, plan and monitor pregnancies. As a top physicist, Elina was part of the Nobel Prize-winning team that discovered the Higgs boson at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland. Following this success, Elina and her husband, CEO and co-founder of Natural Cycles, Dr Raoul Scherwitzl, were looking for an effective natural contraceptive. With few effective natural birth control methods on the market, and a desire to avoid the side effects of hormonal contraception, Elina decided to apply her mathematical techniques to create a unique algorithm that could accurately pinpoint when a woman was fertile. Elina’s mission is to educate and empower women worldwide to take control of their fertility and future, championing a vision where every pregnancy brings happiness. Today, Natural Cycles is the world’s first, and only, app to be certified as a contraception, and has been shown in clinical studies to be similarly effective as the contraceptive pill. The app has over 500,000 users in 161 countries.
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EMIL EIFREM Emil Eifrem sketched what today is known as the property graph model on a flight to Mumbai in 2000. As the CEO of Neo Technology, co-founder of Neo4j and a co-author of the O’Reilly book Graph Databases, he’s devoted his professional life to building and evangelizing graph databases. Committed to sustainable open source, Emil guides Neo along a balanced path between free availability and commercial reliability. Emil plans to save the world with graphs and has certainly made some strides in this respect already with Neo Technology’s role in the publication of the Panama and Paradise Papers.
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ERIK ENGELLAU-NILSSON Erik Engellau-Nilsson joined as CEO of Norrsken Foundation in January 2017. Norrsken Foundation is a non-profit foundation combining entrepreneurship, technology and venture capital to maximize social good. In January, the foundation launched Norrsken House which has quickly grown to become the largest ecosystem for social entrepreneurship in Europe with more than 110 companies working to solve societal problems. Just before summer, the foundation closed the first Founders Fund supported by unicorn founders investing 300 million SEK in entrepreneurs creating transformative companies solving the biggest challenges facing humanity. In addition, the foundation has launched two initiatives seeking to reduce global corruption and democratizing and spreading personal growth tools leveraging technology.
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GULNAZ KHUSAINOVA Gulnaz Khusainova is the Founder and CEO of EasySize. EasySize is a machine learning platform analysing return behaviour of shoppers and decreasing returns in e-commerce. Originally from Russia she now lives in Copenhagen. She founded her first startup at the age of 19 and prior to EasySize, she was a founder and a CEO of 2 more startups in e-commerce, technology and mobile. Gulnaz holds MSc in Strategic marketing and has an experience in big data technologies while working in banking and finance.
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HAMPUS JAKOBSSON Hampus co-founded TAT (acquired by Blackberry for $150m), ran M&A Blackberry for two years after the acquisition, left and co-founded AI startup Brisk (folded after 4 years). On the side, he co-founded startup community MalmรถStartups and startup co-working place The Ground (100+ people), and co-founded angel group NordicMakers.vc. Hampus is now Venture Partner at Blueyard and an angel investor (to date 70+ startups). He loves learning and helping ambitious people with interesting problems.
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HELGA VALFELLS, HEKLA ARNARDÓTTIR and JENNÝ RUTH HRAFNSDÓTTIR Crowberry Capital is an early stage VC fund founded by former NSA Ventures veterans Helga Valfells, Hekla Arnardóttir and Jenný Ruth Hrafnsdóttir in 2017, based in Iceland and investing across the Nordics. Crowberry Capital is the first Nordic VC firm with all female Partners. Helga has been involved in Venture Capital since 2009. Prior to founding Crowberry Helga was the CEO of NSA Ventures from 2010 to 2017 and Chairman of the Board of Frumtak. During her tenure at NSA she had overall responsibility for a total of 51 investments at all stages of funding. Hekla has been in venture capital for 7 years, first as an investment manager at an independent evergreen fund where she has been on the board of 13 tech startups, working passionately for their international success. Jenny has served on number of startup boards and was on the management team of an US based Health Tech company BionX. BionX spun out of the MIT MediaLab, around Dr. Hugh Herr´s vision for man-mashine interfaces. It was sold to Otto Bock, a German Medical Device company in 2016.
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HILMAR VEIGAR PÉTURSSON Hilmar has been leading CCP Games’ ongoing success and growth since his appointment as CEO in 2004. Before his appointment to the CEO position, Hilmar held the title of CCP’s Chief Technical Officer, heading the engineering effort required to create the company’s persistent world technology and 3D engine. Under Hilmar’s management CCP’s critically acclaimed science-fiction game EVE Online celebrated an unprecedented ten consecutive years of subscriber growth. In addition, Hilmar has put CCP into the pole position in the VR revolution by embracing the new technology early. The company released virtual-reality arcade shooter Gunjack for the Samsung Gear VR in 2015, which has been the best-selling game on the platform since launch. Prior to joining CCP in 2000, he served as the CTO of SmartVR, an OZ.com spin-off based on that company’s multi-user virtual reality technology following his tenure as the VP of software development for the OZ Studios division of OZ.com.
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HJALMAR WINBLADH Hjalmar Winbladh is Partner at EQT Ventures and a seven-time entrepreneur. The multi-stage ₏566 million EQT Ventures fund invests fast-growing, innovative and technology-driven companies across all industries, with a primary focus on Europe. Prior to starting EQT Ventures, Hjalmar supported EQT Partners for several years as a key Industrial Advisor within the TMT segment. Hjalmar founded SendIt in 1994 - one of world’s first developers of mobile internet technology, including the first cloud mobile mail service. In 1997 SendIt listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and was later acquired by Microsoft in 1999. Additionally, Hjalmar was the co-founder of Wrapp, Rebtel, Sinch, Epidemic Sound and Pedal. He has achieved a number of successful exits for the companies he has founded, including an IPO and two trade sales to publicly listed companies.
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HRH CROWN PRINCE HAAKON His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, has become one of the most important ambassadors for the Norwegian tech scene and ecosystem. His personal involvement can be measured by his participation at events such as Slush, the Norwegian Classroom at BETT, Startup Extreme, Oslo Innovation Week as well as his many visits to companies and smaller startup events in Norway. The Crown Prince’s engagement is also crucial when it comes to displaying the startups as part of official delegations, and for lifting the image of the tech startups in a country in search of new revenue after the recent decline of the oil price. Norway is lucky to have a future King who not only uses his position to display the companies but who has a deep understanding of the subject. This understanding was clearly showcased in a one-on-one interview with the Nordic Web, and through the Crown Prince’s own presentations – for instance during the opening of Startup Extreme in 2016.
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IDA TIN Ida Tin is the CEO and co-founder of female health tracking app, Clue. Born in Copenhagen, Ida graduated from Denmark’s prestigious creative business school, the KaosPilots. A lifelong entrepreneur, she previously led motorcycle tours around the world and published a book about her experience, “Direktøs” which became a Danish bestseller. Ida is recognized for coining the term “Femtech” to describe the sector of technology focused on improving women’s health.
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ILKKA KIVIMĂ„KI Ilkka started his career at Kone Elevators, but moved on to found PC-Superstore and was Co-Founder and CEO at SAP Labs Finland. As the Co-Founder of Wicom Communications, he ran the company as the CEO until 2007. He served as Senior Vice President at SAP, and he was in charge of the communications product portfolio globally. After three years at SAP, he returned to revitalize the startup and growth company scene in Finland. IIkka served as Head Coach of Startup Sauna and is the Founding Chairman of the Startup Sauna Foundation. He serves as the Board Member of the Growth Team of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries. IIkka is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in running high-growth technology companies.
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IIKKA PAANANEN Ilkka Paananen is the CEO and co-founder of Supercell, the Helsinki-based mobile games developer behind Clash of Clans, Hay Day, Boom Beach and Clash Royale. Since its founding in 2010, Supercell’s four games have amassed 100m daily players and have remained in the global top 10 years after launch. In June 2016, Supercell became the first European technology start-up to reach a valuation of $10 billion. In addition to his role at Supercell, Ilkka helps other entrepreneurs as both an investor and as an active member of the Helsinki-based startup community where he mentors and coaches other founders. Alongside his co-founder Mikko Kodisoja, he has established the We Foundation to fight social inequality and help marginalized children and families in Finland. Prior to founding Supercell, he was the CEO & co-founder of Finnish games developer Sumea, which was later acquired by Digital Chocolate, where he worked as President until 2010.
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ISABELLE RINGNES Isabelle Ringnes founded TENK in 2015, a Technology Network for Women aiming to inspire women and girls to lean in and contribute to shaping our world’s future with technology. In two years, TENK has reached and spoken to thousands of women, toured Norway to speak to more than 4000 high school girls with NHO, co-established an annual national Girl Tech Fest teaching middle school girls coding in addition to a Tech- Summer Camp for girls. Isabelle played a key role in establishing #Hunspanderer in 2015, an organization focused on gender equality by addressing subtle discrimination and gender stereotypes. Following two successful campaigns in Norway, both reaching more than one million people and engaging multiple CEOs of Norway’s largest companies to address the issue, she is now the organizations’ digital director helping launch globally under the hashtag #ShesGotThis.
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JAN ERIK SOLEM Jan Erik Solem is the CEO of Mapillary and is passionate about all things computer vision. Prior to co-founding Mapillary in 2013, he founded Polar Rose, a face recognition software for mobile and web which Apple bought in 2010. He worked as a computer vision team leader and researcher at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, CA. He is a former professor, a WEF Technology Pioneer (twice), and the author of a best selling computer vision book
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JANE WALERUD Jane Walerud is a serial tech entrepreneur who has worked with 14 startups, including the successes Bluetail, Klarna and Lensway, and Tobii. She is a Honorary Doctor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Gold Medal recipient at the Royal Academy of Science (IVA), member of the Swedish Startup Hall of Fame, board member of the investment firm Creades, member of the Swedish Government Innovation Council, Chair of Satcube, Board member at Racefox, and Startup Fintech Course Leader at STING. In 2016, she joined forces with her daughter Caroline, a successful tech entrepreneur who co-founded Volumental, and her husband Bengt, a successful entrepreneur in management consulting, in Walerud Ventures, which joins very early stage deep tech startups.
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JESSICA BLECHINGBERG Jessica Blechingberg has been taking care of the Nordic Operations at Slush since 2016. She is also an active initiator of #NordicMade – the community-based movement that promotes awareness of the Nordic tech ecosystem, startups, and new ideas. Jessica joined the Slush team in 2014 and, has ever since, been part of the marketing and global operations team of Slush. As Slush plays a vital role in the Nordic ecosystem, her area of responsibility is to take care of the Nordic Community of Slush and her Nordic heart beats truly in terms of uniting the Nordic tech communities. Jessica has been organising trips for Nordic founders and hub managers to Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, San Francisco and New York. Besides strengthening the ties between the Nordic hubs the trips has also served for the Nordic founders to accelerate their businesses by showcasing them to local venture capitalists and tech media.
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JESSICA SCHULTZ Jessica is today a Partner at venture capital firm Northzone. Northzone has to date raised eight funds and invested in more than 100 technology companies. Jessica focuses on the consumer sector, with a special passion for ecommerce and marketplaces. Her portfolio companies at Northzone include Lesara, NA-KD, Klarna, Matsmart, Lemoncat, Outfittery and Fyndiq. Jessica is also a board member of Swedish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association. Before joining Northzone, Jessica co-founded HelloFresh, the global meal kit delivery service with market-leading operations in eleven markets. At HelloFresh, Jessica was Global CMO and spearheaded the global marketing operation. HelloFresh is today listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the company has an annual revenue run-rate of USD 500m and 3000 employees. HelloFresh was awarded the fastest growing European company by the Financial Times in 2017.
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JOEL HELLERMARK An enterprising child, Joel taught himself to code in C at age 13 and founded his first company, a video recommendation technology, at 16. While a senior in high school, Joel developed the initial Sana algorithm. Although it was only the seed of what Sana would become, the technology received widespread attention from world-class investors, advisors and artificial intelligence researchers. Subsequently, at age 20, Joel raised $1M from some of Europe’s most prominent investors to bring Sana to the world. Today the Sana team is made up of engineers and scientists from the likes of Google, CERN, and Imperial College. Recently, Joel was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” by SEB for his work on the Sana algorithm
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JOHAN ATTBY Johan Attby is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for building game changing businesses. He founded the b2b software company Tific and took it all the way from an idea and raising venture capital to a highly profitable company with global customers such as Symantec and Microsoft. In 2011 he got his first exit when the company was acquired by Plumchoice, Inc. After that the co-founded Fishbrain which is the world’s fastest growing mobile app & social network for the world’s biggest hobby - sport fishing. Today Fishbrain has more than 4.5 millions users globally and raised $12M in venture capital from investors such as Northzone, Industrifonden and Active Venture Partners. In 2015 Johan was awarded “Founder of the year” in Sweden by Nordic Startup Awards. Johan is also an angel investor, advisor to and board member at early stage hi-tech companies and a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and startups.
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JOHAN BAKKEN and TOBIAS BÆCK Johan Bakken and Tobias Bæck started Bakken & Bæck with a mission to help startups design and build digital products and services. In a short time, the company has opened offices in Oslo, Bonn and Amsterdam, and now employs more than 40 designers and engineers from more than 15 different countries. The agency has worked with some of the biggest startups in the Nordic ecosystem, including Kahoot!, Kolonial and Acano. About half of the clients are based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes a close relationship with Coinbase which recently raised $100M at a $1.6B valuation. Bakken & Bæck arguably employs one of the strongest teams in the Nordics of designers and developers, including an experienced Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence team. As a result of this, they launched the first robot journalist in Norway in collaboration with NTB. Bakken & Bæck also invests in startups and works for equity. They even spun out a couple of startups of their own, including Wake, which now employs a team of 12 in San Francisco and has a long list of happy clients like IBM, Airbnb, Facebook and Spotify.
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JOHAN BRAND Johan is dedicated to help build organisations, businesses and the startup ecosystem in the Nordics. He is a founder, mentor, advisor, angel investor and thought leader. He co-founded Kahoot!, one of the world’s fastest growing learning brands, used by millions each day in over 180 countries. He was CEO of Kahoot! until fall 2016 and left day to day operations in the spring 2017. Under his leadership Kahoot! grew from a research project to cultural phenomena that capture over a 1/3rd of US classrooms each month and millions of business users. Johan is the captain and founder of EntrepreneurShipOne, a unique zero emission pay it forward platform for the Nordic startup community. He co-founded and is a partner at We Are Human, a venture partner for purpose driven organisations striving for social and commercial impact.
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JOHAN BRENNER Johan is one of Europe’s most experienced venture capital investors having worked across a broad set of industries globally, built a number of successful businesses as an entrepreneur, and as Partner in leading venture capital firms. As an entrepreneur and angel investor, Johan first co-founded eTrade in the Nordics before selling it to ETrade and then running ETrade’s European business. He was an angel investor and COB of Jobline, which became Europe’s largest Online Recruiter, went public and sold to Monster Inc. He co-founded Tradera which was bought by eBay. He was an angel investor and COB of DIBS until it went public and co-founded Payson which was sold to Svea Ekonomi. He also co-founded Livebookings, Europe’s largest restaurant reservation management system. He has been early investor in several other companies like the online insurance broker Insplanet, and the dental chain Smile Group, the largest Nordic private dental chain. Before Creandum, Johan spent more than 4 years as a General Partner at Balderton Capital (previously Benchmark Capital Europe) with investments in companies like MySQL, Rebtel, Zopa, Habbo Hotel and Wonga.
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JON STEPHENSON VON TETZCHNER An industry pioneer and browser visionary, Jon von Tetzchner is co-founder and CEO of Vivaldi Technologies, the company behind the Vivaldi web browser and other services for the web’s most demanding and savviest users. Co-founding Opera Software where he served as CEO for 15 years, Jon steered Opera from a small basement nook into a global company with more than 750 employees in 13 countries. Under his leadership, Opera was an early pioneer in mobile web browsing, and more than 350 million people now use Opera to enjoy the web on their terms. After Opera, Jon decided to give back by helping other entrepreneurs realise their dreams. He invests in promising start-ups in Norway, the U.S. and in his native Iceland. To provide further support for these growing companies, Jon established Innovation House, unique co-working spaces located in Reykjavik and Boston.
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THE NORDIC 100
JONAS NORDLANDER and FILIP ENGELBERT Swedes Jonas and Filip are the co-founders of Avito, one of the largest online destinations in Russia, and the second largest classifieds site in the world. In 2015, Avito was acquired by Naspers for $1 billion+ making Jonas and Filip two of the most successful entrepreneurs to come out of the Nordics in the last few years. Subsequently, Jonas and Filip have used some of their newfound liquidity to start injecting their capital and knowledge back into the ecosystem and are now two of the most prolific angel investors in Sweden, amplifying their recent impact on the region even further.
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THE NORDIC 100
KAJ HED Earlier this year, Rovio went public at a $1 million market cap, officially making it the latest billion dollar exit to originate from the Nordics. Makers of the hit game Angry Birds, Rovio’s games have been downloaded 3,7 billion times, and are currently played by some 80 million people each month. One man benefited more than others when the company did go public, co-founder Niklas Hedman’s uncle Kaj Hed. Kaj Hed owned some 70% of the company when they floated. Little is known about Kaj Hed, he almost never gives interviews, preferring his son and other members of Rovio’s management team to get the limelight. We’ve honoured his preference for privacy with our photo choice.
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KAREN DOLVA Karen Dolva is CEO and cĂĽo-founder of No Isolation, an Oslo-based startup founded in October 2015, with the goal of reducing involuntary social solitude. Its first product, a physical avatar called AV1, was designed to help children and young adults, forced by illness to take extended time away from school, to maintain a presence in the classroom, communicate with friends, and socialise. Before co-founding No Isolation, Karen studied Computer Science and Interaction Design at the University of Oslo, the highest ranked institution for education and research in Norway. During her studies, Karen began her career at StartupLab Oslo, and went on to co-found UX Lab - a user experience consultancy, created to help companies with user testing and the designing of digital user experiences.
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THE NORDIC 100
KAROLINA MILLER Karolina Miller is CEO at Startup Sauna, a zero-equity accelerator based in Helsinki. Originally from the Soviet Union, Karolina has been working relentlessly in order to strengthen connections between Finnish tech scene and Eastern European and Russian hubs. Prior to Startup Sauna, Karolina was working as a freelance journalist writing for the biggest Finnish media outlets.
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KIM BALLE Since 2012 Kim has been working very hard to make Nordic Startup Awards a platform for involvement of stakeholders from the entire Nordics through the competition framework and to bring people from the ecosystem together physically though events. The framework which came from Nordic Startup Awards has now been implemented in Central Europe, Southeast Asia and South Asia (India + SAARC countries). Next year Kim will lead anl expansion to East Asia (+China) and Southern Africa (8 countries). This provides a global network which through the global competition and events can connect the most impactful Nordic stakeholders with stakeholders from the rest of the world.
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KLAUS NYENGAARD Klaus has been in the tech space for more than 20 years, mainly on the entrepreneurial side. He has been involved as a leading figure in three major European startups incl. JUST EAT, and is today chairman & exec of his own startup, GenieBelt, a leading ConTech company as well as being chairman for a couple of other companies, e.g. Treatwell, the London based 500 man online marketplace for local beauty services. Furthermore, Klaus is an investment partner in Nordic Makers as well as initiator and chairman of the biggest Danish tech startup event, TechBBQ.
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THE NORDIC 100
LAILA PAWLAK Laila Pawlak is the Co-Founder & CEO of SingularityU Denmark and faculty member at Singularity University in Silicon Valley. As CEO of SingularityU Denmark, Laila heads up the 5000m2 campus in Copenhagen Science City that offers a variety of education programs, accelerators, makerspace as well as a co-working space for both startups and corporates leveraging exponential technologies to scale positive impact. Among others she has launched the highly successful accelerator thinkubator; a corporate, crowdfunded accelerator program that helps corporates work with entrepreneurs and establish their own incubator to kick-start innovation, leverage technology and deep dive into the exponential mindset. Similarly, she co-founded the award winning innovation hub DARE2mansion, a professional playground in Copenhagen, which serves as an incubator, coworking and event space where entrepreneurs, businesses and academia come together to create disruptive businesses and scale positive impact. Laila is also an active angel investor, board member and advisor to politicians and organizations through numerous appointed positions.
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THE NORDIC 100
LAUGA OSKARSDOTTIR Born in Iceland, raised in Norway, Lauga was schooled at Berkeley in New York in International Business Management and as an international background in marketing and sales management. Lauga is currently Head of the Lab at StartupLab in Oslo, an incubator and early stage investor for technology startups, located in Oslo Science Park. They house 82 ambitious tech startups and help connect them with founder-friendly capital, clients, talent and advisors to help accelerate their growth. Previously, Lauga was the Co-founder and CMO of SuitMe, an Icelandic company that develops size recommendation software as well as being co-founder and GM of United Bloggers.
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THE NORDIC 100
LINDA LIUKAS Linda is the author & illustrator of Hello Ruby, a children’s book series about the whimsical world of computers published in 23 languages and the founder of Rails Girls, a movement to teach women programming in 260 cities. She loves software and sparkly things. Currently she is a TED Resident in New York.
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THE NORDIC 100
MADDY SAVAGE Maddy Savage is an award-winning BBC contributor and podcaster who focuses on covering personal stories and trends from the Nordic tech scene. Previously a BBC staff presenter and reporter in London, she relocated to Stockholm in 2014 after falling in love with Scandinavia during a number of reporting assignments. Maddy hosts The Stockholmer podcast, interviewing top influencers in the Swedish capital Launched in 2016, the programme is in its third season and has listeners in more than 40 countries. Alongside her podcast, Maddy reports on Nordic tech in a freelance capacity for global media including BBC, Monocle and Business Insider. Her growing interest in the Nordic startup scene has led her to moderate discussions at numerous tech events in 2017 including Stockholm’s Women in Tech, Startup Day and the Nordic Female Investor Meeting in MalmÜ.
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THE NORDIC 100
MAJA ADRIAENSEN Maja is currently CEO and founding partner in Angel Challenge, which is a spin-off from Startup Norway that she founded back in 2012. Maja has been engaged in building the Norwegian startup scene for the last 7 years. She has been a driving force on putting the Norwegian startup community on the global stage and contributed to the growth of the Norwegian scene and culture. Startup Norway has held more than 300+ entrepreneurship and investor events since it’s beginning - ranging from low entry events as Startup Weekends to big events such as Startup Extreme that she created together with Stina Liland & Yvonne Edseth in 2015. In 2016 - after years of working with startups, it was time to also engage the investor side of the startup scene and she founded Angel Challenge together with Knut Wien. Maja holds a masters in finance from NHH and is one of the few highly educated economists in Norway choosing the entrepreneurship track in 2010 after her studies. She is also on the board of SIVA, one of the 3 main governmental startup support organisations in Norway on besides Innovation Norway & Forskningsrüdet.
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MARAL KALAJIAN Maral was tweeting about the Stockholm tech scene before it was cool. Maral loves supporting founders and is currently dedicating herself to three main initiatives. Maral heads up marketing at Watty, an AI startup that helps you make smart energy decisions and keeps your home & family safe by understanding your energy use. In addition, she is organising and driving SUP46 Femtech forward, mentoring women in the tech scene as well as helping newcomers to Stockholm on how to get started, who to contact and how to find jobs. Maral has been an inspiration to many in the Stockholm startup scene and continues to be so.
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THE NORDIC 100
MARGRETHE VESTAGER Margrethe Vestager is a Danish politician, who is currently serving as the European Commissioner for Competition. In this role it has been said that her decisions on Google, Apple and Facebook will shape the future of technology, potentially making her the Nordic’s most powerful individual in the global tech ecosystem. Earlier this year Alphabet (formerly Google) announced it had agreed to pay a $2.7 billion fine based on the European Commission claim that Google breached antitrust rules and two months later Vestager ordered Amazon to pay ₏250 million of back taxes.
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MARIA DE LA CROIX Maria De La Croix is 28, has a background in fine arts and hails from above the polar circle in Sweden. She is the co-founder of Wheelys - a global chain of organic bike cafés and mobile shops. Enabling anyone to become their own boss. Wheelys was hosted at Y Combinator in 2015 and is currently the fastest growing café chain in the world. Maria has been featured in global business media like Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur and Fast Company. She has extensive marketing experience working with many of the biggest Scandinavian brands together with companies like The Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery and Studio Total. Or as Devin Thorpe in Forbes puts it: “Maria De La Croix may one day prove to be the biggest mistake Starbucks ever made”.
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MARIA RITOLA Maria Ritola is a Finnish entrepreneur and researcher driven by impact and curiosity. Currently she spends her time building Iris.ai, a company that she founded with her friends at NASA Ames Research Centre to accelerate the process of scientific discovery. In short, Iris.ai is a tech startup on its way to build a moonshot of an AI researcher. Maria has graduated from Singularity University. Prior to Iris, she co-founded Peloton Club, the Nordic community and early-stage accelerator for startups working on smart energy solutions. Research articles she has co-authored have been published e.g. in MIT Media Press and Futures. Earlier this year Maria received the Outstanding Young Person of The Year award in Finland.
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MARIANNE VIKKULA Marianne is the CEO at Slush, the leading startup and technology event in Europe and Asia. She’s been part of the team since 2013 running finance and sales prior to working as the CEO. With 17,500 attendees and top quality speakers from across the world flying in, Slush plays a vital role in the Nordic ecosystem, and under Marianne’s leadership it is not only continuing to expand internationally but is also doubling-down its efforts to support the local region.
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MARTA SJÖGREN Marta Sjögren is an investor with Northzone, focusing on early stage companies. With over USD 1.2 billion under management and a twenty-year track record as early backers of companies such as Spotify, Trustpilot, Avito, Lesara, iZettle, Zopa, and Klarna, Northzone is a leading European venture capital firm with a significant presence in New York. Marta’s areas of interest include gaming, edtech, HR-tech, healthtech, and security. Marta works closely with a number of Northzone’s portfolio companies at a Board level, including Labster, Aevy, HappyOrNot, Zervant, Seriously, BehavioSec, and Sqore. Marta’s debut into venture capital resulted from a passion for innovation and a desire to make an impact in the world. Prior to joining Northzone, Marta was an investor with DN Capital, a London/Palo Alto based VC firm, where she worked on investments in the music, fintech, and classifieds verticals, including supporting investments in companies such as Shazam, OLX, and TBricks.
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MARTIN FERRO-THOMSEN Martin Ferro-Thomsen is the founder and CEO of Conferize, an online platform reshaping events in the 21st century. Conferize is used by thousands of event organizers in more than 120 countries to create more meaningful and engaging events and communities. Conferize is an official TEDx partner worldwide and is considered the best networking platform for professional events by Forbes, selected above LinkedIn and Twitter. In 2017 Martin took Conferize public on Nasdaq, effectively democratizing venture capital together with more than 1,200 investors. Martin is also a co-founder of the leading digital publishing service Issuu, a Time.com Best Website serving billions of pages for 100 million users every month. FastCompany named Issuu the 4th most influential tech startup on the web.
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MARTIN HAUGE Martin is currently the chairman of Frog Capital. Previously, Martin was one of the key partners at Nordic venture capital firm, Creandum, best known for its investments in Vivino, Spotify and iZettle. Prior to Creandum, Mr. Hauge had more than 15 years of operational experience as a founder and CEO. Mr. Hauge’s entrepreneurial journey includes the co-founding of Creuna with a friend in his Copenhagen kitchen, which is today the largest digital agency in the Nordics. In addition Martin is also an investor and Chairman in Norwegian startups Vibbio and No Isolation, the Managing Partner of Fluent Digital and a former board member of Vivino and Automile.
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THE NORDIC 100
MATTHEW SMITH Having been through several investment rounds both as a VC and founder, Matt realised that every investment is equally reliant on good investors as it is on good startups. Yet there is an imbalance in most startup ecosystems. There are countless initiatives geared for making startups succeed and become investor ready, but very little emphasis or support towards making investors ready. At Angel Challenge Matt’s mission is to introduce, educate and inspire first time Angel Investors to the world of startup investing. Through a 2-month program, they build knowledge and best practices whilst making their first investment. To date, they have run 13 programs across 5 cities in Norway. Introduced and educated 250 new Angel Investors into the Norwegian startup ecosystem. In the last 2 years, these investors have mentored 300+ companies and injected over $5M of new early-stage capital into Norwegian companies. In 2016 their Angels were the catalysts behind 1/3 of all investments under $500K across Norway.
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THE NORDIC 100
MICHAEL BAK Michael is the Managing Director of #CPHFTW, the grassroots organisation designed to assist and promote the Danish startup scene. As part of this role, Michael was also instrumental in putting on Techfestival, an event that attracted 16,000+ participants to Copenhagen earlier this year for a progressive conversation around the future of the technology industry. Previously, Michael co-founded and was CEO of Onomondo who developed advanced software solutions targeted at telecom operators to enable frictionless communication and borderless (cross-border roaming free) connectivity to the market. In addition, Michael is a board member of the Danish Crowdfunding Association.
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THE NORDIC 100
MIK STRØYBERG Scaling and expanding businesses with good honest people in a fast, yet healthy, and high-performing manner has been Mik’s recipe the last decade. Based out of New York since 2011 Mik has managed to alter the name of the Brooklyn area Williamsburg into “Little Scandinavia”. Since assisting the first company into foreign soil Mik has been the go-to-guy for ambitious companies that want to conquer new markets. Mik founded the turn-key market expansion platform, Lemonsqueeze, which got acquired by Knotel. Mik also founded The Brass Factory and Lemonsqueeze Space (Incubator and co-working space), TAYLR (E-commerce) and Sweetdeal (Social Commerce). Lastly, Mik founded JUMBO (jum8o.com), a joint venture created by The Bjarke Ingels Group and Mik’s Mikro Invest with a mission to make great things happen to passionate people within design and tech.
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MIKI KUUSI Miki Kuusi is the CEO and co-founder of the Nordic tech company Wolt. Founded in fall 2014, Wolt has raised EUR 15 million in funding to define how the internet should change the way people discover and get great food. Previously, Miki ran Slush as co-founder & CEO, where he oversaw the event’s growth from a local, 300-person gathering in Helsinki to one of the leading tech and investor events in the world attended by more than 30,000 people annually, expanding across Europe and Asia. Wired listed Miki as #32 on their top technology influencers in Europe for 2015, while Forbes featured Miki on their 30 under 30 list for 2016.
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THE NORDIC 100
MIKKEL SVANE Mikkel Svane is the CEO and founder of Zendesk. He started the company with Morten Primdahl and Alexander Aghassipour to make great customer service available to everyone and create software that people love to use. Today, he leads Zendesk’s global operations and business strategy with those same goals in mind. A Dane-turned-San Franciscan, Mikkel in 2009 moved the company from Copenhagen to San Francisco. He keeps Zendesk’s Danish design roots at the center of the product while growing the number of people using it to hundreds of millions worldwide. During his earlier time in Denmark, Mikkel led a service-management consulting group, founded and served as the CEO of Caput, a software company for online community, served as a technology consultant, and launched Denmark’s first community portal.
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THE NORDIC 100
MORTEN LUND Morten Lund is a serial entrepreneur and investor based in Copenhagen, Denmark who has founded or co-invested in more than 100 high-tech start ups in the last 15 years, including Skype, ZYB, Zecco.com, Polar Rose, Maxthon, Bullguard, Tradeshift, AirHelp, Itembase, LundXY and OnlyXO. These days Morten is focusing on two ventures in particular; Hippocorn, helping startups and established firms move in the right direction, by connecting them with investors and specialist advisors from around the world and Poshtel, producing boutique hostels and affordably posh hotels from shipping containers.
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THE NORDIC 100
NATALIA BRZEZINSKI As the CEO of Symposium Stockholm and the Brilliant Minds Foundation, Natalia curates a global community of creative entrepreneurs who want to make change and cutting-edge innovation together. Natalia is an experienced moderator, journalist, and communications strategist focused on building dynamic dialogue across numerous sectors and cultures. She has held senior roles in the U.S. Senate Press Office for Senator John Kerry, to The Huffington Post, to the U.S. Embassy in Sweden and is a Senior International advisor to Kreab, a strategic communications and public affairs firm headquartered in Stockholm with a global footprint in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Natalia is also the host of the new weekly podcast series, The Brilliant Minds Podcast and a Global-Editor-at-Large at Thrive, the new lifestyle and media platform launched by Arianna Huffington. She has been blogging for The Huffington Post in 2009 on Millennials and generation change, social entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment with a strong focus on Sweden and the Nordic region.
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THE NORDIC 100
NIKLAS ADALBERTH Niklas is the co-founder and chairman of Norrsken Foundation, a non-profit foundation combining entrepreneurship, technology and venture capital to maximize social good. Niklas has also been an active angel investor and is now investing through a 300MSEK fund that Norrsken has raised investing in transformative companies solving the biggest challenges facing humanity. Previously, Niklas was one of the co-founders of Klarna, the leading European payments company with investors such as Sequoia, Atomico, and General Atlantic. Niklas has a master’s degree in international business from the Stockholm School of Economics, where he founded Klarna together with his two co-founders, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO, and Victor Jacobsson.
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THE NORDIC 100
NEIL S W MURRAY Neil S W Murray is the founder of The Nordic Web, the number one resource for data-driven analysis on the Nordic tech and startup scene. The Nordic Web is relied on by the regions’ and Europe’s most prominent investors and entrepreneurs for dealflow and intelligence. In addition, Neil is an active angel investor, writing first cheques into the most ambitious Nordic startups, as well as being a committed community builder, most notably through #NordicMade.
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THE NORDIC 100
NIKLAS ZENNSTRĂ–M and MATTIAS LJUNGMAN Niklas ZennstrĂśm and Mattias Ljungman are the founding partners of Atomico. Atomico has partnered with and supported a growing number of highly successful technology companies, including Supercell, Klarna, Rovio, ofo and many more. It raised its fourth fund in 2016, which was the largest independent venture capital fund ever raised in Europe. Niklas is an experienced technology investor and entrepreneur, having previously co-founded and managed globally successful technology companies including Skype, Kazaa and Joltid. He sits on the boards of Rovio, Mapillary, Pipedrive, Truecaller and Farmdrop. Niklas is most excited about founders that are solving major world problems using digital technology. During his time at Atomico, Mattias has been involved in exits or substantial transactions for companies including Supercell (multi-billion sale to SoftBank over two transactions in 2013 and 2015), 6Wunderkinder (acquired by Microsoft in 2015), The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for $1.1B in 2013), Xobni (acquired by Yahoo! in 2013), Massive Media (acquired by Meetic in 2012) and Power Reviews (acquired by Bazaarvoice in 2012).
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NIKOLAJ NYHOLM Nikolaj is founder & CEO at esports platform RFRSH Entertainment and former General Partner of Sunstone. Prior to Sunstone, he co-founded Polar Rose (Apple), Imity (Zyb/Vodafone), Organic Network, and Speednames (Group NBT). Nikolaj was an advisor to Mojang (Minecraft) from founding through to the sale to Microsoft.
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THE NORDIC 100
NILS-ERIK JANSSON Nils-Erik is a legal tech entrepreneur and the CEO of Precisely, making contracts smart. In 2006, Nils-Erik went to law school and realised that the legal sector lacked focus on how to use technology to align business with law. He wrote ‘Digital Legal Process’ on a (ironically) physical binder. The intellectual process had begun and a couple of years later he founded the startup law firm Jansson & Norin. Nils-Erik – alongside with his partner Johan – identified how inefficient the manual contract management process was for many companies. Precisely was born in 2014 and won Sweden’s biggest competition for business plans, Venture Cup.
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THE NORDIC 100
PÄR-JÖRGEN PÄRSON Pär-Jörgen (PJ) Pärson is a General Partner at Northzone. PJ led Spotify’s A-round for Northzone in 2008 and served on the Board of Directors for nine years. He also led the fund’s investment in Russian online classifieds site Avito.ru which was sold to Naspers at a $2.7bn valuation in 2015, in one of the Europe’s largest venture-backed tech transactions of that year. PJ’s current board positions include live sports video service Fubo.tv and ad-tech company Sourcepoint, both based in New York, iZettle, Soundtrack Your Brand, and Bloglovin’. Previous investments include Pricerunner.com, Videoplaza, X5 Music Group and Jasper Design Automation. Now heading up Northzone’s New York office, PJ focuses on bridging the gap between the European and East Coast ecosystems, investing in companies on both sides of the pond and supporting them in achieving global growth.
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PAUL BRAGIEL Paul Bragiel is a 3 time entrepreneur that is the founder of Bragiel Brothers, an early stage fund in Silicon Valley. He also sits on the advisory board of the car-sharing service Uber. Collectively he’s invested in seed rounds of over 150+ companies which includes holdings in other billion dollar companies like Unity & Zappos. In addition to his work in the US he has started regional funds in Africa (Savannah Fund) & Asia (Golden Gate Ventures) and vertical funds in gaming (Sisu) & VR (Presence). Through Sisu, he has invested in 20+ Nordic gaming companies, making him one of the most active gaming investors in the region. In addition, Paul is currently advising the countries of Colombia, Estonia & Malaysia on their technology and entrepreneurship policies.
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THE NORDIC 100
PETER CARLSSON After five years at Elon Musk’s side, serving as the CPO of Tesla, Peter Carlsson is back in Sweden to start his own gigafactory, with a venture called Northvolt. The goal is to produce the next generation lithium ion batteries, at half the current price. The Stockholm-based company wants to raise 1 billion euros by 2018, when it plans to break ground on a factory during the second half of the year. Peter joined Tesla from NXP Semiconductors where he was responsible for purchasing and outsourcing. As CPO, he took the purchase organization from a tactical decentralized structure to a strategic global commodity organization. Before starting at NXP, Peter was CPO at Sony Ericsson. Peter had a total of 13 years experience from different roles with Ericsson and Sony Ericsson in Sweden and the US. He led the team that built and implemented Ericsson’s framework for Supplier Quality Assurance.
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THE NORDIC 100
PETER SUNDE Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, alias brokep, is a Swedish entrepreneur and politician. Sunde is of Norwegian and Finnish ancestry. He is best known for being a co-founder and ex-spokesperson of The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent search engine. He is an equality advocate and has expressed concerns over issues of centralization of power to the European Union in his blog. Sunde also participates in the Pirate Party of Finland and describes himself as a socialist. As of April 2017, Sunde has been working on a new venture called Njalla, a privacy oriented domain name registrar. In addition, Peter is the co-founder of Flattr, a micropayments startup which enables viewers of websites to make small donations to the developer. Adblock Plus publisher Eyeo acquired Flattr earlier this year.
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PETER VESTERBACKA Peter Vesterbacka is an entrepreneur from the Heart of Eurasia, Helsinki, Finland. Branded communities co-created and initiated by Peter include the HP Bazaar, Mobile Monday, Slush and Startup Sauna to name a few. He was the Mighty Eagle at Angry Birds for many years taking that brand to unprecedented heights. In 2011 Time Magazine named Peter one of the 100 most influential people on the planet.
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THE NORDIC 100
PIA ELLA ELMEGĂ…RD Pia is an entrepreneur & community builder by heart, and has been building initiatives supporting the tech startup ecosystem in Denmark and the Nordics and Baltics since 2010, as well as co-founding a media company on startups and digital entrepreneurs. Pia has extensive experience with people management, strategic messaging, brand positioning and event management from co-initiating projects and companies, and consulting and advising startups and startup founders. Projects include #NordicMade, TechBBQ, NordicAI, TechFamily & Znergy
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THE NORDIC 100
RICCARDO ZACCONI Riccardo Zacconi is one of King’s founders and has served on their Board of Directors and as their chief executive officer since March 2003. With over 20 years of experience in strategic management, consulting and e-commerce, Riccardo brings exceptional knowledge and expertise to both the social and casual gaming domains. Previously, Riccardo served as vice president of European Sales and Marketing at uDate.com Ltd., an online dating service, and was involved in driving market penetration and partnerships until the company was acquired by InterActive Corporation in 2002. Before that, he was managing director for Spray Network GmbH an online portal based in Hamburg with a presence in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In addition, Riccardo has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital Partners.
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THE NORDIC 100
RIKU SEPPÄLÄ, LASSE LEHTINEN and ALEKSI PARTANEN Riku, Lasse and Aleksi are the founding partners of Icebreaker, a €14 million fund based out of Finland, with an interesting approach. An early-stage fund, it’s the type of people they are targeting that is particularly novel. By backing ‘pre-founders’ (a term favoured by Icebreaker) they are looking to provide capital and guidance to those that are on a different career path right now, for example, have been working for a corporate for five years, but have an idea for a startup and don’t know where to turn next or how to take that first step. Previously Riku was an investor at OpenOcean, Lasse founded Frontier Accelerator and Aleksi founded Nervogrid.
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THE NORDIC 100
RISTO SIILASMAA Risto Siilasmaa is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nokia. Under his tenure Nokia has successfully transformed from a mobile phone manufacturer to a leading communication technology company. Risto is also the founder of F-Secure Corporation and an entrepreneur at heart. He is also an active contributor in many European and Asian industry associations and public debate. He is the Chairman of the Board of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries and the Vice Chairman of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK). He is also a member of the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT), the Tsinghua SEM Advisory Board at Tsinghua University and the International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Beijing.
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SALÓME GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR Salome is the CEO of Icelandic Startups, a non-profit organisation, and the largest privately owned supporter of startups in Iceland. She is playing a pivotal role in ensuring that international VCs and media are also paying attention to the Nordic’s smallest country, by building connections across the region and giving Icelandic Startups a true International focus. Salome is a catalyst for regional cooperation. She is one of the initiators and active members of the NordicMade community-based movement, promoting world-wide awareness of the Nordic tech and startup ecosystem. Earlier this year she initiated a strategic partnership manifesto between Nordic Startup community leaders, aimed at formalizing and developing the vibrant exchange that is already taking place. If you are interested in navigating the Icelandic startup ecosystem, Salome is the one to guide you.
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THE NORDIC 100
SAM MYERS Sam is one of the most active venture investors in the Nordics, responsible for Balderton Capital’s investment in the region. Balderton is an early-stage fund investing in technology companies across the continent and run by some of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs and venture investors, having backed companies like MySQL, Kobalt Music, Recorded Future, and Vivino. Over the past few years, Sam has become a well-known profile in the Nordic ecosystem and his efforts in the region have resulted in Balderton this year becoming one of the largest funders of Nordic-based technology companies, having led or co-led rounds totalling nearly $50M year-todate. He spends much of his time working with entrepreneurs in software, music, and education but also has special interests around innovation in healthcare, cyber security & transportation.
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THE NORDIC 100
SANDY ERRESTAD Sandy Errestad joined Minc, the startup house in Malmö, as their Comms Lead in September 2016 after having spent several years in London’s Tech City, working with the likes of TransferWise and Twilio, as well as at the startup PR agency Albion Drive. Sandy moved to Sweden to help put Malmö’s tech scene on the international map, and secured more than 150 articles in over 55 publications worldwide in her first ten months at Minc, reaching some 400 million readers. Since moving to Malmö, Sandy has coached 40+ startups in the Öresund region on how to gain attention from Swedish and international press.
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THE NORDIC 100
SEBASTIAN SIEMIATKOWSKI Sebastian Siemiatkowski is co-founder and CEO of Klarna, one of Europe’s main providers of payment solutions for ecommerce and one of Europe’s highest-valued unicorns. Sebastian and his two co-founders developed the idea for Klarna during a competition at the Stockholm School of Economics. He graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics with a master’s degree in economics and while at school founded the company with his co-founders. Sebastian has received multiple awards for his leadership including the “Rising Star of the Year” by Ernst & Young, “Leader of the Year” by Adecco, “Manager of Tomorrow” by Sweden’s leading Management Magazine and “European Entrepreneur of the Year Award” by TechTour.
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THE NORDIC 100
SISSEL HANSEN Sissel Hansen is the 25-year-old founder of the book series Startup Guide, often described as the Lonely Planet for entrepreneurs, and Startup Guide is today a creative media and self-publishing company. She created her first startup business when she was 17 years old. It failed, and in 2012 she moved to Berlin, wondering how to avoid making the same entrepreneurial mistakes and how to gather the information she needed to create a successful business in a new city. Over the next two years, she launched several small businesses to help provide knowledge and inspiration to young entrepreneurs. This was the seed of the Startup Guide, a guide to the local startup scene. The first book came out in 2014, and all 300 copies sold out in less than 24 hours. The Startup Guide is now in 16 cities, with 10 more in the works. In 2015, Hansen was nominated as a Female Entrepreneur of the Year and named one of the 100 most aspiring talents and young leaders in Denmark. This year EU-startups identified her as one the 50 most influential women in Europe’s startup and venture capital space.
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THE NORDIC 100
SOPHIA BENDZ Sophia is an Executive in Residence at Atomico. Based in Stockholm, she advises founders on communications and marketing strategy and scaling their brand. As an active player in Stockholm’s startup scene, Sophia also helps with sourcing and the evaluation of new investment opportunities. Sophia was the Global Marketing Director at Spotify from 2007-2014, where she built out a strong consumer brand from scratch, while launching and marketing the service globally. Today she is an active angel investor and advisor to startups, and serves as a Board Director at Avanza, Kindred Group and non-profit organization Race For The Baltic. She is also a co-founder of non-profit foundation AllBright.se and has invested in startups such as Tictail, Clue, DogBuddy, Shim, Joints Academy, Search Inc, Bokio, DigiExam, Greta.io, Scout, Brighten, Prion, Simple Feast, and Sana Labs. With hands on experience from building a brand and launching a product in 56+ markets and growing a team across different continents Sophia can relate to the joy and stress of life as an entrepreneur and CMO. The insights and experiences from her years at Spotify is something she’s happy to share as well as insights from the VC world on how to go about raising funds. 95
THE NORDIC 100
THARALD NUSTAD Tharald Nustad is a Norwegian serial entrepreneur and investor in the tech sector. He is the founder of Nordic Impact, a company that incubates and invests in social/environmental impact tech startups and impact funds. He is co-founder of Katapult Future Fest, an event focusing on technology, impact investing and the future society, and Katapult Accelerator, a leading accelerator for impact tech startups. Nordic impact is very active in the future of education, and how we can create the future we want to live in. Tharald is active in building the impact investing ecosystem in the Nordics, and is an active player in the startup scene. He works with Ashoka helping social entrepreneurs, is an active member of Toniic, a global impact investor network, and is co-chair for the impact investing group in Nexus. He also leads Mallin, a family office focusing on Impact real estate developments.
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THE NORDIC 100
THOMAS MADSEN-MYGDAL Thomas is a Danish designer, entrepreneur and activist behind companies like TwentyThree (where he is currently CEO), Podio and Mondo. He’s a successful angel investor with recent exits in Opbeat and Holvi, as well as being the first angel investor in Clue and a founding member of Nordic Makers, the angel collective. In addition, Thomas was one of the main instigators behind CPHFTW, the grassroots community run for and by startups in Copenhagen and Techfestival, where more than 16,000 humans gathered in Copenhagen to explore the impact of technology on our lives. Thomas is also well known for founding and running reboot festival, as well as founding the first web agency in the Nordics.
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THE NORDIC 100
THOMAS WALLE and KJARTAN SLETTE The Norwegian startup community is young and requires nurturing. Thomas Walle and Kjartan Slette were part of the founding team at TIDAL, acquired by Jay Z in 2015, and realized that they would not only go on to build another global company out of Norway but also that they would help build the Norwegian startup community itself. After TIDAL, Kjartan and Thomas co-founded Unacast - headquartered in NYC, leaders in their category, and one of the fastest growing Norwegian startups. Unacast built the Real World Graph™ to power a proprietary platform for real-world data so that other companies and industries can use accurate and transparent location and proximity data. Building a startup ecosystem is done best by building own companies, and in sharing that story frequently and honestly to the rest of the ecosystem, Thomas and Kjartan do both.
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THE NORDIC 100
THOR FRIDRIKSSON Thor Fridriksson is an Icelandic serial tech entrepreneur who founded Plain Vanilla and Teatime Games. Plain Vanilla released the hit trivia game QuizUp in 2013 and it became the fastest growing app on the App store with over 100M registered users. Thor has raised over $50M from top tier US VC funds such as Sequoia Capital, Greycroft and Index Ventures contributing greatly to the ever-growing tech scene in Iceland. Thor is currently the co-founder of Teatime Games a newly founded startup backed by Index Ventures. Teatime aims to reinvent social games on mobile. Thor is also an active investor in the Icelandic tech community and sits on a number of startup boards.
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THE NORDIC 100
TINE THYGESEN Tine Thygesen is a Danish entrepreneur who has played a key role in building the Danish and Nordic startup ecosystem. She is CEO of the Mesh, Founders House and Startup Village, where she is dedicated to building networks and space that empower nordic creators. She has started and led five companies and sits of the board of several companies and funds, and is an advisor to EU, Nordic Council of ministers and the Danish Government on entrepreneurship. She really likes trees and champagne.
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THE NORDIC 100
TOMMY AHLERS With three companies started and two solid exits to Vodafone and Citrix under his belt, Tommy is regarded a successful entrepreneur. Since 2015 Tommy has been active as an angel investor and serves as chairman of Peakon, Lix and Hello Group (recently sold to North Alliance) and has invested in 20+ companies in total. In spring 2017 Tommy was appointed chairman of the Danish government’s entrepreneurship-council (Iværksætterpanelet) and has as of November 2017 seen 5 proposal agreed with a majority in parliament - quite an achievement. Tommy is an investor in the Danish version of Dragon’s Den TV-show that has aired two seasons to date with a third on its way. On top of this Tommy is fighting to put entrepreneurship into the educational system through his post as chairman for Young Enterprise in Denmark
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THE NORDIC 100
TOMMY ANDERSEN and ERIC LAGIER Tommy and Eric are the founding partners of byFounders, a ‘for founders by founders’ early stage venture fund investing in Nordic startups. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tommy is one of Denmark’s most renowned serial entrepreneurs, co-founding Embedit and Libratone and until recently, a very active angel investor and founding partner in Nordic Makers. Eric has been involved in some of the Nordic most successful tech companies. Part of the early team at Skype, Tradeshift and most recently co-founder at Memolane. Based in San Francisco, Eric has built a strong network of tech executives and VC’s in Silicon Valley and leverages this as advisor for numerous Nordic startups making their way to Silicon Valley.
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THE NORDIC 100
TOMAS BENNICH Tomas Bennich is a networker, dealmaker, business strategies and startup and venture advisor. Tomas has a passion for helping startups and is running a yearly global sales tour for startups covering the main tradeshows like CES, IFA, SXSW and Mobile World Congress and a few selected startup venues such as SLUSH, Web Summit and many more. Hustling, selling and creating opportunities at these venues and creating the perfect network are some of Tomas drivers. With 40,000+ business cards and a pay it forward attitude Tomas loves to make connections and keeping and building a live network which to him means that giving is everything. Tomas is a portfolio worker and runs the Swedish venture network with VC, CVCs, angels and family office. On a Nordic level Tomas is the executive director of Nordic Venture Network, a club with all the leading Nordic investors. Also Tomas is involved with tech scouting and M&A activities for larger corporates.
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THE NORDIC 100
TYLER CROWLEY For the past 5 years Tyler has worked with Stockholm stakeholders to develop the city as a leading startup ecosystem where he hosts the Europe’s largest monthly meetup for geeks in Sthlm Tech Meetup as well as Sweden’s largest annual Startup festival each September, Sthlm Tech Fest. Tyler has been instrumental in putting Stockholm and Sweden on the global startup map and helping them start getting the International attention they deserve as one of the world’s leading tech hubs
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THE NORDIC 100
VOITTO KANGAS Voitto is the CEO of Maria01, an industry campus for startups, investors and other tech folk in an old Helsinki hospital and Finland’s main co-working hub. Previously to running Maria 01, Voitto has been heavily involved in pushing the Helsinki startup scene forward through a number of positions, including as the Managing Director of the Startup Foundation, working towards better environment and culture for entrepreneurs and new growth companies, locally in the Nordics and outside and Head of Partnerships at Slush.
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THE NORDIC 100
ZENIA FRANCKER Zenia has a passion for connecting people. For 10+ years she has connected startups and investors - and now also corporates. She has been a central figure in creating the Danish and Nordic startup ecosystem and involved in a variety of community initiatives including co-founding Startup Village. Today, she empowers Nordic creators as Chief Relations Officer and partner at Founders House / MESH. Privately, Zenia has a second passion: family, including Amelia Le, a toddler and entrepreneur in the making.
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THE NORDIC 100
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THE NORDIC 100
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