Top News

1. The debates about political support for entrepreneurship continue. (link) Politicians and entrepreneurs will gather at Tech Townhall #7 to continue the conversation. Stayed tuned for more info. (link)
2. Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm are on the rise when it comes to raising VC capital. More data here. (link)
3. Europe’s deal value has risen since Q1 ’23, with Q3 being 5.9% higher than Q2. Levels in 2023 are comparable to or higher than pre-2020. Pitchbook European Venture Report here. (link)
4. Shifter has created a series of content that focuses on the challenges encountered by founders. You can read stories from various founders in this series. (link)
5. Microsoft’s 365 Copilot, the new AI-powered assistant, is available for certain enterprise customers. Here are the takeaways on how it can be integrated into workflows. (link)
6. Reverse job interviews led to 600 responses. Smidesang & Lyng share their reflections on the process. (link)
7. Denmark’s Novo Nordisk is the highest-valuing company in Europe, valued at $430 billion. (link)
8. The state of the logistics industry and the trends happening in Norway. (link)
9. The world’s first AI safety summit was held in the UK, here is Sifted’s summary. (link)
10. TechBBQ released a playlist of recordings of all the talks from Day 1. (link)

Latest on Funding

🇸🇪 Northvolt preparing for an IPO potentially in Sweden which would improve the European stock market (link)

🌍 Norrsken’s growth stage fund for startups in Africa, Norrsken22, closed $205 million for their debut fund. (link)

💻 Spin off from Fast, Vespa.ai, AI-powered search engine, raised $31 million from Blossom Capital. (link)

🇮🇹 Italian WSense raised €9 million from RunwayFBU, Aker solutions, Katapult Ocean and others in Europe .(link)

🚀 Azane Fuel Solutions, offering bunkering solutions for ammonia fuel, raised €5.4 million from Yara Growth Ventures and Navigator Holdings Ltd. (link)

🛥️Nortech AI, plug and play solution for the maritime industry, raised €2.5 million in seed funding from Indico Capital Partners and Earlybird-X. (link)

🔋 Nanopower Semiconductor receives 30 million NOK from the European Innovation Council Accelerator. (link)

💻 Konfidens, a SaaS platform for psychologists, raised 4 million NOK from CTO Roundtable Invest, Oslo Venture Company, WeSeed, Tore Grøttum and several angel investors. (link)

Latest on Talent

🇫🇮 Sarita Runeberg has been appointed as Maria01’s new CEO (link)

🐐 NoFence announces Joachim Kähler as their new CEO. (link)

🤘 Emilie Harr will take over from Kristoffer Engebø as new CEO of Eduplaytion (link)

🚤 Zeabuz won in two categories at the European Startup Prize for Mobility (link)