The Startup Village, an entrepreneurial village in the city, is located in the historical FDB warehouses centrally on Islands Brygge in Copenhagen, and is with its size of 14,000m2 the largest ”startup hub” in the Nordics. Both Stockholm and Oslo have during recent years launched hubs for entrepreneurs, Stockholm with SUP46 and Oslo with Mesh, but now the Danish capital is again part of the competition of creating the best framework for growth oriented new tech companies.
Startup Village is a private initiative. The concept has been developed by the entrepreneurs behind the office collaboration Founders House, and today hosts 36 startups and is supported by 4 venture funds. Among the companies are some of the most promising Danish tech startups, such as Vivino, PlanDay, and Autobutler, which has raised almost €20 million crowns during the past few years. The venture industry has actively supported the initiative, and Northzone, Seed Capital, Sunstone Ventures and Creandum are all founding partners. Finally, the Departement of Trade and Business has supported the launch financially.
“Startup Village is part of the ’goldmine’, from where we as a society must mine new jobs and companies, find new growth, and where we venture investors must find the companies that enable us to provide the returns that our LPs require to continue to supply the ecosystem with new capital.”, says Gregers Kronborg, General Partner of Northzone, ”It is important that the entrepreneurial ecosystem has both critical mass and a density so that entrepreneurs can inspire and help each other – and in turn ‘invent’ the next generation of startups. It is these synergies that the Startup Village is supporting and developing”.
Startup Village differs from other similar initiatives by being a purely private initiative. It is run 100% by the entrepreneurial community itself, and is based on a “lean” philosophy of as little administration as possible, and thus smaller startups are in the Founders House, while larger startups have own leases in the warehouses. Further, the initiative differentiates itself by being totally focused on growth and thus the requirements to be allowed to join are among the toughest in Denmark.
“We want to create an environment for the most serious tech entrepreneurs, those with global ambitions and potential, and we are already well on the way. As such the Startup Village can be compared to Team Denmark for elite sports – hard work, super high ambitions and global goals”, says Zenia Francker, managing director of Founders House, who is coordinating the Startup Village.
More info
Founders House/ Startup Village
Managing Director Zenia Francker: +45 3071 1216
Founder and board member Tine Thygesen: +45 2720 2850
Northzone
General Partner Gregers Kronborg: +45 25136320
Founding startups of Startup Village (in alfabetical order)
A Million Mail
Anker Studio
Arpedio
August-Hemmingsen
Autobutler
Bellmetric
Birdback
BodyBarista
Boligsurf
ChurchDesk
Conferize
Driversnote
Everplaces
Founders House
Graduateland
Hello Monday
HelloWorldMobile
Labster
MeeWee
Na3m
Nabby
Nodes
Opbeat
Open Flow
Pinstriped
Planday
Pocket Risk
Realm.io
Riidr
Shape
Starfly Media
Tailify
Timebird
Vivino
WannaSport
Zenbu Social