CONNECTING THE NORDICS & JAPANNewsletter ＃2
July 8th, 2020

Dear Newsletter Subscriber,
The last two weeks have shown a strong Nordic focus on Healthtech.
On 18 June Nordic Innovation published a comprehensive open-source report on accessing healthdata in the Nordics. On 24 June SLUSH and AstraZeneca announced a partnership to accelerate
Healthtech startups on a global level. And on 30 June Nordic Innovation House in Tokyo held a webinar on HealthTech & COVID-19 in Japan: Industry Insights and Recent Developments together
with JETRO.
Why Nordic Healthtech?
The Nordics have long been a global leader within Healthtech and Life Science. The large publichealthcare systems of the Nordic region have traditionally been quick to adopt new Healthtech
and digital solutions, providing an ideal framework for startups developing new solutions in public-private partnerships.
Also, the public healthcare systems are characterized by a high level of trust and transparency,
and medical institutions find it relatively easy to launch pilot projects between government andcitizens, testing new developments in personalized medicine.
Today, Nordic Healthtech companies excel in e-health, ambient assisted living, personalized care,smart healthcare infrastructure, remote doctor-patient meetings and telemedicine solutions.
Check the report to learn more about the highlighted Nordic startups and technologies.
Accessing data
Another defining characteristic of the Nordic Healthtech sector is the prevalence of high quality
data compiled by the public healthcare systems. These data are often stored on centralized, digital platforms.
Accessing this data for secondary use is often difficult, and strictly regulated (see the recent Nordic Innovation report Bridging Nordic Data for further information, and national differences acrossthe Nordics).
Finland at the front
However, things are changing. According to the report, “Finland became the first Nordic country (in May 2019) to adopt an act on secondary use of health and social data, enabling regulated
secondary use of health and social related information and providing a one-stop permit and data
shop for secondary use purposes”.
As an extension, Finland recently launched Findata, a one-stop shop for the secondary use of social and health data. And this, as we say in the Nordics, is only the top of the iceberg.
We are happy to help, if you need to connect with experts on Nordic health data.

SHORT NEWS FROM THE NORDICS

SE

Stockholm-based Healthtech startup Doktor.se, which offers digital consultations to patients through its smartphone app, raises €45 million in a Series
C round led by Carnegie and Handelsbanken.

EE

Estonian companies Starship and Cleveron roll out a fleet of delivery robots
on the streets of London, taking groceries to homes without need of humancontact.

NOThe Norwegian tech media, Shifter, has launched CapHub, a comprehensive
database for Norwegian startups.

FI

Finnish food delivery scale-up Wolt raises €100 million, capitalizing on recent
market growth, and fencing against future uncertainty.

DK

Danish startup Flow Robotics has launched a robot automating COVID-19
testing processes in hospitals across Europe.

EE

Estonia-based mobility company Bolt raises €100 million.

EE

Estonian educational technology companies have grown up to 170% during
the crisis, with Mistletoe backed Clanbeat experiencing the biggest growth.

DKAGC Biologics partners up with the Copenhagen University spin-off AdaptVac, to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. Clinical trials are planned in thesecond half of 2020.

DKSoftBank Robotics EMEA - Whiz has opened an office in Copenhagen to improve their operations in the Nordics.

NORDIC COVID-19 UPDATEWith a mortality rate of just 46 per million inhabitants (249 of 5.4 million on 25 June), Norway has
one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in Europe. Several factors contribute to the Norwegian success in containing the virus.
Obviously, being a large and sparsely populated country reduced the contamination rate, but
the authorities also acted swiftly, implementing a decisive lockdown of the country. In the north,local authorities even adopted measures to quarantine people travelling domestically from themore populous southern parts of Norway.
Also, the Norwegian authorities quickly mobilized an enormous testing capacity. By 3 April morethan 100,000 people had been tested, a ratio per capita which at the time that was only exceeded by Iceland and the United Arab Emirates. Experts believe this effort was key to ensuring
Norway’s success in keeping the virus under control.
Today, Norwegian life is now mostly back to normal, except for some restrictions on major eventsand international travel. By 15 July, most European citizens will be allowed to visit Norway.

INTERVIEW WITH SENSIBLE 4
What tech solution does your company offer and what markets are you operating in?
Sensible 4 develops mobility solutions to thepublic transportation sector, which includes
a full-stacked autonomous driving system forlast-mile application. We work closely with tierone suppliers of original equipment manufacturers within the automotive industry andoperate in Europe and Asian markets. This iswhere we find the most advanced and widelyused public transportation sectors.

Why is the Japanese innovation ecosystem
and market interesting for your company?
■There is a high level of technology in the Nordic
automotive industry, but the market is small.
Therefore, it is essential for us to integrate inecosystems with large industry actors and supporting parties from the industry value chain,but still with room for new players to enter. InJapan, there is a huge automotive industry
with a constant demand for new technology.

Name: 		Harri Santamala

Position:Co-founder and CEO

Organisation: Sensible 4Location:

Espoo, Finland

Company:

Founded in 2017

Contact:

Tsuneki Kaiho,		Business Development Director		Mail: tsuneki.kaiho@sensible4.fi

What are the main barriers to accessing theJapanese market? ■While Finnish businessculture surprisingly seems to compliment wellwith Japanese etiquette, it is still difficult to enter the Japanese market for foreign companies.
However, once you have the right local partner
there, my experience is that it opens up a lotof new doors. It takes time and trust to be local
enough to become a key partner that can be introduced to their ecosystem. Our own companyis a success story on this matter, as we havebeen able to build a lot of traction with Japanese investors, industry and partner companies, such as MUJI.

NORDIC EVENTS - ONLY DIGITAL• 27-28.08

Join Latitude59, the flagship startup and tech event in Estonia, the world’s first
digital society (Hybrid physical/digital event).

• 17-18.09

TechBBQ Digital, Scandinavia’s largest tech summit that connects Nordic startups
with international investors and stakeholders

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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