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Swedish Royal Couple Get First Peek at Silicon Valley-Nurtured Technologies from Nordic Startups at Mountain View Event
[January 19, 2015]

Swedish Royal Couple Get First Peek at Silicon Valley-Nurtured Technologies from Nordic Startups at Mountain View Event


Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, in their first Silicon Valley visit together, will preview the latest Nordic technology inventions at a special event today at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The Royal Couple and other dignitaries including Björn Lyrvall, Swedish Ambassador to the US will be introduced to a handful of the most exciting startups to the US from Nordic Innovation House, a resource center in Palo Alto (News - Alert) for Nordic tech companies. During a three-day visit, the Swedish Royal Couple will explore their deep interest in innovation and technology by meeting with companies and thought leaders to discover how the dynamic environment of Silicon Valley is benefitting these fledgling operations.

"The strong connection between Sweden and the United States has meant that technology companies from Sweden and all over the Nordic region have found a welcoming environment to grow and expand," said Barbro Osher, Swedish Honorary Consul General. "At the turn of the nineteenth century, 1.3 million people -- a third of our population -- emigrated to the United States. Today, the Nordic region has become a hotbed of science and technology."

According to Anne Lidgard, Director of VINNOVA's Silicon Valley office and chairperson of Nordic Innovation House, "The Nordic countries have evolved into today's dynamic center of new technologies, with well-known successes such as MySQL, Rovio, Zendesk and, of course, Skype (News - Alert). Nordic Innovation House, inaugurated last year, already boasts 40 companies actively using the incubator space, where we hope to lower the entry threshold for Nordic startups coming to the Bay Area."

"Silicon Valley is not just a port of entry for the U.S. market, it is also a key gateway to the global market," says Ann-Sofie Safa, acting country manager USA, Business Sweden. "Partnerships and collaborations between Nordic companies and businesses in Silicon Valley lead to shorter time to marketand create great technology and innovation."



At the Computer History Museum event, there will be a showcase highlighting technology from the following companies:

Alertsec Inc, encryption software;


BetterDoctor, healthcare solution;

Elliptic Labs, ultrasonic touchless gesturing;

ius information (Zcooly), online game for kids;

Lumila, healthcare solution;

Outracks, app development tools;

ScaleVC, investing platform;

Speedment, ORM tool for Java developers;

Thinglink, interactive images software;

Wevideo, online video editor and maker;

Yubico, identity protection software;

Verbling, edtech.

The event, co-hosted by Business Sweden, VINNOVA and the Swedish Consulate General of San Francisco is sponsored by Swedish Ericsson (News - Alert) and IKEA. It will feature a panel themed "The Nordics and Silicon Valley - From Startup to Success" which includes: the founders of Bootstrap Labs, accelerator for global entrepreneurs; Prezi, presentation software; and Yubico.

Nordic Innovation house is a joint initiative co-funded by the Nordic governments as a resource center and co-working space for Nordic Startups. www.nordicinnovationhouse.com


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