The Nordic
Sommarminglet
Pre-dinner

Peter Sarlin – Silo AI is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Silo AI, acquired by AMD in 2024 in Europe’s largest AI acquisition. He is also Founding Partner of Inception Fund, the Founder and Chairman of PostScriptum, Qutwo and NestAI, focused on building and investing in AI-first companies, and Professor of Practice in applied machine learning and AI at Aalto University.

David Helgason – Unity is a technologist, investor, and the Co-Founder of Unity Technologies, which he led as CEO for over a decade. He is now a Partner at climate-focused venture firm Transition and Co-Founder of CleanPlay, a startup tackling the carbon footprint of global gaming.

Jørn Lyseggen – Meltwater is the founder and executive chairman of Meltwater, which he bootstrapped into a global leader in media and consumer intelligence, becoming one of the few founders to bootstrap a unicorn. He later started SHACK15, a top SF startup hub and VC, and is currently building two new ambitious startups within banking and AI.

Arba Kokalari – Moderaterna has been a part of the European Parliament since 2019. She is an advocate for less regulations and more ambitious tech policies, and she has been a champion of the startupscene for a long time. 

Ken Villum Klausen‍ – Lunar got early notoriety by riding donkeys (with strap-on horns) into Lunar’s afterworks in his early startup days. A decade later, he has taken Lunar to unicorn status and become one of the most outspoken advocates for the Nordic startup scene. Having recently stepped down as CEO after 11 years, his next chapter is currently loading at TBD.

Lukas Saari – Tandem Health is co-founder and CEO of Tandem Health, building an AI-native operating system for clinics to reduce the heavy admin burden on clinicians. Previously, he led McKinsey’s Healthcare Analytics practice in the Nordics, worked on machine learning at Spotify, and co-founded an algorithmic trading company.

Sophia Bendz – Cherry Ventures is a GP at Cherry Ventures, advisor to Atomico, angel investor and former advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister. Former Global Marketing Director at Spotify and co-founder of AllBright.

Johan Brand – Kahoot! & We Are Human is mostly known for having started and CEOed Kahoot, one of Norway's first Unicorn, but is now one of the most active angel and LP investors out of Oslo, through We Are Human. He is more than a little bit obsessed with the ocean and everything that has to do with it. Most comfortable on a sailboat or in visionary far ranging discussions.

Hedda Båverud Olsson – Lassie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lassie, the preventive pet insurance company backed with nearly €100M from investors including Balderton, Felix Capital, and EQT Ventures. Previously, she worked at EQT and McKinsey following an early stint in the music industry at Universal Music and EMI.

Erik Lindblad – Inception Fund is a Founding General Partner at Inception Fund, backing technical founders building business facing AI and deeptech. He is a serial entrepreneur with a strong passion for the Nordic startup scene. Kindly let’s us use their apartment like office for the gathering:)!

Thomas Anagrius – Berserk is the Co-Founder of Berserk, an observability platform built for AI-era infrastructure. Previously, he spent over seven years at Humio, later acquired by CrowdStrike.

Hanna Andreen – Flat Capital is the former CEO of Flat Capital, but she is now between jobs. She knows where she is going though - she will soon join Creades and become their Investment Director.

Anders Mjåset – Mesh is the co-founder and CEO of Mesh. Mesh runs the largest startup hubs in Norway/Denmark, and also the largest startup recruitment platform in the Nordics - The Hub. The goal with Mesh Collective is to connect the key founders and investors in the Nordic region, to accelerate Nordic innovation in the Nordics and beyond.

Pär-Jörgen Pärson– Northzone is a Nordic VC legend who has led Northzone from a regional player in the early 2000nds to a globally recognised firm. Early backer in several of the most important tech companies to come out of the Nordics, and now a New York resident.

Terje Marthinussen – evroc is the CTO of evroc, the European sovereign cloud platform built for AI infrastructure. Previously, he held senior engineering and technology leadership roles at Google, Rakuten, and Summa Equity, including serving as Group CTO at Rakuten in Japan.

Pamir Ehsas – Moritz is the Founder and CEO of Moritz, a YC-backed AI-native law firm built for fast-moving companies. Previously, he worked as an AI and technology lawyer at Brækhus and founded Brighter Tomorrow, an EdTech and education non-profit recognized by the UN, President Obama, and Amnesty International.

Vegard Vik – Oda & After Technologies is the former CFO and co-founder of Oda, recognised as one of the two main mafia bosses in the Oda mafia. He recently emerged from stealth mode as co-founder of After Technologies, a new health tech startup set to radically reimagine pain treatment. He is also an active angel investor and startup board member.

Sebastian Knutsson – Zebkai Invest is the Co-Founder and former Chief Creative Officer of King, where he helped create Candy Crush Saga and other globally successful mobile games. Today, he manages his tech portfolio through Zebkai Invest, is a founding partner at Sweet Capital, and recently co-founded gaming startup QDE.

Oliver Molander– Inception Fund is a Founding General Partner at Inception Fund, backing technical founders building business facing AI and deeptech. He is also one of the best hype-men for the Nordic startup scene and a key player in the ecosystem. He brings over a decade of experience as a founder, operator, and investor across data infrastructure and emerging software.

Martin Schütt – Askeladden is the founder of one of the most successful company builders in Norway, Askeladden. He has raised 300 m$ and initiated 30+ companies. The group has 1000ds of employees and their focus has shifted to tech companies over the recent years.

Jessica Schultz – Northzone is a Partner at Northzone. She has been a part of the firm since 2014 and prior to that she was the co-founder and CMO of HelloFresh, a company she followed from inception to IPO. 

Fabian Kerj – Qualia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Qualia, building foundation model infrastructure for robots operating in the physical world. Previously, he worked in portfolio & investments at Antler across the Nordics.

Mats Andre Kristiansen – Take Take Take is one of the ODA founders, now dubbed the ODA mafia, who has gone on to start Take Take Take together with chess player Magnus Carlsen. He supposedly played a remis (in team with Vegard Vik and Karl Munthe Kaas) against Carlsen, so if you’re into chess, you know who to challenge.

Peder Stahl – Terra Labs is the Founder and CEO of Terra Labs, a satellite AI platform monitoring land and forestry. Previously, he served as CPO at both Kry and iZettle, helping scale two of Sweden’s most successful tech companies, including iZettle’s $2.2B acquisition by PayPal.

Ardalan Shekarabi – Socialdemokraterna is a Member of the Swedish Parliament and former 2x minister in Sweden. He serves as Vice Chair of the Labour Market Committee.

Jenny Xiao – Leonis Capital is a former researcher at OpenAI, with a PHD from Colombia. She has moved on to become a partner at Leonis Capital, a research driven VC that backs startups at the earliest stages. 

Tatiana Shalalvand – Kinnevik leads Kinneviks early stage strategy. She joined Kinnevik from Inventure in 2022 and prior to her VC career she held various high level commercial operator roles at scaleups. 

Erik Engellau-Nilsson - Norrsken Launcher - is the General Partner at Norrsken Launcher, ex. Klarna, active angel investor in the Stockholm ecosystem, first backer of Legora. A key man in the Stockholm circus.

Jay Zhao - Leonis Capital -is the Managing Partner at Leonis Capital, a SF based research-driven VC fund. Previously founded T Fund, a Silicon Valley superstar.

Fredrik Strömsten - Stealth - building in the CFO stack. Fredrik is former CPO/CSO of Sana, exited to Workday, ex. Founder of Qasa, with a investment and MBB background.

Mattias Holmström – Altor  was Altor's very first intern actually.. He has gone from there to become a partner and he heads Altor’s efforts in the tech sector.

Aya Fabricius – Mesh is one of the main reasons why we are here in Stockholm. The community-focused serial entrepreneur and creative is the Head of Network at Mesh, which makes her responsible for the development of Mesh Collective, our top level startup network.

Caroline Cronstedt – Inception Fund is Founding General Partner at Inception Fund, backing technical founders building business facing AI and deeptech at inception. She brings experience across venture capital, M&A, and board leadership.

Andrea Gazvini – Northzone is an Investor with Northzone. She has a management consulting, PE and investment banking background. She has also helped set up Antlers second office in 2018. She changed her name from Gunnel to Andrea when she was 15 years… ask her why:) 

Elias Inoue Afrasiabi – Dentio is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dentio, an AI-powered operating system for dental practices backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). 

Lukas Sjögren – Dentio is the Co-Founder of Dentio, an AI-powered operating system for dental practices backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Mathias Voldby Drejer – 9 ¾  is the founder of 9 ¾, a Copenhagen-based founders lab backed by unicorn entrepreneurs. Previously, he served as Head of Operations at Female Invest, recently stepping down to focus on building infrastructure and datasets for conversational AI.