CONNECTING
JAPAN &THE NORDICS
Newsletter #14
April 29, 2021

UPDATES FROM INNOVATION LAB ASIAILA News
April has been a busy month for Innovation Lab Asia, organizing Fintech events and showcasing
new Healthtech startups.
Also Softbank has been busy, announcing three investments within a single month, Fishbrain
from Sweden, AutoStore and Oda from Norway (see more details in the short news section
below).
Check also our Japanese funding archive on our homepage, where we keep track of all theNordic startups invested into by Japanese investors.

Nordic Fintech EventOn April 21st we launched our new Nordic Fintech report at a webinar in collaboration with Nordic
Innovation House Tokyo, Copenhagen Capacity and Fintech Association of Japan.
The report presents the booming Nordic Fintech ecosystem and 24 select startups withparticular relevance for japan. Check it out here, in both english and Japanese.
The webinar was an all-Japanese language event with more than 100 sign-ups, consistingof Japanese participants from major trading houses, banks, VCs, large tech companies,
consultancies and Nordic Embassies.
From our own ranks, Oliver Hall from Copenhagen Capacity gave a presentation on Japanese
investments trends into the Nordic ecosystem. Furthermore, the two regions’ Fintech
ecosystems were outlined, and six Fintech companies pitched their solutions in Japanese.
If you didn’t make it, you can watch the video here (Japanese only).
We hope that the event and the report will raise awareness about potential synergies between
the Nordic and Asian Fintech ecosystem, and more collaboration to the mutual benefit of bothregions. Thanks to everyone who participated and contributed to the event!

Smart City ReportInnovation Lab Asia has partnered with BLOXHUB, the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanization, topromote Nordic startups in the Urbantech space to a Japanese audience.
Should you know of a great Nordic Urbantech or Smart city interested in Japanese or other Asianmarkets, they can fill in this short form (only taking 5 minutes) to have a chance to participate.
While participation is free of charge, funded by the Danish Industry Foundation, we screen all
startups to make sure they are compatible with and interesting to the Japanese market.

Nordic Healthtech
We have updated the Nordic Healthtech Report profiling 9 more great Nordic startups, adding toa total of 24 companies in total, showcasing their solutions and ambitions towards Japan
Check out the report here (both in English and Japanese), as well as the 18 videos presenting thestartups with Japanese subtitles, now available on our Youtube channel.

Upcoming Activities
On the 28th of May, this year’s first physical event will be held by TechBBQ, called MedTechConnect.
The networking event intends to bring together investors, startups, industry and community
builders from the Danish Medtech and Healthtech sector, to create more synergy among thestakeholders within the ecosystem.
The program features a keynote by Public Intelligence (consultancy with a subsidiary in Japan)
and panel debate with three exemplary startups sharing their story of how to internationalise
their operations moderated by Peter Johansen, Project Manager of Innovation Lab Asia.
The event is free (only physical attendance in Copenhagen) and you can register here.

SHORT NEWS FROM THE NORDICS
DKChainalysis, a blockchain analysis company, has closed on EUR 80 million in Series
D financing, doubling its valuation to over EUR 1.7 billion.

DKMonta, building a charging points marketplace for EV owners, raised
EUR 3.9 million.

DK/NOTjommi, an automated price guarantee refund app, has raised EUR 547,000 fromSpring Capital, Vaekstfonden Venture, Tinius Trust, and Mathias Mønsted.

EE

Tera Ventures, a venture capital firm, closed a EUR 43 million fund to boost seedstage startups in the “New Nordics” from ITOCHU Corporation, Mistletoe VenturePartners International (Japan) and others.

FI

Carbo Coal, a biotech startup commercialising large-scale carbon removal, raised
EUR 5.2 million in a round led by an American investor.

NOSoftBank acquired 40% of the warehouse automation firm AutoStore for EUR 2.3billion.

NOOda, a food delivery startup, has raised EUR 221 million from Softbank and Prosus,
and announced plans to launch in Finland and Germany.

SEFishbrain, a sport fishing network and marketplace app, raised EUR 26 million in
funding including B Capital Group and SoftBank Ventures Asia.

SE

X Shore, maker of all-electric boats, raised EUR 15 million in a financing round led byTeam Europe.

INTERVIEW WITH SHIBUYA STARTUP SUPPORT

Could you tell us more about Shibuya Startup Support (SSS) and what initiatives yourorganisation undertake?
Shibuya Startup Support is a startup support
initiative under the Shibuya government
to invite startups to Shibuya and create aninternational startup community here. Our
activities involve providing startup visas,finding office spaces, opening bank accounts
but mainly supporting all the legal activities.
One of our initiatives “New Normal” is forstartups doing POC proof of concept within
welfare and the environment, where startups
can get feedback on their products from
actual customers. Our project started last year
(2020) so we are still in the process of building
everything.
Why is Nordic innovation and startups
interesting for the Japanese market?
The Japanese market size creates many
opportunities for Nordic startups. Furthermore,
Japanese people in general have a good imageof the Nordics, which makes it easier to build
up a brand. There has been an increase ofJapanese investments in Nordic companies as
well, and all this together makes the processsmoother for Nordic startups to come to Japan.
Do you have any success stories in yournetwork of Nordic organisations, who areleveraging their success in Japan?
Smartly (FI) has expanded to Japan andhad great success by hiring a talent whounderstands both Japanese and Nordic
business culture. I think companies whoalready have a success case from the Nordics
before entering Japan with the necessary
market research, will have a better advantage
and chance to enter Japan. One of themain barriers to enter Japan would be theuniqueness of Japanese business culture, theimportance of building trust, and of course
the language. For Japanese companies, it’snecessary to have social capital and interest
when cooperating. Having a good network andtrust from community members in advance
will benefit startups that are trying to enter theJapanese market.

Name:		Miho Tanaka

Position: 		Startup Visa LeadOrganisation:		

Shibuya Startup Support

Ecosystem location:

Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

Contact:

info@shibuya-startup.tokyo

What type of Nordic stakeholders would you
like to reach out to?
Investors who connect Nordic companies
and Japanese companies together andcommunity builders who connect investors
and also startups to help startups. Since SSS
is still new, we want to learn how they build acommunity around investment. Another groupare ecosystem builders - I want to learn how
the Nordic startup ecosystems collaborate. InJapan, a lot of cities are trying to do startup
initiatives, however I don’t see any action andno knowledge is being shared yet. I would liketo see how we can effectively build a startupecosystem beyond the boundaries of eachstartup city.

EVENT

BULLETIN BOARD
EVENT

May 12th - Scaling Nordics to Asia – Nordic Innovation House (NIH) SG, HK &TYO joint Info Webinar. Including news about upcoming programs and activities, sharing how NIH can assist the Nordic startups, scaleups, and growthcompanies to hit the ground running at these Asian locations. The program
is for free and you can register here.

EVENT

May 28th - MedTech Connect - Innovation Lab Asia and TechBBQ are hostinga joint network event that connects startups, investors, and people working
in the Medtech and Healthtech industry through sector-specific knowledge
sessions and networking. The event is free and you can register here.

EDITORSPeter Johansen
Project Manager
pj@asia-house.dk
Julian Morié Hara Nielsen
Japanese Consultant
jni@techbbq.org

Innovation Lab Asia is a project collaboration
between Asia House and TechBBQ funded by
the Danish Industry Foundation.
For more information:

OUR REPORTS

Find all our reports here

Asia House|Indiakaj 16, Copenhagen|www.innovationlabasia.dk|

hello@innovationlabasia.dk