US department of defence cancels $96 million deal with Oura Ring + more.
+ insect-based dog food, Lovable's cease-and-desist letter and Norway's $36 million commitment to investing in women's health, basic human rights + economic opportunities.
*TGI(m)F. edition 139 i’m kay, and this is your 360º-view of the nordic startup ecosystem. covering culture + growth on a weekly basis, delivered to your screen for easy reading every sunday 💌
notices
‣ After the Beep Episode 2 is out now: “splitting equity, and dealing with investor bias in B2C & with solo-founders”. listen here!
‣ I’m back! after a 2-week hiatus, mondayfriday is back in biz, with updates from the nordic startup scene delivered straight to your inbox (every sunday).
🥛 mondayfriday news drop 💌 feedback
nordic pov
‣ Denmark
Faerchfonden welcomes a new CEO, namely, the foundation's previous CFO, Martin Nygaard Christoffersen.
Synthesia annonunces a major milestone – $100M in ARR and a strategic investment from Adobe.
Be Buggy, the insect-based dog food “of the future” joins DTU’s Earthbound community.
Sparrow Quantum, the supplier of photonic quantum chips, raises a €21.5 million Series A round led by PensionDanmark.
After 6 years Christian Damsgaard Tost is stepping away from his role as General Partner at People Ventures.
PixelPai is selected to be part of the 3rd cohort of the European Blockchain Sandbox program.
Aarhus-based founders of both Kanpla + Formalize are featured in Forbes 30 under 30 list for Technology.
‣ Sweden
Once Upon CEO and founder, Lina Andersson, is nominated for the SvD Affärsbragd (Business Achievement Award) 2025.
ReCarber welcome Sofia Törnroth Nyberg to their team, as their new Chief Legal Officer.
Marketplace for emotional & therapeutic support platform, SAKURA, raises €270.000 in a pre-seed round led by 8 Media Ventures.
New startup, Skye, launches (with investment from Sara Rywe at byFounders) their autonomous platform bringing real-time, energy-smart intelligence to industrial operations.
Google partners with Swedish geothermal investment firm, Baseload Capital, to boost geothermal energy in Taiwan.
Einride and Carlsberg (Sweden) partner to launch Electric Beer, a limited-edition, alcohol-free brew transported by Einride’s AI-powered freight technology.
Saminvest commits €12.8 million to Turbine Capital Fund I, one of the first Swedish funds to focus entirely on deep tech companies.
No-code platform, Lovable, served a cease-and-desist letter from Figma over use of term, “Dev Mode”.
Finch, the AI company transforming how architects design buildings, receives funding from Ampli Ventures.
Paebbl officially opens their CO2 mineralisation demo plant in Rotterdam.
Corporate credit card + spend management solution, Mynt, raises Series B funding from Visa and becomes their reseller partner.
‣ Norway
The companies that have received innovation grants in Q1 of 2025: Hybridized tops the list with €1.4 million.
Håvard Lindtvedt joins venture studio, Pinecone Ventures, as their latest Partner and shareholder.
Last week Norway announced that it will invest $36 million to support women and disadvantaged communities in 2025. The investments will target women’s economic opportunities, access to health care, and the protection of basic human rights.
Cloud adoption is accelerating in Norway, and creating demand for Data Center expansion - the country now captures over 48% of the Nordic region’s total data center investments in 2024.
‣ Finland
Angel investments in Finland rebounded to €31.5 million in 2024, as FiBAN reports a strategic shift in the country's early-stage investment landscape.
The first cohort of FR8’s hacker hotel/incubator/research lab has wrapped, see what the batch of builders were working on during their time there.
Reetta Ilo steps into new position as Chief Executive Officer at San Francisco Agency.
Mona Ismail & Lorena Ferkic, co-founders of Arca, featured in Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list.
Carbo Culture hire Bjorn Dahlen to take on role as CTO.
continue for the extended-version: discovery, jobs, events, resources + spotlights.
‣ extra, extra!
Fredrik Hjelm, CEO of VOI, shares exactly what AI tools him and the team use monthly ($300 to $500 per month). Add your tools, or thoughts to his set-up here.
Finlands startup community + hub, Maria 01, is featured in the BBC as its expansions set it to be Europe’s largest startup campus by end of construction in 2028.
Read: DTU startups attracted 21% of Danish venture capital in 2024.
Anna Wikland (MD of Google, Sweden): “88% of Swedish SMBs attributed revenue growth directly to personalised digital ads last year”.
Driversnote, Good Tape, HeiTech, ToughByte, Guestit + Mevisio on Sifted’s list of Six Bootstrapped Startups to Watch in the Nordics.
☼ spotlight
technically, this news is roughly 1 month old, but i only heard about it this week so maybe it’s news for you too! the US Department of Defence (DoD) has canceled a $96 million contract with Finnish wearables company, Oura, citing a lack of necessity for the acquisition. the original deal between the DoD + Ouraring was made without a competitive process which was met with opposition from another wearable technology company, WHOOP. read more about it here.
job board
☺︎ Nordic Ninja VC are hiring an Executive Assistant (SE).
☺︎ Angella Invest is hiring an Events & Communications Manager (DK).
☺︎ Glint Solar are hiring a Product Manager (NO).
dates and action points
→ Tech Nordic Advocates are hosting an exclusive pitch competition in Copenhagen on 14 May 2025. Apply to pitch by 30th April HERE.
→ DTU Startup day 2025 - May 15th (connect with +60 early-stage startups, investors and industry stakeholders) - Copenhagen.
→ Happening soon! AiSalon Stockholm - AI for Robotics and Hardware, 22nd of April at 17:30. More here.
→ Slush is hosting a Volunteers & Friends Hackathon at the Illusian Founder Office in Helsinki, May 10 from 9 AM – 9 PM. Apply to join (link above).
Thank you for tuning in! i’m always on the hunt for newsworthy content to bring to the mondayfriday audience. and, if you ask me, the best place is from the community itself. so, please drop your updates above and fill me in on any startup related news in the nordics. additionally, please leave me some feedback so i can keep improving ✨
yours weekly,
kay
* thank god it's (monday)friday
