CONNECTING
JAPAN &THE NORDICS
Newsletter #8
November 6, 2020

Welcome to the Nordic Innovation Ecosystem newsletter #8
The Nordic countries often seem to excel in global rankings. Also within AI! According to the annual
ranking of Government AI Readiness, published by Oxford Insights 25.09.2020, Finland ranks # 3,
Sweden # 5, Denmark # 8, Norway # 10, and Estonia # 17 (Japan ranked # 13) in terms of “capabilities and enabling factors required for a government to be ready for AI implementation”.
To be fair, this ranking does not reflect the actual implementation of AI, nor strength of the AI techecosystem, but it does “reflect the preconditions necessary to boost AI development: digital societies, digitally savvy citizens and supportive governments that recognize the value of going digital”(e-Estonia.com).
In this editorial we provide a quick overview of the Nordic AI ecosystem, and perhaps more importantly, where you should look for additional information.
In general, Sweden and Finland are the leaders of the Nordic AI pack. The Swedish government
has followed a clear strategy for advancing AI development, launching AI Sweden in February lastyear. Also, in Sweden the Wallenberg Foundation has invested EUR 300 million into AI, mainly via
the Wallenberg AI program WASP.
Right now, AI Sweden, Ignite Sweden and RISE are screening Sweden to find the best AI startups.
Last week, the first 90 Swedish AI startups were presented on the Swedish AI landscape map. Moremay follow. Deadline for registration was 30 October.
Finland has followed a broader path to AI excellence, involving the whole society in the AI transformation. Thus, the University of Helsinki and Reaktor Ventures have launched The Elements AI
Program, a free online course on the basics of AI. So far, more than 500,000 have joined.
In September 2020, FAIA (Finland’s state funded Artificial Intelligence Accelerator) presented akey report “State of AI in Finland” that provides a comprehensive outlook of the Finnish AI sector.
According to the report, there are more than 400 AI startups in Finland, and some 50 new companies established yearly. The 2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report identified Helsinki as the top
European AI ecosystem along with London and Berlin. The report contains several AI use caseswith Finnish AI startups, that may be of interest to foreign investors, as does the City of Helsinki.
Also the other Nordic countries have relatively strong AI ecosystems. According to a recent McKinsey study (2019), “Denmark is at the forefront of research in several AI sub-disciplines, with particularly strong environments in algorithmics, machine learning for audio, robotics and computer
vision, and natural language processing”.
Nordic AI companies may not be as well known globally, and many of the startups operate onstealth mode. However, Nordic AI companies in areas such as Healthcare and Cybersecurity arescaling rapidly and Nordics are projected to remain leaders in the ecosystem. Also, many Estonian
AI startups have already received investments from Japanese investors, including, Realeyes, Veriff, Transferwise and Bolt.
Also, Deeptech is a Nordic stronghold. Nordic.AI - a non-profit, community-based organizationthat supports the Nordic AI community - has tracked over 400 AI startups in the Nordics, many ofwhich work in this area.
Feel free to contact you for further information. We can connect you to the right people and organizations.

SHORT NEWS FROM THE NORDICS

SE

Einride boosts its funding with EUR 8.5 million the development of their autonomous trucks led by Norrsken, EQT VEntures, Nordic Ninja and Ericsson Ventures.

NOKahoot, the Norwegian EdTech unicorn received an impressive EUR 184 million
in funding from Softbank.

NO

The Voice analysis solution by My Voice raised EUR 2.7 million in a round led byProventure.

EE

The Estonian state-owned VC management company, SmartCap, will increase
its investment in the High-Tech Enterprise Fund with EUR 5 million.

DKPreSeed Ventures announced their PSV Tech01 fund at EUR 35 million dedicated to backing pre-seed founders.

FIKodit, the prop-tech company completes a funding round of EUR 100 million.

ISSidekick Health secured EUR 17 million for its gamified digital therapeutic solutions.

INTERVIEW WITH ATTRACTIVE.AI

What tech solution does your company offer and what markets are you operating in?
Attractive.ai is a bot that simulates human interaction in order to evaluate the user experience of a site. It screens the design and theinteraction related to using the site, to analyse
what areas to improve and how to proceed with
the implementation of it. Our main customer
base is in the Nordics, and we are also beginning to get our first customers in Japan. Ourservice is currently only available in English andJapanese language.
Why is the Japanese innovation ecosystem
and market interesting to your company?
The Nordics have been very focused on creating great digital experiences through design.
The Japanese digital market in terms of user
experience of online applications and homepages is not as developed as other parts of theireconomy. Therefore, we would like to add thisaspect of Nordic design culture to the Japanese market. The other way around, I think theJapanese could contribute by elevating the level of customer service in the Nordics. Japaneseare well-known for their excellent customer
service referred to as Omotenashi (hospitality).
Therefore, I believe that combining these two
approaches and creating a new high standardof UX, which we have termed the concept of“Digital Omotenashi”, is something that we candevelop greatly by working with the Japanesemarket.

Name:		Kristoffer Lawson

Position: 		CEO & Founder

Organisation:		Attractive.ai

Ecosystem location:Helsinki, Finland

Company History:

2019

Contact:

setok@attractive.ai

Do you have any success stories in yournetwork of organizations / governments /people, who are leveraging their success inJapan? There are not that many examples unfortunately, even though there is an affinity between Nordic and Japanese culture. SLUSH is agood example of a tiny event that became thebiggest English language tech summit in Japan. Nordic Ninja VC is a great example of connecting investors from the two regions.
What type of Japanese stakeholders would
you like to reach out to? We already haveJapanese investors, the soccer player Keisuke
Honda and serial entrepreneur Tatsuro Shimada. We are looking to connect with professionals, who are building online reservation systems
and e-commerce platforms for companies withcommercial activities that require online presence. Furthermore, having our service embedded in packages that business development
companies and marketing agencies offer on themarket, would in my opinion be mutually beneficial for both parties.

BULLETIN BOARDEVENT

17-19 November - Sweden Innovation Days is a three day event bringing
the Swedish ecosystem together, for showcasing solutions, talks andmatchmaking. This year with a special focus on AI.

ACCELERATOR

X-Hub Tokyo Global Accelerator program for all fintech, mobility and LifeScience startups looking to expand to Tokyo. Deadline is 30th of November.

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:

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