Last week, Unity the company behind the game engine that powers more than half of the top 1000 games in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, filed their S-1 to go public on NYSE. The company, which will have the ticker symbol U, is raising up to $100m in its offering. Now, Northstack… Read More Unity files for IPO, will become first Icelander-founded company to be listed on NYSE
Last week was an interesting one for the game industry in Iceland. Teatime Games – founded by QuizUp’s cored leadership team – released their most successful game to date, Trivia Royale. The game got featured in the U.S. App Store very close to the top (and those who know mobile game development know the value… Read More Why Game Development could be Iceland’s next Breakout Industry
Over the last weeks and months, a lot of talk has been around how innovation (and IP-intensive ventures) should be our focus, when building the next phase of the Icelandic economy. The government has announced and delivered some measures towards that goal – by increasing R&D tax refunds, speeding up Kría (the venture initiative), announcing… Read More Organise, Standardise, Attract: How Angel Investors Should Contribute to Iceland 2.0
Startup Reykjavik was founded in 2012, by Arion Bank and Icelandic Startups (then Klak Innovit). That same year was the first year of the Startup Iceland conference, so in a sense, 2012 is the year that some of the longer living programs, that put their mark on the year and event calendar, were founded. Startup Reykjavik operated as a… Read More Startup SuperNova and the Startup Reykjavik legacy
The last couple of weeks were quite eventful. The country is formally opening on June 15, the second Covid package for the economy is going through parliament, and – finally – the spring weather that Icelanders love so much is coming. In this newsletter, I want to try a new format, inspired by Nicolas Colin of The Family… Read More Bring on the Experts: Iceland should target remote workers and help them work from Iceland
In the last several weeks, there’s been some interesting developments in the food startup scene. Not food-tech, but good ol’ product development, based on new ideas, branding, and lifestyle trends. GoodGood, a producer of non-sugar added sweet products, like chocolate spreads, raised $3m, and healthy snack company Responsible foods raised a seed round. In addition, last week, as… Read More Building a Food Startup from Iceland: Interview with Garðar Stefánsson, CEO of GoodGood
Yesterday, the leaders of the Icelandic government announced the so-called “Package number 2” – a set of economic stimulus initiatives to support the Icelandic economy following the Covid outbreak. The package ranged from grants for companies that had to close due to bans on gatherings, to 100% backed loans (sounds similar to the Swiss loans)… Read More Covid Response: The Startup Edition
Last week, Viðskiptablaðið published a news article titled “Grid valuated at 1.7bn ISK” (or ~12m at current exchange rates). The article, which is reporting straight out of the annual report of Brunnur Ventures, states the following: “In the fund’s books, a 1.9% share of Grid is valued at 31.4m ISK, which equals a little under 1.7… Read More What’s up with the constant “Annual Report”-reporting?
This week, challenger bank indó announced €1m in funding. Following that announcement, Northstack interviewed Haukur Skúlason, cofounder of indó, on the opportunity. This was originally a part of the Memo, our newsletter with deep dives and commentary into the ecosystem. Our questions are in bold, answers in italic. A new bank, something that hasn’t happened… Read More “Banks as big, one-stop-shops are, in our view, on their way out” – An interview with indó cofounder Haukur Skúlason
This post is from The Memo – our regular newsletter with commentary and analysis on the most important things in Icelandic startups, venture, and tech. You can sign up here. Image credit: Government.is a16z’s first investment in the Nordics is in an Icelandic/Finnish gaming company, and venture initiative unveiled From the announcement: “Mainframe Industries, a… Read More The Memo: a16z invests in Iceland, Kría unveiled, and Covid and Startups
