Royal Nordic couple visit Nordic Innovation House in Silicon Valley
The Royal visit at the Nordic Innovation House is part of a three-day study trip to Silicon Valley and San Francisco, where the couple will get to know the growing ecosystem of Nordic startups, investors and companies. This is the first time that the newly opened Nordic Innovation House have Royal visitors. But in Silicon Valley there seems to be good business in branding yourself as Nordic-made
- Silicon Valley is not just a port of entry for the U.S. market, it is also a key gateway to the global market. Partnerships and collaborations between Nordic companies and businesses in Silicon Valley lead to shorter time to market and create great technology and innovation, says Ann-Sofie Safa, acting country manager USA, Business Sweden.
To see pictures from the Royal Visit, click on to Nordic Innovation Houses Facebook page.
A soft landing concept for startups entering US market
All the Nordic countries’ bridge organisations in Silicon Valley have decided to pool resources and collaborate – which is really unique. Instead of working separately startups can now tap into a shared Nordic community of technology partners, investors and service providersers. A decision that is popular in the highly competitive Valley startup environment.
– Investors are already working on a Nordic level, and encourages the idea of Nordic, rather the national efforts, as the probability of finding high quality companies increases, say project partners Gro Eirin Dyrnes (NO) and Lene Schulze (DK).
It has been some hectic first months. Over 70 Nordic tech startups have applied to be part of the co-working space, more than 300 people visit Nordic Innovation House monthly and a handful of startup events have been hosted. All in a joint effort to write new Nordic entrepreneurship history.
- Nordic Innovation House, inaugurated last year, already boasts 40 companies actively using the incubator space, where we hope to lower the entry threshold for Nordic startups coming to the Bay Area. Says Anne Lidgard, Director of VINNOVA’s Silicon Valley office and chairperson of Nordic Innovation House.
– Sure, we have our friendly, historical squabbles back home, but it's funny how easily rivalry is set aside when you realise that you have a common purpose and goals, say the project partners.
The Royal tech meetup
The Royal Swedish couple will attend the event “The Nordics and Silicon Valley - From Startup to Success” to meet the following startups and get a sneak preview of new technology:
Alertsec Inc, encryption software;
BetterDoctor, healthcare solution;
Outracks, app development tools;
ScaleVC, investing platform;
Speedment, ORM tool for Java developers;
Thinglink, interactive images software;
Wevideo, online video editor and maker;
Yubico, identity protection software;
Verbling , edtech.
Nordic Innovation House is a joint initiative funded by Nordic Innovation, an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers, through the programme: The High Growth Entrepreneurship Initiative.
You can read more about Nordic Innovation House in Silicon Valley here or on www.nordicinnovationhouse.com.
