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Growing, fast – an overview of the state of Icelandic Tech

In the last five years, turnover in the IT sector in Iceland has grown by a total of 60%, almost double the growth of other parts of the Icelandic economy, which for the same time period was 32%. The IT sector is also steadily growing as part of GDP, where

Cookie Cutter Venture Capital

Last week I wrote about the cultural difference between entrepreneurs in the Nordics and in Silicon Valley. This week I want to talk about the cultural differences between investors. In each country the investors and the investment climate shapes how startups get funded and in turn how they end up

The Digital Business Revolution and How Software is Eating Energy – The Podcast #4

In the fourth episode of the podcast, Kiddi and Jökull interview Ólafur Nielsen, CEO of Kolibri. They discuss what Ólafur calls the digital business revolution, how incumbent companies are realising and reacting to the rapid technological changes in society. Kolibri is an innovation partner that works with companies on creating

QuizUp raises $7.5 million from Glu Mobile

Glu Mobile (GLUU), maker of mobile games such as Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, just announced a $7.5 million dollar funding round in Plain Vanilla – makers of QuizUp. The funding comes in a form of convertible debt. Glu has the option to acquire Plain Vanilla if the cooperation goes well. Read

Selling the Future

During a panel discussion a couple of months ago, a number of successful entrepreneurs from the Nordic countries (Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland) were asked what was the most difficult part about raising money here in Silicon Valley from a cultural perspective. One of the panelists said it was

New, bigger grants introduced at the Technology Development Fund

Earlier this month, the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) unveiled its strategy for the Technology Development Fund going forward. According to a statement, the purpose of the changes is to make the fund more open and effective for applications from a wider range of individuals and organizations. The first new

Controlant receives $2.47 million funding

Controlant has received $2.47 million (320m ISK) in a funding round led by venture fund Frumtak 2, which is joined by various other investors through the investment company TT Investments ehf. This investment was included in Norðurskautið’s Q4 2015 funding analysis. Controlant offers automated cloud-based temperature monitoring solutions