”In general, I’m very interested in news. I found the description of the product and the development on an early stage meet certain needs that I can recognize from myself. If this applies to me, it will probably also be the case for other people with similar pattern of news consumption”, says Lars Seier Christensen to business.dk.

The amount of the investment is still a secret. However, Lars Seier Christensen reveals that his investment is set at 20 percent of Newsio.

“For Newsio, this is a big investment. Now, we can realize many of the things we would like to. We can’t reach the target yet, but this definitely helps us on our way”, says Thomas Heltborg Juul.

According to Thomas Heltborg Juul and Sillas Poulsen, the business model is based on Google’s mindset where the product is free to begin with. The idea is to eventually to work with traditional media for micro- payments. For a CEO of a bank, micro- payments are of course of interest. But, Lars Seier Christensen doesn’t have any solutions yet. For now, he will contribute with capital, his networks and other ideas for Newsio.

In the upcoming months, Thomas Heltborg Juul and Sillas Poulsen plan to expand internationally. Newsio has an exciting time ahead!

The post CEO of Saxo Bank invests in Newsio appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Funding and acquisition

Recently, Blackwood Seven announced the had raised an investment of € 6,7 million. The money was provided by Conor Venture Partners, Vækstfonden and Sunstone Capital, of which the latter two have invested in Blackwood Seven earlier too. At the same time as the latest investment was received, Blackwood Seven acquired the München-based competitor Booming.

“Blackwood Seven is the future platform. They are both cheaper and better than the traditional media agencies – cheaper because they require fewer hands, and better because they are based on data and thus can provide sharper feedback. We have not seen other companies with such an advanced platform”, says Ulrik Jørring, Senior Vice President of Vækstfonden.

By using data, Blackwood Seven analyses and predict the future effectiveness of each media campaign.

“We are an automated media agency, that not only estimates, but through mathematics calculates the effect of, for example, a media campaign. We have 82 data sources, which cover everything from research institutes and statistics to Denmark’s National Bank”, says Carl Erik Kjærsgaard, CEO- founder and chairman of Blackwood Seven.

As an example Carl Erik Kjærsgaard mentions that Blackwood Seven can help a telecommunications company to analyze the exact number of sold telephone subscriptions that a certain promotion will lead to. Blackwood Seven therefor gives companies a sharper insight into the effectiveness of their advertising, which indeed is challenging the traditional advertising industry.

You can read more over at Trendsonline (in Danish).

The post Blackwood Seven receives investment and continues to challenge ad-industry appeared first on Øresund Startups.

About three months ago, Colego received an investment of € 2 million. The other day, a new investment was announced. This time the capital injection will be of approximately € 3,1 million.

It is again Nortcap Partners that is the main investor. However, the startups own CEO Martin Lavlund also is part of the round, as well as Peter Mægbæk, who originally founded Fullrate and currently Managing Director of Viasat Denmark.

“The market for what is called “local search”, that is the web’s replacement for the future phonebook, have enormous potential. Internet services like Colego saves consumers hours of trouble when they have to find the right help, because it’s done intelligently with technology. There is a great future here.” says Peter Mægbæk

Since the establishment in 2012, Colego has developed fast: after two years, the company had 8 employees and now 65 people are working for the company. On a daily basis, Colego is providing over 1,700 business tasks across Denmark. In this development pace, Colego has an exciting time ahead!

You can read more over at Trendsonline as well.

The post Colego raises further € 3,1 million appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Investment

Now, Engaging Care receives an investment from Peter Jungbeck, founder of the worldwide florist chain Euroflorist, and changes name from eDiabeat to Engaging Care in order to advance in additionally healthcare areas. The exact sum of the investment has not yet been announced, but Annica Carnbring Belfrage, Co-Founder and CEO of Engaging Care, reveals that the company will be valued to € 1.6 millions after the investment.

The money will be used to launch the finished product in Sweden in the early autumn. After that, the company will target to international markets. The prospective countries are not yet decided, but Annica Carnbring Belfrage says that the US and the Middle East are possible markets for the future. The products will also be developed to include additionally care areas.

”We will start with overweight, obesity and diabetes, but we predict a scalability of Engaging Care. In the future, the company can be extended to osteoarthritis and mental illness, or in fact wherever there is a need for more support and commitment among patients”, says Annica Carnbring Belfrage.

Engaging Care’s service

To start using Engaging Care’s platform, one has to fill out a form with basic questions about their health. Based on the answers, an eight-week program will be presented, which will provides both knowledge of the disease and give the person the motivation to change their lifestyle. Furthermore, caregivers can keep track of their patients and then adjust the individual care.

“We use a technology platform that has previously been used to create engagement and change behavior among employees at different companies”, says Annica Carnbring Belfrage.

The beta version of Engaging Care’s product was launched last fall and tested on barely a hundred diabetic patients and their relatives. At the same time the company won the Venture Cup Southern Region in the category of human and society, but under the name eDiabeat. Engaging Care’s product will be ready for launch this fall.

The post Engaging Care receives investment to fight diabetes and obesity appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“NA-KD.com acquires the company because it fits well into our diversified fashion industry and it will kick-start our operational activities. We also believe that Country-Dreams is a “diamond in the rough” that we can start to scale upwards with a well-balanced profit margin” says Jarno Vanhatapio.

Since 2008, Anna Weinberg has run Country-Dreams. When she bought the company, it was close to bankruptcy, but as Weinberg took over sales has grown every year. Last year, Country-Dreams had a turnover of € 1.7 millions and an operating profit (before tax) of around € 470 000. Today, Country-Dreams is one of Sweden’s most profitable fashion companies online.

”I decided to sell Country-Dreams when Jarno contacted me. The timeing was good: Country-Dreams needed funding in order to grow. I believe that his experience will benefit the company” says Anna Weinberg.

Anna Weinberg will resign as CEO of the company, but remain operational during a transition phase. The plan for Country-Dreams is to maintain the brand and run the store as a subsidiary of NA-KD.com. Synergy effects arise both in the purchasing department and by the move of the warehouse to NA-KD.com in Borås, Sweden. In the future, an international launch is planned.

“We believe that the Country Dreams, together with NA-KD.com, has a great future in the fashion industry and we look forward to many fun and successful year together with customers and suppliers” says Anna Weinberg.

The post Founder of Nelly.com takes over Country-Dreams appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Lendino announced in a press release that a new funding is secured. The four investors are Stefan Glänzer, Robert Dighero, Mark Dighero and Steffen Thilsted. All of them have solid experience of Fintech from London, where the area is rapidly developing.

”We are very pleased to have received these four people as co-investors. The new investors have significant experience in Fintech and a robust network of venture capital industry to provide strategic coaching and business development. We look forward to working with our new investors ” says Asger Trier Bing, CEO of Lendino.

The amount of the investment has not yet been announced. However, Asger Trier Bing reveals that the money will be used to the establishment in Denmark and primarily on marketing efforts. Moreover, the money will also be used on the expansion to the rest of the Nordic region.

“We estimate that P2P lending has great potential in Scandinavia as an alternative to conventional bank financing. Lendino has built a solid platform and is strongly positioned to take advantage of new trends in the financing of small businesses in the region”, says Stefan Glänzer, CEO of Passion Capital.

The post Lendino receives investment from London appeared first on Øresund Startups.

”The majority of the money comes from the US. Some of the investors are new, but there are also some of our previous investors who have been in this round” says Rickard Hansson, founder and CEO.

Expansion towards the US

The investment will lay the foundation for a continued expansion on the US market. The head office, formerly located in Malmö, has already been moved to Los Angeles. Currently, fifteen people are working in the American office, while eight people are working in Malmö. Within a year, Incentive’s ambition is to expand the development team to 20- 30 persons and the sales and marketing team to 10 – 20 persons. Marketing and sales department will be located in the United States.

”We want a geek-office with developers in Malmö. There are many extremely talented developers in Sweden and in the Malmö region” says Rickard Hansson.

Since the start, Incentive has received venture capital of approximately € 3 millions. The latest investment will be the starting point to profitability for Incentive; Rickard Hansson estimates that the company will have positive results in early 2016.

Perviously there has been talk about aiming for an IPO soon. If those plans are still relevant with this investment round is unknown.

The post Incentive receives € 1.5 M investments and aims for the US appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“As one of the leading experts in product images, we feel the need to brand ourselves more in line with the product and the service we provide. We have become much more than a service that removes the background from the images – and just as we have evolved, should our brand also develop” says Thomas Kragelund, CEO of Pixelz.

Expansion of the concept

Pixelz’s concept has been expanded to include technologies and analysis of webshop’s images. The new technology makes it possible to download all product images and rate these in relation to how well the product is pictured. The rating is done according to four parameters:

• The quality of the image
• Uniformity – In order to create transparency and consistency throughout the site.
• Compression – How well the images are compressed.
• The number of images of your products – More photos often equals more sales.

Pixelz offers the ability to create an overview of the images’ standard from the four above-mentioned parameters. For shopkeepers this creates the possibility to regularly monitor their development and optimization within product images. Additionally, Pixelz can help shopkeepers meeting the different requirements for ads on Google Shopping.

“Today, we know that it is important to have a quick loadingtime on a site, but there are also studies that show that if you have more than one image of a product, sales will increase by seven percent” says Thomas Kragelund.

Since the start in 2011, Pixelz has expanded: today, the company has offices in nine different countries in three different continents. Pixelz new concept will presumably make the company grow even more!

The post Remove The Background expands its concept and changes name to Pixelz appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“BRIC and the University of Copenhagen deserve a great tribute for their research and work towards commercialization. We are very pleased that EpiTherapeutics now have new owners who can help lift the technology to new heights” says Carsten Schou, General Partner in SEED Capital.

The American Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes innovative medicines in areas of unmet medical need. Previously, the company has two major hepatitis C drugs.

For SEED Capital, this transaction is the 5^th exit during the last year. The total value of exited companies this year is now stunningly € 400 million.

The post SEED Capital sells EpiTherapeutics for € 57 millions appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“We got a lot of request to go on a tour and visit more cities. So, for the first time, we will host a World Tour and visit four cities. The first stop will be in Copenhagen, our doorway from the Nordics to the world. It’s a great city to start our tour because of all the interesting things that people are doing there,” says Travis Spencer, Co-founder of Nordic APIs.

API, Application Programming Interface, is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. During Nordic APIs event, API platforms, business models, strategy, security, marketing and design will be discussed.

“We have gathered a group of rockstars within the API world, and they will instruct attendees on how to anticipate and respond to change throughout an API’s entire lifecycle. I personally believe that API security and business modeling are the two biggest impediments to wider-scale adoption. Each presenter will share their own thoughts and suggestions on this,” says Spencer.

Speakers of the day will be:

• Pam Dingle, Senior Technical Architect at Ping Identity
• Brian Mulloy, IoT Lab at Apigee
• Travis Spencer, CEO at Twobo Technologies
• Phillipp Schöne, Solution Lead at Axway
• Jacob Ideskog, Solution Architect at Twobo Technologies
• Andreas Krohn, API Specialist at Dopter AB
• Ronnie Mitra, Director of API Design at CA Technologies
• Marjukka Niinioja, Senior Consultant & Manager at PlanMill Oy

Interested?

Interested in joining this exciting event? To register for the Nordic API event in Copenhagen, click here. There you will also find more information and the program of the day.

And good news for all Oresund Startups’ readers: you get 25% off to the event! To use the discount, enter the code: oresund

The post Nordic APIs World Tour starts in Copenhagen appeared first on Øresund Startups.