A three-year impact fund
1.5 M € funding | 40 subprojects | 97 organisations | 3 objectives | 6 challenges
Rising North was established in 2016 by Startup Foundation to accelerate the internationalisation of the Nordic startup ecosystem. Rising North’s main objective was threefold. It aimed to develop the branding, cross-collaboration and internationalisation of the Nordic startup ecosystem. Rising North did this by financing pan-Nordic initiatives that require collaboration between public, private and nonprofit organisations and promote networking between different stakeholders within the ecosystem. To achieve its objectives, Rising North received 1.5 million euros from the Nordic Council of Ministers. Of this, 1.3 million euros was allocated to a fund from which to give grants to a minimum of 30 pan-Nordic sub-projects between 2016–2018. Rising North funded a total of 40 subprojects with the provided funding ranging between 6,000 and 50,000 euros per initiative. A more detailed framework for Rising North’s activities stems from six challenges that Nordic startups are facing. They are labelled as Talent, Capital, Policy, Go-To-Market (GTM), Visibility and Representation, and each funded subproject responded to at least one the six challenges.
The team
The team behind Rising North during 2018 consisted of Alexander Proctor in the role of Operations Manager and Eva Fogdell as the Marketing and Community Manager. During 2016-2017 Peik Hämekoski worked as the Operations Manager of the project. The project was operated under Startup Foundation and its Chief Executive Officer Kaarlo Väisänen.
Eva Fogdell Marketing, Communications and Community
Alexander Proctor Operations, applications and feedback
Kaarlo Väisänen CEO of Startup Foundation