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Together, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland form a great ecosystem for start-up development. Until recently, the successful tech start-ups were associated mainly with the Silicon Valley, but now new regions, like Nordics, confirm that they are also dynamically developing. And it must be emphasized right away that the success of tech start-ups cannot be associated solely with the capitals of these countries!
It cannot be denied that Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki are among the strongest centers on the global start-up map. We have written about the strength and potential of these cities on our blog quite a few times. The development and the number of emerging start-ups are increasing year on year. And it gets even better when we observe the unicorns! For example, Stockholm hosts the second largest number of technology companies with a value of one billion dollars per inhabitant – right after Silicon Valley. In turn, Denmark is recognized as the number 1 place in Europe for easy business.
Nevertheless, we must not forget that the strength of the entire ecosystem also comes from the success of start-ups emerging outside the capital, in lesser-known cities. I took a closer look at them and it appears there are numerous thriving start-ups located outside the capitals of those countries that have really interesting business ideas.
I have the feeling that when admiring the Scandinavian ecosystem, we focus our attention on the capitals only. It’s a pity, because the potential of the other locations stays hidden. Do you want to find it out?
Located: Aarhus, Denmark
Founded: 2004
Industry: Internet
About the company: QuickPay is a secure, reliable and dynamic payment service provider. They are facilitating more than 10 000 merchants across most of Europe, allowing them to accept a broad spectrum of credit cards and other payment methods. The Plug’n’Play integration with more than 40 shop systems makes it easy to get your shop up and running. Today, they serve more than 30 000 customers and process more than 2 000 000 payments each month.
Located: Frederiksberg, Denmark
Founded: 2014
Industry: Sport
About the company: Tonsser is Europe’s largest football performance app, allowing young players to create a profile, track their performance and connect with other players, clubs and scouts.
Their mission is to create a transparent and connected football industry where talent is identified by data, and players gain access to the opportunities reflective of their potential. Tonsser is a team with members all around the world, all equally committed to building the best product to accelerate the careers of football players. Every day, they are looking for new ways to give more than 900 000 Tonsser users the tools to keep winning their game.
Located: Malmo, Sweden
Founded: 2016
Industry: Law services
About the company: Swiftcourt helps buyers and sellers perform safe and smooth peer-to-peer transactions by providing smart digital contracts, e-signing and related add-on services, such as secure payments and insurances. They have helped over 150 000 buyers and sellers complete over 100 000 transactions. Their goal is to become a global standard for conducting safe and smooth online transactions between peers worldwide.
Located: Malmo, Sweden
Founded: 2017
Industry: Technology
About the company: Kind is a communication and data sharing app tailored for healthcare providers and recurring patients. The app enables healthcare professionals and patients to enjoy the benefits of modern communication using messaging, images/video, digital health forms and files in a secure environment. Kind is accessible on Android, iOS, tablets and computers. With innovative strategies, they empower people to improve their health and quality of life to a larger extent. Their users represent the transformational development in healthcare and creating value for the whole chain.
Located: Turku, Finland
Founded: 2017
Industry: E-learning
About the company: Eduten Playground is a digital learning platform with scientifically proven impact on learning results, teacher happiness and student motivation. It is the choice of Finnish teachers – more than 210 000 students and 9 500 teachers in 34% of all schools in the country have enjoyed Eduten’s benefits since 2011. It is globally available since 2018 with users in more than 20 countries to date.
Located: Espoo, Finland
Founded: 2014
Industry: Technology
About the company: Molnix is a fast-growing start-up that aims to improve the global humanitarian work with their Rapid Personnel Manager (RPM). RPM is a cloud-based HR master software that enables fast deployments, cost-efficient operations and a higher impact of humanitarian workers. In the future, they want to adjust the RPM to other sectors.
Located: Oslo, Norway
Founded: 2013
Industry: E-learning
About the company: Hubro Education is a spin-off company from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. They deliver modern learning tools that provide students with a practical understanding of their course through hands-on experiences. Their products are used as a supplement to the lectures and as the practical part of the course.
Hubro’s first product is a web-based learning tool called the Hubro Business Simulation. It gives the students of business economics and managerial accounting courses a better understanding of their curriculum by allowing them to run a company in a virtual market.
Located: Trondheim, Norway
Founded: 2012
Industry: IoT
About the company: Searis is building technology to help people and organizations solve problems and create innovation opportunities. The company believes in a better use of real-time data and the need to speak human in order to change the way we learn, adapt and grow knowledge within organizations.
Since 2012, they have worked with large companies and transformed their use of data and the way of sharing insights through their collaboration platforms. Their new product, Clarify, is the result of many years of experience within marine and heavy industries.
I enjoy the successes of these start-ups even more because their products are based on modern technological solutions, and this is something we like at Codest. I keep my fingers crossed for their further growth!
Read more:
– The ugly truth about software development process
– Why is software development such a common nightmare for start-ups?
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