CONNECTING THE NORDICS & JAPANNewsletter ＃#5
September 15th, 2020

Welcome to the Nordic Innovation Ecosystem newsletter #5
Which are the 20 fastest growing Nordic startups? How much did they grow? And what do theydo? These were the questions the data platform Nordic 9 set out to explore last month. The list canbe viewed below, courtesy of Nordic 9.
But first, let’s define their methodology! The focus companies were the 289 startups from Finland,
Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark who raised between USD 1 and 5 million from June 2018 toJune 2019. Companies whose revenue was below USD 1 million, or didn’t show a revenue increaseduring this period were subtracted. Growth was defined as the year-on-year revenue increase.
Of the 20 best performing startups, one half grew with triple digit figures, the other half with double digits. The top 3 were: Corebon (Sweden, 457%), which has developed method for producing
carbon fibre components faster and better, and with lower energy use; Detail Online (Sweden,320%), providing insights into how online retailers present ones products; and Hoxhunt (Finland,316%), providing a software platform for employees training and engagement in order to makethem aware of possible cyberattacks.
Other relevant facts: Two of the companies had yearly revenues higher than USD 10 million, 11 hadrevenues higher than USD 3 million. Nine came from Sweden, six from Finland. Four showed a profit: Corebon, Bruce, Findity and Digital Workforce.
No strong patterns seem to emerge when looking at the sectors or solutions provided by the 20companies. SaaS-based solutions are prominent (Detail Online, Hoxhunt, Hostaway, &frankly, Findity, 2021.ai, PinMeTo, Memory, Kognity) as are e-Commerce related solutions (Detail Online, Tise,Bruce, Jenny, Hostaway, PinToMe), but also Edtech, Greentech, AI and Robotics companies are tobe found.
Here’s the list of the top 20 fastest growing Nordic startups:
Sweden (9): Corebon, Bruce, Kognity, Detail Online, &frankly, Findity, Volumental, werlabs,			PinMeTo
Finland (6): Leadfeeder, Digital Workforce, Heltti, HoxHunt, Hostaway, Jenny
Norway (4): No Isolation, Nofence, Tise, Memory
Denmark (1): 2021.ai

Sceptics may argue that these impressive growth rates reflect a pre-COVID era. Yet according tothe newest analysis from Nordic 9, published only last week, equity funding into the Nordic startup
ecosystem during the first 8 months of 2020 hit USD 3.35 billion, nearly the same level as 2019. For
more on this, check out Nordic 9. The bottom line is that the Nordic startup ecosystem is alive andkicking, despite the pandemic.

SHORT NEWS FROM THE NORDICS

DK

Seed Capital is raising a new fund only used for seed stage investments intolocal tech startups for €135 million, closing €67 million so far.

FI

Smart infusion therapy monitoring startup Monidor, raises €1 million funding.

DKThe cyber security startup Cobalt.io has developed a platform to hire ethicalhackers to test web applications, and recently secured DKK 180 million.

NO

Saga Robotics has raised NOK 100 million from Nysnø, ADM Capital, Rabobank,and others, for their farming robot Thorvald.

NOAquabyte’s fish farmer solution raised $10M million in the latest investment
round led by ArcTern Ventures.

SECarbonCloud raised € 1 million, for their advanced carbon footprint calculator
to enterprises.

ISCCP Games newest release EVE Echoes, reaches 1 million players in only twoweeks.get publicly listed in the US, raising up to $100 million in its offering.

EE

Skeleton Technologies, developer of a super battery that recharges electriccars in just 15 minutes initiates a partnership with a leading automotive manufacturer.

INTERVIEW - NORDIC INNOVATION HOUSE TOKYOWhy is the Japanese innovation ecosystem
and market interesting for the Nordics? TheJapanese innovation ecosystem is becoming
more advanced. Not only have investments
into it been consistently growing, there hasalso been an increase in investments from Japan to Nordic startups. For Japanese governmental organisations and corporations, open
innovation is high on the agenda. Not only will
new tax benefits follow with it, but they are on
the lookout for innovative solutions within thefields of greentech, deeptech, cleantech, andhealthtech, which are all Nordic tech strongholds. Also, we often have a lot of positive responses from the Japanese media, government
agencies and private companies, about thepan-Nordic collaboration that the Nordic Innovation House is about. Japanese stakeholders
find it very unique, how 5 countries can collaborate on such an advanced level. However, theNordics are not the first choice in many cases
for Japanese companies, as they are still looking more to Silicon Valley and other larger economies. Therefore, it is quite important that Nordic companies understand that they can buildon the positive brand image that the Nordics
are associated with in Japan, as an advantage.

Name:		Niklas Karvonen

Position: 		Community Director

Organisation:		

Nordic Innovation House -			Tokyo
Ecosystem location:

Tokyo, JapanContact:niklas@nordicinnovation			house.com

What are the main barriers for Nordic techcompanies and investors to enter the Japanese market? Besides the obvious barriersof language, different culture and having theright local partner, I think there are also someout-dated perceptions of the Japanese business culture that don’t always hold true in themodern ecosystems. For the other way around,it might be a bit difficult for some Japanese todifferentiate between the Nordic countries andknow our differences. This means that we needto convey the right information about Japan tothe Nordics, and vice versa.

What type of Nordic stakeholders, companies and investors would you like to reachout to? Our membership at the Nordic Innovation House Tokyo is tailored towards Nordic
innovative tech startups, scaleups and growthcompanies that have the Japanese market on
the radar. We are working towards building asolid Nordic business community, specificallytargeting tech and innovation companies, tofacilitate knowledge and experience sharing.
Therefore, we would like to connect with various industry clusters, to better understandtheir needs and to collaborate on delegation
trips to the Japan side.

NORDIC EVENTS - ONLY DIGITAL• 15-16.09

Experience a global fintech conference with Nordic flavor at The Copenhagen Fintech Week.

• 17-18.09

TechBBQ, Scandinavia’s largest tech summit to connect 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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