CONNECTING
JAPAN &THE NORDICS
Newsletter #15
June 25, 2021

UPDATES FROM INNOVATION LAB ASIA
NEWS FROM THE NORDICS
With a significant decrease of COVID cases and only around 3 months left for the vaccination drive
to be complete, optimism is flourishing in the Nordics.
The European startup media Sifted recently reported that Europe now has reached a solid 70
companies with unicorn status. Almost half of these (33) come from the New Nordic Region, but
only account for 27 million people, compared to the entire European population of 445 million. The
new Nordic region is truly Europe’s Unicorn factory.
The US tech billionaire and co-founder of Paypal, Peter Thiel, perhaps saw this coming: Last week
he announced that he backs the USD 100 million Norweigan VC fund, SNÖ, that invests in Nordic
technology startups.
Finally, we celebrate Nordic Innovation House Tokyo’s one year anniversary,and the great job
they’re doing connecting Nordic tech companies with Japan - read more here to learn about theirprogress over the year.

MEDTECH CONNECT
The positive COVID-trend has paved the way for a nearly complete reopening of Denmark, which
also means we now are able to resume physical events. Last month Innovation Lab Asia andTechBBQ were proud to be among the first to open its doors to a proper physical networking event,sponsored by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The event brought together ambitious startups, investors and stakeholders from the life scienceand healthtech community of Copenhagen, providing a great afternoon with keynote, drinks, jazzmusic, and most importantly; setting the stage for the community to meetup and discuss theirchallenges and success after a long period of Corona hibernation.
Public Intelligence provided a keynote about testing welfare technology solutions, followed bya panel discussion with three aspiring startups, Walk With Path, Miiskin, and Norlase about thechallenges and success of internationalising, moderated by our colleague Lisa Mallner.
Check out the video from the event here.

INNOVATION LAB ASIA IN JAPANOn another note, our colleague Julian Nielsen has been interviewed by two Japanese web media,
one in the business magazine Diamond Online (see article), and another one in the Nordic culture
magazine Fika.net (see article), for a talk about tech innovation in the Nordics and why there are somany Unicorns coming from the small Region.
Furthermore, Julian has also become global ambassador for Shibuya Startup Service, furtherconsolidating our efforts to assist with creating more opportunities between the Nordic andJapanese ecosystem.

THE NORDIC FINTECH REPORT IN PRINT
Last week we received the first print copies of our Nordic Fintech report, launched earlier this year
in April. The report features 24 Nordic Fintech startups, several of which are already in contact withJapanese stakeholders.
Feel free to contact Oliver Hall ohall@copcap.com if you would like us to send some copies by post.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIESInnovation Lab Asia is organising several Japanese online events during the summer.
On the 30th of June Innovation Lab Asia is together with Intralink Group and Nordic Ninja VC
co-organising the Japanese online event, “Now is the season! Why you should consider theScandinavian ecosystem”, where 9 great startups from Healthtech, Fintech and Urbantech will bepresenting themselves.
Check out this page for more information and sign up (event only in Japanese).
On the 6th of July, Innovation Lab Asia will be launching our upcoming Nordic Urbantech reportin an event co-organised with Nordic Innovation House Tokyo and JETRO (Japan Externaltrade Organisation). The event will feature in the JETRO’s series on open Innovation: “5th Open
Innovation Seminar: The characteristics of the Nordic ecosystem and the latest trends of urbantech”
Keep updated on our LinkedIn for more information about the event (event only in Japanese).
On the 14th of July, together with the International law firm Bird & Bird, specialising in tech,Innovation Lab Asia will speak about the Nordic tech ecosystem - especially touching upon theRegion’s developments within the healthtech and cleantech sectors. The event will also include
two rising startups from these two tech sectors, as well as key points from Bird & Bird about how
to set up shop in the Nordics and the latest updates on the new investment rules in the Nordics.
Sign up here for more information (event in Japanese & English).

TECHBBQ SUMMIT 2021
With the low number of COVID19 infection in Denmark and getting closer to the normal before thepandemic, a growing number of visitors are now allowed to partake in larger conferences, festivals,and sports events in the Nordics.
We are amidst planning our activities for TechBBQ 2021, and getting more and more confident thatthe event will be held in a more similar form as before the pandemic. Therefore, we would like towelcome Japanese companies and investors to come to Copenhagen for the 16-17th of September
to connect you with startups.
Scandinavian Airlines announced they are restarting their Copenhagen - Haneda flight route, asentry from Japan to Denmark is now possible for all purposes without quarantine measures to beundertaken upon entry. Read more here on the Danish Embassy in Japan’s website.
Feel free to reach out to us if you are considering coming to the Nordics for the tech Summit.

SHORT NEWS FROM THE NORDICS
DKAdcendo, which develops cancer treatments, raised EUR 51 million in what is thebiggest series A for a Danish biotech company.

DKLenus, SaaS B2B platform for fitness professionals, raised EUR 50 million in “seriesA round”.

FI

Oura, fitness ring company, raised EUR 82 million from investors including Eisai.

FIPixieray, developer of adaptive eyeglasses, raised EUR 3.6 million from seed funding
from Maki.vc and First Fellow.

ISHefring Marine, a software developer for boat manufacturers and owners, raised
from German and American investors.

NOCognite, SAAS developer for asset-intensive industries, raised EUR 124 million in around led by TCV.

NO

Robot maker Halodi Robotics, raised EUR 8 million from Valinor, ADT Commercial,and AutoStore investor Hatteland.

SESinch, communications platform for mobile engagement, raised EUR 930 million ina directed share issue from, among others, Temasek and SoftBank.

SEKlarna, fintech giant, raised EUR 527 million in SoftBank-led funding round.

SEKry, digital healthcare provider, announced EUR 262 million in series D round andhas reached Unicorn status.

INTERVIEW WITH DIGISHARES

What tech solution does your company
offer and what markets are you operatingin?
Digishares is a white label platform for issuing
digital securities. The platform is primarily
developed for project oriented financing inreal estate, private equity and venture capital.
We are targeting illiquid assets, such as realestate, which are not traded on regular stockexchanges. Our product could be offered inany jurisdiction with a legal framework fordigitizing securities. It is primarily targeted for
asset managers and in real estate in particular,
to raise money. It is a digital security, which wehelp issue as a digital token using blockchain
protocol. Digishares provides the back-end
system for the platform, and the front-end canthen be customised to the clients preferences.
The platform then allows one to issue security
tokens, manage the shareholders of those
tokens and to trade the token.
Why is the Japanese innovation ecosystem
and market interesting to your company?
Japan has the second largest real estatemarket in the world. They also have the world’s
second largest REIT market (real estate
investment trust market). That is pools of realestate assets bundled up together and listedon the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Digisharesprovides assistance with the automation of
the security tokenization.
Do you have any success stories in yournetwork of organizations / governments /people, who are leveraging their success inJapan?
I am personally involved in the Norwegian
coffee roastery and shop chain called Fuglen(“the bird” in Norwegian). My friends and I
assisted them with entering the Japanesemarket, currently with 4 shops in Japan.

Name:		Bjorn Holta

Position: 		Business Development LeadOrganisation:		

Digishares

Ecosystem location:

Oslo, Norway

Company History:

Founded in 2018

Contact:

bh@digishares.io

What are the main barriers to enter into theJapanese market as a Nordic startup?
A particular barrier for Digishares has beenthat Japan set up new regulations for security
tokens last year. Actually, Japan is among thefew countries with clear regulations in thismarket. The issue in Japan is that the regulatory
requirements are quite strict. Meaning that
if you’re going to fundraise above a certain
amount, you need to have a brokerage license.
Therefore, to sell our platform, we would have tocollaborate with Japanese corporations, acting
as a brokerage firm, a real estate company, afinancial intermediary or a large IT company. I
think with Japan it is particularly important to
get the attention of a local partner in Japan,
more so than in many other countries.
What type of Japanese stakeholders would
you like to reach out toWe would like to reach out to Japanese investors
or partners to help us develop tokenization inJapan.

EVENT

BULLETIN BOARD
EVENT

June 30 - Now is the season! Why you should consider the Scandinavianecosystem
We are collaborating with Intralink and NordicNinja VC to host this online Japanese webinar! It combines a talk session by three experts from the Nordic
startup ecosystem (our colleagues Oliver Hall and Julian Hara Nielsen) anda pitch competition by startup companies carefully selected for Japanesecompanies.
The event will be in Japanese only: https://techplay.jp/event/819863

EVENT

July 6 - 5th Open Innovation Seminar: The characteristics of the Nordic
ecosystem and the latest trends of urban tech
We are collaborating with Nordic Innovation House - Tokyo and JETRO(Japan External Trade Organization) to bring you a seminar that will provide
Japanese companies (including startups) interested in collaborating with
Nordic startups with advice on how to build relationships and promotecollaboration between Japan and those countries.
Keep updated on our LinkedIn for more information about the event

EVENT

July 13 - Rising Nordic Tech businesses and opportunities
Together with the International law firm Bird & Bird, Innovation Lab Asia will
provide their insights into the Nordic tech ecosystem - especially touching
upon the Region’s developments within the healthtech and cleantech
sectors. The event will also include two rising startups from these two techsectors, as well as key points from Bird & Bird about how to set up shop in theNordics and the latest updates on the new investment rules in the Nordics.
Sign up here for more information (event in Japanese & English).

ACCELERATOR“Japan Challenge for Society 5.0 -Accelerate Innovation with Japan-” atViva Technology
JETRO is calling for startups from all around the world with technologies andinnovations that could help solve three types of social challenges in Japan
to apply to this contest. The selected 45 startups will be the exhibitors of the
JETRO booth in CEATEC 2021 ONLINE.
Application deadline is July 31: Sign up 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

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Indiakaj 16, Copenhagen|www.innovationlabasia.dk|

hello@innovationlabasia.dk