Nordic Data & AI Weekly: Sana, Parlametric, Aimplan, Flower, Heartspace, InfoTiles, ECG247, and all the latest news & resources
Recent funding, news, and resources for builders
Quick reads on value creation
Things to know, whether you are building 🛠 or investing 💰
🤔 How to create an AI product people will actually use, looking at why so many AI products fail, where the lucrative opportunities are, how to overcome the disadvantages of AI, and how to build products people want.
⚔️ A look at incumbents vs. upstarts in the generative AI world, and where the most interesting opportunities may lie.
📚 A curated list of resources from a16z that they have relied on to get smarter about modern AI.
🤔 What Snowflake’s acquisition of Neeva may tell us about the future of AI startups - we’ll likely see a lot of companies fail to beat big tech incumbents and then be acqui-hired by platforms that are scrambling to form AI-focused teams.
Recent AI funding in the Nordics & Baltics
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🇸🇪 Sana: AI-powered learning platform helping pioneering companies to share knowledge, learn fast, automate admin and perform 10x faster. Raised $28m from New Enterprise Associates, and Workday Ventures (link).
🇸🇪 Parlametric: Enabling companies to optimise their business and understand their audience on a whole new level, via language analysis from customer service or sales conversations, text responses in surveys, or comments posted on social media. Raised $970k from angels.
🇸🇪 Aimplan: The next-generation SaaS solution for performance management, planning, budgeting and forecasting extending the Microsoft Power BI platform. Raised an undisclosed amount from Arctic Ventures, Born Capital, and Kokai Holding AB (link).
🇸🇪 Flower: Using a a combination of advanced algorithms and a modern cloud architecture to operate and optimise energy assets, enabling society to rely on renewable electricity. Raised $3.33m from 41an Invest AB and Ellevio.
🇸🇪 Heartspace: AI-powered PR tool that helps companies to spread their message, reach their target audience, and contribute to a more constructive and solution-focused public conversation. Raised $420k from undisclosed investors.
🇳🇴 InfoTiles: Digital analytics platform that provides actionable insights covering the entire water value chain, allowing for real-time monitoring of wastewater treatment and natural waterways. Raised $1.35m from Lyse Group, 4impact, and Proventure Management (link).
🇳🇴 ECG247: Wireless heart rhythm sensor, utilising advanced algorithms, cloud-based data processing and AI for the detection of atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias. Raised $1.08m from Agder, and Skagerak Maturo.
If there is some relevant Nordic AI news or funding that is missing from this newsletter, feel free to share by replying directly or emailing nordicaiweekly@substack.com and I’ll look to spread the word next week. Thanks!
News from the wider world 🌍 🌎 🌏
📈 Nvidia briefly became the 5th publicly traded US firm to be valued at more than $1 trillion - the company controls about 88% of the GPU market (the hardware powering the AI revolution) and has been one of the major winners of late, with the recent valuation surge a result of Q2 sales 50% higher than analysts had estimated.
Here, an article looking at the shortage of these kinds of advanced chips that are the lifeblood of new generative AI systems.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spoke at Computex in Taipei and made a number of announcements, including chip release dates, its DGX GH200 super computer, and partnerships with major companies.
🆕 It was Microsoft’s turn this week to make a ton of new announcements and roll out new AI-powered products at their annual Build conference, including a growing AI plugin ecosystem, an AI tool to take the pain out of building websites, and a unified platform for analytics.
🧳 A look at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s recent European tour meeting heads of government and research organisations. And his optimistic view of the future.
💰 Anthropic raised $450m as it continues to challenge OpenAI and build next-gen AI assistants.
🏥 In an exciting example of AI in health, scientists have used AI to narrow down thousands of potential chemicals in order to discover a new antibiotic that can kill a deadly species of superbug.
On safety and regulation…
Here, the official (brief) statement and all signatories, hosted on the website of the San Francisco-based Center for AI Safety.
OpenAI launched a program to award ten $100,000 grants to fund experiments in setting up a democratic process for deciding what rules AI systems should follow — “within the bounds defined by the law”. Here is the official announcement.
Google will work with lawmakers in Europe on what’s being referred to as an “AI Pact” — seemingly a stop-gap set of voluntary rules or standards while formal regulations for applying AI are still being worked on.
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