If anything, 2015 is the year the truly united ecosystems, created a lot of new startups and when the word “startup” has really become mainstream. We thank you for reading and supporting ArcticStartup and hope to see you at Arctic15, for which we currently have very special Christmas Bundle tickets that you can get here.
To summarize 2015, we have seen a lot of the local scenes come closer together. From #HELYES being organized by nearly every startup organization in Finland to #STHLMTECH going to the next level, to Oslo really showing it with the Innovation Week. Not to mention an immense amount of activity from the Baltics, especially from Lithuania.
On ArcticStartup side, we had our most successful Arctic15 yet, from which we have heard plenty of confirmed deals. Even 500 Startups made their first Finnish investment directly from the event. With that, we would love to invite you to join the next edition, which will be even more optimized for networking. Until the 1st of January, you can get very special Christmas Bundle Tickets at an unbeatable price point.
However, more importantly – we finally have a vision for the company overall and we can’t stress enough how important it is for your company to have a vision that is big and inspiring enough. Ours is: “To help build communities with uncapped opportunities.” Immediately upon settling on the mission, our team grew quickly and now sits at 13 people in the core team. So if you have any ideas of how we can help you or anyone else to build communities – get in touch.
This week we will look at the TOP 10 articles by traffic of 2015 and next week we will jump into the top trends and memories:
10. There is Something Happening in Oslo
After visting the Oslo Innovation week, we saw just how much the scene has changed there. During the week, we talked to investor, saw the rising stars, even witnessed a Guiness World Record being broken by a drone. Definitely the place to watch in the next few years.
9. Estonian AdCash Raises €20 Million.
A few years back, we found this startup that nobody knew and since then they have been growing to double the size every year and their first round was an impressive €20 million.
8. Top 30 Startups In Nordics/Baltics at Arctic15.
It is not a secret that the internet loves a good list and this year we were super proud of our TOP 30 finalists at Arctic15. From startups trying to solve world hunger, to redesigning the energy sector, to fixing world’s education problems – we had them all. So choosing the best one was super difficult for the judges, but it was Fourdeg that came out victorious.
7. Best Drone From Latvia: Airdog.
Drones are awesome, but ones that follow you around are even more often. This is what Airdog from Latvia does and it does it well. So much so that they were crowned as the best Drone/Robot of CES 2015, giving our region yet another win.
6. Baltic Startup Scene in Numbers.
Other than lists, people always like good numbers. This was an article that gave you a full overview of the Baltic scene in numbers. Anything from funding rounds to the amount of startups. Check it out and you will know the gist of how the Baltic scene works.
5. Five Lithuanian Startups You Did Not Know.
Lithuania seems to be a very hot topic this year, as this is not the only TOP 10 story that has to do with Lithuania this year. In this article we tried to find some startups that you may not have heard of and boy are some of them very exciting.
4. Creandum: 9% of global Billion dollar exits come from the Nordics.
If you did not know it already, here is a fun fact about the Nordic region: we represent 9% of global Billion dollar exits, while representing only 2% of the world’s GDP. To make the point even stronger, the rest of Europe accounts for 8% and has 97% of the European population.
The Finnish culture is something everyone should experience. The Sauna, the summer cottages, the language and much more. This game was a masterpiece done by one developer that allows you to build your summer car at your summer cottage completely from scratch. Yapp, you can assemble the engine bolt by bolt and the car will work. (It might take you a while to get it going, but that’s what Finn’s do all summer.)
2. Dealflow from Lithuania: These #LTstartups are raising over $100M
This is a look at the Lithuanian startups raising capital and even though the list is not fully complete it shows just how fast the scene there is developing and if you are an investor, I would not ignore it.
1. Solu.
To many of you this will not be a surprise. When someone launches a brand new personal computer from Finland, trying to take-on Apple, Google and Microsoft – it is bound to make some waves. Solu is a great idea that has a lot to prove, however if they do – it will be revolutionary. As of now, they have successfully raised their first round of funding and completed their Kickstarter campaign. Let’s see if the TOP 3 articles will be about them in 2016.
That’s all folks! Hope to see you at Arctic15, so get your Christmas deal today. We wish you happy holidays and looking forward to seeing you back soon.
Thank you everyone, for supporting us by reading ArcticStartup & CoFounder Magazine, attending Arctic15 and ArcticEvenings or Reverse Pitching, going with us to Startups In The Sun or external conferences.
Regards,
ArcticStartup Team.
