Tame – Øresund Startups

A new VC is in town!

Karsten Deppert — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 14:39:17 +0000

This week it was announced that byFounders has raised a massive € 100 million fund. This is to build upon their start, which was a € 30 million fund in 2017. The plans were first announced back in 2017 as well, and have now been finalized.

The fund is, as the name suggest, focused on being backed by founders. This is an impressive list, with founders behind local successes like Zendesk, Unity, Tradeshift, Sitecore and Vivino being a part of it. But also founders from across the nordics, with successes such as Skype and Kahoot. And the idea is to leverage those founders as well for the startups that will be invested in:

“byFounders provides early-stage founders with unrivalled access to knowledge, expertise and insight from some of the most successful Nordic entrepreneurs. The support and operational guidance available from such a broad group is unique, and has the potential to play a major factor in the success of the next generation of startups from the region.” says Morten Primdahl, Co-Founder of Zendesk, about the process

The idea is to help out with what is needed for further growth. That can be scaling, introductions, referrals, recruiting, global expansion or raising further funding rounds. Portfolio startups are supposed to always find the advice they need in the 50-strong and growing ‘Collective’.

“byFounders Collective allows me to take part in shaping the founders of the future and highlighting the innovative and un-traditional companies that dare to think different and proves that the way to success doesn’t have to include a basement or a White Party.” says Frederikke Schmidt, founder of Roccamore

The fund will invest in a different range of startups. The strategy for investing has so far been a “7 T:s” approach: Team, TAM, Traction, Tech, Transformation, Timing, 10x.

However, raising a lot of money for investing in startups is not the easiest process.

“Having been through a challenging, exciting, at times gruelling and at the end very successful fundraising period, we can now proudly announce that we have managed to reach our goal of raising a € 100 million fund. For a first-time fund, this is exceptional.” Ida Åsle says about the process.

byFounders will be very important for our region, being a major VC player located here, that can compete with the other big Nordic funds such as Creandum and Northzone, based in Stockholm. An important player in the Greater Copenhagen eco-system for sure, but also strengthening the Nordics in total.

“It’s natural for every tech ecosystem to compare itself to Silicon Valley but the Nordics have established itself as a true birthplace for unicorns. The region can and will compete with any other place in the world when it comes to fostering and growing companies, and I believe the opportunity for large exits will only increase over time.” says Tommy Andersen who together with Eric Lagier started the fund.

byFounders has already invested in 11 startups: Corti, Peergrade, Simple Feast, Cobalt, Spiio, SafetyWing, Drugstars, Omnio, Qurasense, Tame, and Uizard.

You can read more about the process from byFounders directly, or at TechCrunch and Tech.eu as well.

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Interview with Tame’s CRO Jonas Gundersen

Kateryna Lukina — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 07:40:55 +0000

The Copenhagen-based startup Tame was founded in 2016, and it provides software that simplifies event planners’ work. It is a unique and 100% digital product that has tons of features to customize the best software for each customer.

Today you get a chance to read about Tame’s newly appointed Chief Revenue Officer, Jonas Gundersen. Jonas has background as a professional gamer and poker player, as well as extensive business experience within tech startups.

Hello, Jonas! Happy to have you here. Congratulations on your new position! Are you excited about the new arrangement with Tame?

It’s fantastic to join up with a group of such talented entrepreneurs. Really pumped up about the journey we have begun together.

Tell us briefly about your previous professional experience. Have you worked with startups before?

I’ve built up revenue and scaled sales as the first hire twice before. First I was in Graduateland where I spent 2 great years growing up to 25 employees and good traction in all Nordic markets. Recently I spent an amazing 3.5 years in Famly, growing to 35 employees with revenue in multiple international markets as well. In between, I founded my own startup and gained a ton of valuable experience.

Tell us more about the startup you have founded. Which industry does it work in?

Aftercloud was a service, that helped relatives shut down and save content from social media profiles when their loved ones passed away.

How do you feel gaming and business intertwine? Where do you feel you have advantage because of your gaming experience?

Gaming and business have a lot of super interesting similarities, but the one I can highlight the most is the problem-solving mindset. Gaming is packed with tons of in-game combat followed by hours of studying and analyzing previously played games, similar to 벳엔드 환전, to spot flaws and optimize performance – something that is the very core of especially tech startups with their lean methodologies. Also, I played team games only, so leadership and collaboration were vital to success.

How did the cooperation between Tame and you happen? Were you previously acquainted with Tame’s staff?

I knew Jasenko [CEO, co-founder] vaguely beforehand but the rest of the team I actually haven’t come across before. Initially, I noticed the product because of the beautiful design and execution. When I met with the team for the first time, it was very clear that we were a spot on fit together. Everything moved very quickly from there.

What makes Tame special? Tell us about the workplace atmosphere.

Tame is special because of the people there. It starts with a great founder team, who truly dares to dream big and bold but at the same time has a genuine belief and trust in other people to come in and do great things. The culture we have here is empowering and autonomous and designed to bring in heavy hitters with experience that can come in and completely own areas – something I deeply believe in.

What is the future like for Tame, in your opinion?

We are aiming to become one of the many great hyper growth stories of the Nordics, hopefully, all the way up to the biggest unicorn leagues. Obviously, the road there is filled with many obstacles and complex things we need to solve and it’s no easy task, but definitely not an impossible one. At the end of the day, it comes down to two things for me. Number one is having an initial product offering the market desires that you can build tons of value on top of. The second one is perhaps the biggest for me: people. It’s all about getting the best and most inspiring people on board. As long as we remember that we are building a company for great people to come and thrive, while keeping a ruthless focus on empowerment, accountability, and autonomy, then I am sure we’ll end up with a journey we can all be very proud of.

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Latest investments in the region (May 2018)

Kateryna Lukina — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 06:31:31 +0000

The last month has been an unusually active one when it comes to investments in the region. We have made an overview, just to give an insight into some of things that have happened! Here are some of the most noteworthy recent investments into startups in the Øresund region in May.

Tradeshift
The biggest recent one was of course Tradeshift. The first FinTech startup that has reached “unicorn” status, being valued at over $ 1 billion! Tradeshift is based in Copenhagen and it received over € 212 million from Goldman Sachs, as well as a number of other investors. You can read a lot more about that at TechCrunch and a host of other sources as well.

“We have always believed that the future of supply chains is 100 percent digital and that connecting trade is just the first step to a digitally connected economy. This investment will enable us to continue our rapid growth and consolidate our leadership position.”

– is one of co-founder Christian Lanng’s many comments on this. Impressive work building the company to this stage.

Ear Labs
Ear Labs, a Copenhagen / Malmö-based company that produces ear phones and ear plugs, has received over € 650.000. The Ear Labs’ team has created ear plugs that protect ears underwater. Now they are working on ear plugs that could be used in nightclubs and other noisy environments. The project was founded by Swedens Almi Invest and other investors in Denmark and China.

Ann-Sofie Hörlin, Investment Manager på Almi Invest, commented their recent investment:

“Ear Labs has developed a unique product with many uses in a scalable market. They work in a competitive area, but with their sharp team and a product in front edge, we see big potential for the company.”

Fieldly
Fieldly, has reported an investment of € 1.22 million. Fieldly provides digital project management systems for construction businesses. Their product makes communication between building companies and construction sites easier. Time reports, material usage and deliveries can be reported directly in the smartphone or tablet app. The biggest investment came from Roland Zeller, a Swiss business angel, as well as angels Christer Dahlén, Dan Nilsson and Mårten Öbrink.

Fieldly’s co-founder, Daniel Krusenstråhle, said:

“We have spent our first four years proving that we operate well with small and medium-sized companies. Now we have reached the point when we feel that our product is ready for bigger challenges and so is our organisation.”

With the investment the startup also announced they moved into bigger offices in Malmö.

Pleo
As we already reported, another fintech investment that happened in the region was Pleo, raising the biggest Series A investment so far in the region. The funding of € 13 million will be used to grow outside the startups initial focused cities, and bring it’s services and it’s special employee credit card to more markets.

Nikka Systems
A lesser known startup that recieved investments in May was Nikka Systems, a Malmö based statup focusing on education about IT security. The company received funds from Kjell & Company’s co-founder, Marcus Dahnelius.

“You can see that there is a big need for IT security in companies of all sizes. We are already getting request for our products, before they have been launched” says Marcus Dahnelius.

Tame
Another funding we have already covered, that was announced this month, was Tame. The event planning startup has been under the radar until now, but has a strong team and impressive angels backing it. The startup raised € 450.000 in it’s first round.

Undo
A Copenhagen-based startup Undo has received over € 3.3 million from Tryg. Undo has developed an app, which will let you get a custom-made insurance in just a few minutes. At the moment, their target audience is young people up to mid-30s, who do not know much about insurance whatsoever.

“To get an insurance is complicated and it takes a long time, and many are afraid of the process, because they cannot really understand what they buy and at the same time they get stuck with long binding time and huge cancellation fees. Almost all insurance services operate with a fixed package, but it can consist of many coverings you do not need, With us you choose only the necessary things, and you pay per month, no fees or binding time”, explains Sophie Bohr Grønbæk, co-founder of Undo.

Now Undo opens innovative insurance solutions for people in Copenhagen and Aarhus, planning to extend to other Scandinavian and European cities too.

Uizard
And finally, Uizard, a startup from Copenhagen raised € 670.000. The startup turns a wire-frame or mock-up into a source code, so the designer and developer workflow is improved and less time is spent on writing a code from scratch.

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Tame emerges from under the radar

Karsten Deppert — Thu, 10 May 2018 12:27:19 +0000

One of the most talked about “stealth” startups that have been around in the region is Tame, a startup focsusing on making event planning smart and easier. Being founded by Jasenko Hadzic, former head of CPHFTW, is has been in the works the last years building it’s first versions and onboarding customers. Now they have become public, and announced they have raised € 450 000 from a number of well known angels: Tommy Andersen, Hampus Jakobsson, Jacob Wandt, Anders Pollas and Gregers Kronborg.

Tame works as a freemium SaaS: It costs nothing to use for events that are free, but costs a small fixed fee (€1) for paid events.

“We are all in on transparency, so therefore we don’t offer a percentage fee of the ticket price like many other ticketing solutions out there. In the future, we will offer a premium version of our platform for a fixed monthly subscription fee, and this will be our primary business model.” says Jasenko to Techcrunch.

You can read more over at Techcrunch.

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