Riidr – Øresund Startups

Politikens Hus acquires Riidr

Karsten Deppert — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 08:54:20 +0000

Riidr.com has been sold to the Danish media company JP / Politiken Hus. The size of the deal has not been disclosed. The deal is not a full exit, rather it is Pubfront, the tech company behind Riidr, that has sold it’s B2C business arm and the brand, Riidr. Pubfront aims now to concentrate fully on software development across national borders, and it’s B2B business.

“Riidr.com have been able to show a significant increase in annual growth rates and was among the first e-bookshops in Denmark. We now have the opportunity to focus on our core business, namely the development of software in the delivery of digital content.” says Anders Breinholst at Pubfront

The deal with JP / Politikens Hus means that Pubfront will continue to supply the technology for Riidr, as well as Schibsted’s ebook-services in Norway and Sweden. Schibsted will also remain a shareholder of Pubfront, with a 10 percent stake.

“Riidrs technology platform is unique because it puts users first. It makes it easy to read the same e-book on many different devices, and you can easily buy an e-book, whether you are using tablets, e-readers or Amazon’s Kindle. With the acquisition of Riidr.com we strengthen our position in the e-book market, a market we have high expectations of.” says Stig Kirk Ørskov, CEO of JP / Politiken Hus.

Expanding further

The founders will remain at Pubfront, and it’s focus will be on further expansions.

“It’s a great day at the office. We have been working hard at this deal for a while, and it feels great to finally make it public. This deal will focus our company and help bring our ebook platform to new markets.” Anders said.

Pubfront is already the tech behind Ebok.no and Bokon.se, besides Riidr.com. Now the sight is set for the german market.

“In the longer term, we see our platform used to power services in many countries, as it goes hand in hand with the media companies needs for digital content. We see the sales of Riidr as just the start of our journey.” Anders concludes.

The post Politikens Hus acquires Riidr appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Startup Village officially opened – #svlaunch

Karsten Deppert — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 08:04:25 +0000

On Friday, the official opening of the Startup Village Copenhagen took place. Startup Village has been in the talks since before the summer, and most startups have actually already moved in, with the aid of companies like moving and storage nyc, during the summer. But last week was the official opening. So these top-rated professional packers here have also helped a lot!

Above you can see the some footage of the opening ceremony, where Zenia Francker from Founders House held the inauguration talk.

Founders house is a initiative where some of the most successful startups from Copenhagen have co-located in the same block. Startup Village is located at Islands Brygge on Njalsgade, in the old pakhusen. Some of the startups have had their offices there for a while already, but with the latest startups moving there the idea of branding it as Startup Village was born.

The houses are 4 old warehouses remodeled by a local floor marking contractor, with some startups having smaller spaces and some entire floors. It is a distinct historical area with great flavour and both indoor as well as outdoor locations.

Entrepreneurial initiative

Behind the initiative are the different startups, with Founders House moving there being one of the driving factors. It is a completly private initiative, with the aim of helping all startups located in the village. Somewhat ironically, the business department of the Copenhagen Municipallity actually had their offices just next door, until they moved to a new location, this summer.

Startups present

Some of the biggest startups present in the Startup Village are:

With the Founders House co-working space there are also a larger number of smaller and newer startups present.

Not just startups

The village also includes a café and a restaurant, as well as a Yoga center. Some ‘regular’ companies are present on the premises as well, such as White Arcitects office, as the this has rather been a gradual growing conglomeration of startups and not a top-down planned takeover, such as Berlin Factory. The idea is however to enable further startups to move there, with the assistance of a service like business moving services, as soon as floor-space becomes available.

The post Startup Village officially opened – #svlaunch appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Copenhagen Startup Village revealed!

Karsten Deppert — Fri, 23 May 2014 09:26:19 +0000

There really is something brewing in Copenhagen! Founders House, an invite only co-working space, has for long been the most known startup palces in Copenhagen. This week it was announced they will move to a new location. But this location will not just be a much larger and grander Founders House – it will also be next to a lot of other prominent startups!

The new location, at Islands Brygge, will thus form a new innovative tech hub – dubbed the Startup Village Copenhagen.

Old warehouses turned into startups heaven

Islands Brygge’s historic warehouses marked by experts you can aslo hire if you click here used to be the headquarters of FDB, who stored and transported products to all of Denmark via direct tracks to Copenhagen Harbor. In recent years, the area has increasingly become the home of tech startups, and now that is accelerated. As of this summer, the area in Njalsgade will be the frame around Copenhagen’s biggest concentration of fast-growing startups, including the estabished startups Vivino, Opbeat, Graduateland and Autobutler, as well as over 15 other both early and later stage startups!

A real hub for startups

Having all these ambitious startups with offices side by side increase knowledge-sharing and in turn speeds up growth of the individual companies. All serious tech startups are welcome, both to take up offices at Njalsgade, now called Startup Village, and to join the many tech events and social stuff arranged so people can network, do business and have fun. Founders House will with it’s move also expand, so talk to them if you are a smaller startup and want to be part of their co-working area.

A grass-roots initiative

The entire idea behind the Startup Village comes from the community itself. In contrast to many other projects, this is not a government sponsored place or initiative, but rater it is the different startups realizing that they could create an area that they would love themselves. This is a similar trend seen elsewhere, with Berlins Factory (also to be opened this summer) being a similar initiative.

With both the established startups being there, and Founders House with its often earlier stage startups as well as smaller startups in their own offices, the Village will be a space for both startups that are just getting going, as well as later stage ones that have raised a successful series A or even a series B investment. The Village will also be a natural place for international startups establishing a Scandinavian presence to be located – something that already is apperent on the list of the initial startups forming the Startup Village!

All in all, a great step for the community to have that much knowledge in one place!

Startups present

The spaces are being put in shape now, and the inaugurations is set for the 29th of August. The following startups have said will be part of the Startup Village CPH when it starts:

The post Copenhagen Startup Village revealed! appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Øresund Startups: Top50 and state of the region

Karsten Deppert — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 21:59:17 +0000

Today I held a short lunch seminar on the subject of the most prominent startups in the region. The seminar was held because I was asked to do it, and when I thought about it I realized would be interesting to do. So I did, even if it was with a limited amount of preparations (which I can be accused of, but my main philosophy is: better to do then to don’t). So I did it.

It was held over lunch at CreativeLab, the creative event concept at the SHIP co-working space. Because we have a policy of livecasting whatever we do, you can watch the recording above (Our new Bambuser channel can be found here).

If you want to download the slides, I have made them available on slideshare but there are quite low resolution there, so can be found as pdf here as well.

I am probably describing some of the startups a little bit wrong (sorry for that), and I missed some things in the presentation (corrected in the downloadable versions). But I hope it creates some value for you as the viewer anyway.

Update 1: Some have asked why so many people are walking around and the background noice – the location where the presentation was held is the auditorium in the CreativeLab, called “trappan”, and is just that: the main stairs between the first and second floor. It is designed to be in the middle of the entire place, so that any presentations held there can have drop-in / drop-out flow. A somewhat special enviroment, but I love it, often with a lot of student from Lunds University sitting around in the open areas, and the business and entrepreneurs on the stairs themselves…

Update 2: I should of course list the top 50 startups mentioned as well! Here they are (in the order presented, i.e. in alphabetical order after category):

Series A + B

B2C

Billetto
Miinto
Vivino
WatAGame (GoSupermodel)
Zmags

B2B

Seed level

B2C

B2B

Other prominent startups

The post Øresund Startups: Top50 and state of the region appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Riidr launches subscription called Riidr one

Ischa — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 09:54:35 +0000

Recently Riidr launched its subscription offer which they believe fits better with the customer’s reading habits. Riidr One is a combined subscription to both e-books and audio books. For only 69 kr per month, they offer their subscribers to read the beginning of more than 6,500 e-books and audiobooks, and each month to choose one of these books.

“We’ve looked at our stats and see that only 5% who read more than 14 books a year. Therefore, we also come with this model that we believe matches much better a realistic reading needs.” says Anders Breinholst to
trendsonline.dk.

Riidr, who received an ivestment from Norwegian-based Schibsted Media Group is not alone on the market. Mofibo also offers a subscription service for e-books.

“With Mofibo on the market, we will put even more focus on the development of our own subscription service.” says Riidr to trendsonline.dk.

The post Riidr launches subscription called Riidr one appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Finalists Nordic startup awards!

Ischa — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:17:18 +0000

The finalists of the Nordic Startup Awards are announced and we are glad to hear that 16 of the startups are based in the Øresund region (5 in Sweden and 11 in Denmark). The Nordic Startup Awards is a series of events throughout the Nordics with the aim of lifting the new generation startups to a new level and to show the world the competences of the startup scene in the Nordic region. The winners will be announced on the final event in Copenhagen on December the 7th.

In the best newcomer category (operating less than 12 months) we find the Swedish startup Applika, the Danish Admazely and The Eye Tribe

The Danish Click a Taxi, Riidr, IconFinder and the Swedish Flattr are nominated as best funded startup. This group represents firms which have received professional funding from a VC or professional angel.

In the international category (must have started operations in the Nordics) we find Endomondo, Zendesk and Tradeshift, Zaplox and Kvittar.

Only one startup from our region is nominated as bootstrapper of the year Splitter (received no professional funding), and also the peoples choice award is only represented by Tunaspot, a firm which plays into new developments in the music industry by providing a location based music platform.

Most honorably, Podio and Miinto were nominated for the prestigious Startup of the Year award!

Founders House, Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship and The Copenhagen Nokia Bridge Incubator are nominated as the best service provider, well deserving the recognition for their help and services to the startup industry. YEoS is also nominated, an organisation for young entrepreneurs which has a strong presence on the Swedish side.

Join the final event on December 7th in Copenhagen to hear the winner announcement, network and to see that the Nordic scene is a leading centre for innovation.

Update 4 nov 10:28 – We missed some companies! Updated with the new information!

The post Finalists Nordic startup awards! appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Schibsted invest in Riidr

Karsten Deppert — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:17:15 +0000

TrendsOnline reports that Schibsted Media Group, one of the largest media-companies in Scandinavia invest in Riidr and their e-book business. Riidr was one of the first companies to focus on e-books in Denmark, and they have developed their own app for both the iOS and Android platforms.

No sum for the investment has been mentioned, and it is not confirmed if the investment is with capital or media-exposure – which isn’t unusual when the scandinavian media groups invest in startups.

The post Schibsted invest in Riidr appeared first on Øresund Startups.