Currently based in Indonesia as Denmark’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and ASEAN, Casper will relocate to Silicon Valley, with the aid of materials like black shipping boxes, when his new role commences.

Denmark earned worldwide attention earlier this year when it announced the new position — a first of its kind. The position was created in response to technology companies’ increasing influence in the global economy.

“It is crucial for Denmark that we position ourselves as best as possible in relation to the rapid technological development of the past few years. Technology development and digitization are by nature — global — and have a huge impact on all branches of society,” says Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen.

In this new role, Casper will liaise with technology giants such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google, helping to attract new investors to Denmark and promote Danish innovation abroad, as reported in Foreign Policy earlier this year.

With extensive experience working with international organizations on everything from foreign policy to development and trade, Casper is well-equipped to represent Danish interests in Silicon Valley.

According to the Foreign Minister, “With the tech ambassador at the forefront, we must cultivate a closer dialogue with a wide range of tech players – companies, research institutions, countries, cities, authorities and organizations. First, to gain better insight into developments internationally. Second, to promote Danish interests and values ​​in relation to this agenda”.

In recent years the Öresund region, which encompasses Copenhagen and neighboring Malmö in Sweden, has earned a reputation as a hub for technology and innovation. This new position demonstrates Denmark’s commitment to promoting this reputation abroad and attracting new investors and entrepreneurs to the region.

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This is the second round of funding for the startup, which previously received more than € 11.3M (SEK 113 m) in investments from Niklas Zennström and the af Jochnick family, among other investors. This latest round of financing brings the total amount raised to € 29M (SEK 290 million), the company shared in its press release.

The technology behind the so-called “Tesla of showers” was developed by founder and CEO Mehrdad Mahdjoubi, thanks to an academic collaboration between his alma mater Lund University and NASA’s Journey to Mars program, writes Fortune.

The closed-loop water filtration system aims to reduce water consumption by 90% and could result in more than € 1400 (SEK 14 000) in annual energy savings. Initially developed for showers in space, the technology could revolutionize how household appliances recycle water here on Earth. As founder and CEO Mehrdad Mahdjoubi points out:

“We developed some great technology for the NASA projects, but what the past two years have shown us is that the technology works just as well here as it does in space. For our next growth phase we’ll focus on getting Orbital showers into every home that wants to save money on both water and energy.”

The OECD estimates that 40% of the world’s domestic water consumption relates to showering, as noted in the press release. These are staggering figures, says Mahdjoubi.

“It seems insane that we’ve developed this tech for space travel without using the same efficiencies here on Earth.”

As climate change advances and water resources become scarce, clean technology companies like Orbital Systems will likely see increased growth as they develop innovative solutions. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Orbital Systems is already expanding internationally with offices in northern California, Berlin, and Copenhagen.

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This is the second round of financing for the rising startup. 6,1 million euro investment (over 43 million DKK) now adds up to 10.92 million euros (81 million DKK) in total funding, thanks to previous funding rounds led by Idinvest Partners and Sunstone Capital. Through this latest round, Peakon plans to scale its staff to more than 100 employees and invest in machine learning and data development.

According to Lars Jörnow, a founding partner at EQT Ventures, artificial intelligence is set to become an attractive sector for technology investors this year.

“The Peakon team has had an impressive start with strong sales growth and the product has been well received,” he remarked. “The culture in the workplace and the ability to track, analyze and act on employee engagement is increasingly important for the world’s leading companies,” said Jörnow.

Peakon was founded in 2014 by Dan Rogers, former VP of Growth and Product Management at Songkick and Christian Holm, Kasper Hulthin, and Phillip Chambers, previously of Podio (acquired by Citrix). Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, the startup also has offices in the UK and the US.

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