Nordic Scale Up UK – Connecting Nordic tech scale-ups with London based investors

Nordic Scaleup UK is an accelerator programme open to scaleups from across the Nordics, looking to expand their investor networks and presence in the UK. Running its third year, the programme is designed to provide Nordic businesses with first-hand advice from experienced venture capital investors. The focus areas for the programme will be the UK funding landscape, accessing capital, and network expansion. As a business you will get access to the mentors’ networks and contacts, as well as unique insights to the UK’s VC scene. Join the programme to expand your investment network on the UK market, one of the largest investment communities in the world. 

Contents of the programme

Nordic Scale Up UK offers a combination of workshops, presentations, mentoring and access to a powerful network of Swedish-British investment and tech professionals. The programme will help you develop practical skills, tools, and knowledge that will help you secure the right type of investment and investor for your business’ needs.

The 2021/2022 programme includes three in-person evening meetups in London and two virtual sessions over the course of one year. Facilitated by a programme director, the meetups address topics that are relevant in preparing your business for growth and capital raising. What type of investors and finance options are available to you? What are investors looking for? How do you work with your investor once onboard? During the meetups, businesses and mentors will get the opportunity to network, discuss key business topics and ways to move forward. In addition, the mentors are available to assist you based on your needs and their relevant expertise throughout the year.

The Programme will help you to

  • Expand your professional network in the UK
  • Better understand the various sources of finance and capital available to growth businesses in one of the largest financial centres in the world
  • Identify potential investors in the UK
  • Share experiences with other businesses on similar journeys to yours
  • Develop a unique eco-system of connections and potential door openers in the London based investment community
  • Develop practical understanding of what investors will be looking for, and how to prepare appropriately
  • Gain free access to events and courses hosted by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and partnering organisations in conjunction with the meetups in London

 

The participants of the programme should: 

  • Be a registered company in a Nordic country
  • Have an innovative tech enabled business that is launched or in active Beta
  • Have raised some capital or expect to raise capital within the next year

Nordic Scale Up UK 2020/2021: Testimonials

See what some of the participants and one mentor said about the programme.

Mentors 2021/2022

Yusuf Özdalga

Yusuf Özdalga

Partner, QED Investors

Yusuf is a London based Partner at QED Investors with a focus on European financial technology and consumer finance companies. Yusuf joined QED in 2017, and his career has spanned roles as an operator, advisor, entrepreneur and investor. His current portfolio of investments include Wagestream, Zopa, and GAIN Credit.

Archie Mason

Archie Mason

Director, True

Archie is Director at retail and consumer innovation and in- vestment firm True. Archie works with True’s global Partners, including M&S, John Lewis Partnership, TJX and Shell Retail, to provide sustained, filtered, pre-emptive access to a flow of relevant technology innovation supporting their most materi- al corporate priorities. Archie previously lead JLP Ventures, the innovation team of the John Lewis Partnership, and prior to that, was a Strategy Consultant at at PwC.

 

Vinay Solanki

Vinay Solanki

Head of Channel 4 Ventures

Vinay leads Channel 4 Ventures, the media investment arm of Channel 4, a leading UK public service broadcaster with a global reputation for uniquely young and affluent viewers.  The investment division invests media assets in return for stakes and helps digital companies reach mass scale.  Since joining in 2015, Vinay has overseen over 20 primary investments, and his portfolio has included two IPOs, including Pinterest. Vinay is passionate about digital consumer investment and solving challenges in the marketing and growth phase funding ecosystem.  Vinay has degrees in Law from University College London, and an MBA from Imperial College, and previously worked at Getty Images and Liberty Global in M&A and strategic development roles.
Zoe Peden

Zoe Peden

VC Investor, Ananda Impact Ventures

Zoe is an experienced tech entrepreneur turned VC investor for Ananda Impact Ventures. She has over 20 years operating and board experience in technology companies and currently sits as Ananda Board Observer for Dr Doctor and Arbor Education. She co-founded one of the UK’s top grossing assistive technology apps back in 2010  and now spends her time looking for Europe’s most impactful tech entrepreneurs to invest in. Zoe is also a Visiting Lecturer at Cass Business School and founder of FutureWorldVC a community of diverse, impact minded VCs.

Peter Duffy

Peter Duffy

Investor, Smedvig Capital

Peter is currently an associate at Smedvig Capital, having joined in 2018. He is currently a board observer at Capify and Xeneta. Peter is excited by finding innovative founders using tech to disrupt the status quo. Peter has previously also worked as a consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants, and he holds an MSc in Management from Imperial College London.

Marika Svärdström

Marika Svärdström

Investor

Marika is based in London, preaviously heading up Venture Capital Investing at L&G Capital. Prior to her role at L&G Capital she set up the European Investment office in London on behalf of Khazanah, a $40bn Sovereign Wealth Fund. In her role, she developed and led a diversified team of investment professionals in sourcing and investing in late-stage venture and growth equities across Europe focused on Tech Sector. Investments include Skyscanner, Farfetch,  Auto1, amongst others.

Prior to Khazanah, she led the day-to-day operations of a Scandinavian private investment office based in London, where she managed investments in private and public equities, real estate and fixed income on behalf of the Principal.

She has developed an international career; living and working in Hong Kong, Zurich and London, and has operated on board level the past 10 years’ and held non-executive roles in both private and publicly listed companies.

Marika is an active angel investor in UK innovation ecosystem with a portfolio of companies involved in Fintech, IoT, AI, and Cleantech. She holds an MBA from IMD, Switzerland, and MSc Eng. from Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Ollie Forsyth

Ollie Forsyth

Global Community Manager, Antler

Ollie is the Global Community Manager at Antler, a global startup generator and an early-stage VC bringing individuals together to create disruptive companies. Previous to Antler, Ollie has worked at Draper Esprit and founded Ollie's Shop as well as appearing in numerous business magazines such as Forbes, The Times and The Guardian. 

Erik Wenngren

Erik Wenngren

Co-founder, Spintop Ventures

Erik is a co-founder of Spintop Ventures, an EIF-backed VC company investing in early stage Nordic SW enabling technology companies with global ambitions. Spintop (started in 2009) has invested and supported Nordic companies from seed to high-value, even Unicorn, exits to global giants like Zynga, Cisco and Klarna. He is well networked in the start-up ecosystem across Europe, has supported and mentored numerous early stage companies and has as a Business Angel also invested in some 25 start-ups. Erik started to get involved in early stage companies in 2001 after many years in the financial industry mainly in fund raising and IPOs working at senior level positions at SEB, BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, and NYSE Euronext. Erik studied at Lund University, has an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a Fulbright Scholar.

Lily Shaw

Lily Shaw

Investor, OMERS Ventures

Lily is part of the European investment team for OMERS Ventures, where she focuses on fintech and healthcare. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Lily was a Vice President at JP Morgan where she worked on strategic FinTech investments for the Capital Markets division. She started her career as a FICC trader for JP Morgan, where she managed a FICC portfolio within the Emerging Markets Business. Lily holds a BA Hons degree in Politics from the University of Cambridge.

Jeremy Middleton

Jeremy Middleton

CEO & Co-Founder, Conviction VC

Jeremy is the Co-founder and CEO of Conviction Investment Partners, an international syndicate of experienced HNWIs and Family offices that co-invest opportunistically in high growth, early stage tech businesses. Jeremy is also the CEO of Middleton Enterprises a private investment company specialising in seed stage and growth capital.

Aarthi Thangavel

Aarthi Thangavel

Commercial Analyst, True

Aarthi is a Commercial Analyst at True. Before coming to True, Aarthi worked at a start-up focusing on personalisation and data transparency within the beauty and personal care industry. With extensive experience in teaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds, Aarthi is keen to continue helping young people to gain access to careers they may not have explored yet.

Participating Companies 2021/2022

Skrym

Skrym

Jakob Nordfeldt, Project Lead

Skrym uses algorithmic optimization systems for eliminating excess air in e-commerce. Skrym is passionate about using these new technologies to make logistics simple, fun and above all – sustainable.

Imsure

Imsure

Roy R. Jungestål, Founder & CEO

Imsure help e-commerce companies and digital platforms to offer a supplemental insurance as an add-on adapted to their customers' needs. The founders has a long and mixed background from the insurance industry and tech companies. Together, they have created Imsure in the strong belief that the time is ripe for new eyes that look at how and what kind of insurance is offered.

Ponture

Ponture

Hamed Ordibehesht, Founder & CEO

We have created an inclusive business loan for companies who want to grow, have been struggling in the pandemic, have been rejected by banks or have received bad loan terms. Ponture inclusive loan is cheaper, faster, more flexible and more accessible. With guarantee from the EU.

Tendium

Tendium

Oskar Lundgren, Founder & COO and Hannes Dernehl, Founder & CEO

Tendium is using AI to reduce cost, increase efficiency, and create value in public procurement, opening up the world’s largest untapped market. Using the latest breakthrough in machine learning and language technology, to cut out the cumbersome procedures of public procurement.

IPscreener

IPscreener

Linus Wretblad, Founder & CEO

From just a text our AI tool shows the innovation landscape. It gives quick insights to related solutions. To know your competitors as well as when and where they are active. IPscreener allows you to map your competitors and understand the technological trends. It’s a support tool helping you to validate your idea at a very early stage. IPscreener is an agile tool for modern entrepreneurs.

LOOP

LOOP

Aristo Togliatti, CEO and Leticia Ribeiro, Head of Sales and Partnerships

LOOP have a unique platform and concept called micro mentoring where employees share knowledge and help each other grow. The company decides what the strategic skills are and LOOP seamlessly scales within the organization making sure that employees constantly improve their competence. They make skilling and reskilling scalable and effective.

Labelf

Labelf

Ted Tigerschiöld, Co-Founder

At Labelf we have created an amazing platform for organisations to unlock the power of Artificial Intelligence. Organisations that utilize AI stand to gain massively as they can work faster and make more sense of their data. However, too many organisations struggle with implementing AI as they often lack the know-how or resources to get started. At Labelf we break these barriers so that anyone can implement AI models in an afternoon.

Aura Cloud

Aura Cloud

Premkumar Bhagwatsaran, CEO

Aura Cloud provides companies the agility to meet fast-changing market needs while the company focus on their business growth. It powers customers with the next generation banking platform, providing product enhancements and maintaining regulatory compliance automatically to all customers.
With Aura Cloud, new businesses, products and processes can be released quickly – empowering you to capture business moments as they happen. You can also design solutions for your agents or partners to use at retail outlets, malls, dealerships and many other customer touch points.

Tilly

Tilly

Jenny Ann Axson Johnson, Founder & CEO and Anna Sane, Founder and CMO

A one-stop-shop for fertility support. Putting patients in control using a data and community driven approach

Skosh

Skosh

Tom Hackenberg, Co-Founder & Simon Ziolkowski, Co-Founder

Developing circular home & laundry concepts that contribute positively to the environment. By cutting out transportation CO2 emissions, the impact of petroleum-based ingredients as well as plastic-waste, we offer a new generation of everyday products made available through a unique service offering including tailor-made subscriptions as well as demand-based contribution tracking.

Programme Director

Katarina Sallerfors

Katarina Sallerfors

Katarina is Head of Communications at Apax Partners. She has more than a decade of experience advising financial services and investment firms on reputation management and strategic communications, particularly around corporate positioning, financial transactions and crisis situations.

Participation fees

SCC member, member of partner organisation and alumni:  7500 SEK + VAT / £650 + VAT
Non-members: 15,000 SEK + VAT / £1,300 + VAT

The programme is currently not open for applications.
Please stay tuned for the next edition of the programme. 

 

Get in touch

Are you interested in finding out more about the Nordic Upscale UK Mentorship Programme? Please get in contact with Business Services Manager Anna Crona.

Anna Crona

Head of Business Services

anna.crona@scc.org.uk

Patrons

Miltton
Skanska UK Plc
IKEA UK & Ireland
Epiroc

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