Magnus R. Gaarder (nFront) and Startup Grind are excited to bring you "International VC Night"!

The event will introduce international VC investors to some of the most promising Seed and Series-A startups in Norway, as well as to the local investors and enablers that help make the ecosystem a growing success.

If you are a Norwegian entrepreneur with a company in the €500k - €5m revenue range, save the date. This will be a unique opportunity to connect directly with leading European VC investors focused on the Nordics. 

To ensure a good match between the companies and the visiting investors, this event is by invitation only. If you are connected to investors or companies at the right stage that should attend, please suggest them via this form. 

Please RSVP via the link at the top of the page.

Event details follow below.

Purpose:

• Connect promising Norwegian Series-A and Seed stage companies with international VCs
• Connect Norwegian investors with international VCs
• Share the VCs take on the Norwegian ecosystem and investment opportunity (panel, see below)
• Allow selected startups to present themselves with short 3-5 minute pitches

Program:

• VC Panel: The Nordic Investment Opportunity, with 4-5 leading international VCs
• Startup Pitches: 3 minute pitches from selected Norwegian Seed and Series-A stage startups
• Mingling: After the pitches there will be mingling with light food and drinks

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NB: More details on confirmed speakers will follow soon!

Confirmed speakers:

• Linus Dagh, Partner at Inventure - Inventure is a leading early-stage venture capital company in the Nordics and Baltics with ~€230 under management . Based out of Stockholm, Linus is heading Inventure’s operations in Sweden. Linus has been in venture capital for more than 5 years – first with Almi Invest in Stockholm, then with Wellington Partners in London. Prior to joining our team, he was part of the management of a Copenhagen-based startup Tonsser, where he worked on growth, product and partnerships. At Inventure, Linus looks at both consumer and enterprise opportunities, focusing on software, AI, machine learning, and food tech.
• Vanessa Gstettenbauer, Principal at btov - Vanessa joined btov as a Principal in 2018. She previously gained venture experience in London at Founders Factory and Holtzbrinck Digital and started her career in Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Vanessa holds a Bachelor Degree in Chemistry from University College London, graduating with first class honours. btov is one of the oldest European venture capital firms, managing about EUR 420m. Founded in 2000, originally as online matching platform named “BrainsToVentures”, btov has pioneered venture capital investment solutions for private, corporate and institutional investors.
• Teemu Mattila, Investment Manager at DN Capital which is a global venture capital firm with an investment team that is passionate about technology and working with exceptional, global-minded entrepreneurs. We thrive on actively supporting our portfolio companies especially on identifying key talent through our global network as well as building scalable go-to-market strategies for market expansion. We have been the early leading investor in companies such as Auto1, Endeca, Shazam, HomeToGo, Remitly, Purplebricks, Quandoo and Tourlane.
• Joyce Liu - Chief of Staff at Templafy, a brand and content management software workflow company HQ’d in Denmark with enterprise customers across 3 continents. Joyce was educated and grew up mostly in Canada, though her roots are from China. She has worked and lived in the US (New York, Los Angeles) and Europe (London, soon Copenhagen) for the past 10 years. Joyce has been working in Financial Services since 2007 working for public companies like General Electric, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Ares Capital. She moved to Europe 5 years ago because she saw the potential in the vibrant tech ecosystem here. Joyce has been part of the founding team for startups as well as VC funds like TRULY Experiences, Columbia Lake Partners, and Dawn Capital. Her work experience has provided the opportunity to work with over 100 management teams on both sides of the pond and from all walks of life. In February 2018, Joyce led Dawn Capital's initial investment into Templafy alongside Insight Venture Partners in a $17MM Series B fundraise and has been actively involved on the Board before joining the management team. While at Dawn, she also invested in and sat on the Boards of HoxHunt, Bitmovin, and Conversocial.
• Magnus R. Gaarder (panel moderator) is a technology focused venture capitalist, with a background in investment banking (M&A) and computer science. Magnus is the Founding Partner of investment firm nFront, bringing capital, software development and strategy support to companies across various stages of development. Previously, Magnus was an Investment Manager at VC fund Nauta Capital in London, and a member of the founding team at M&A boutique Portico Capital. He started his career as an M&A-focused investment banker in New York. Magnus has a combined educational background in computer science and finance from UPenn and NTNU, specialized in machine learning and financial engineering.
  
• Kjartan Slette - The simple formula to raising capital - learnings from an international fundraising journey
  Kjartan Slette is the Co-Founder and COO at Unacast - the makers of the Real World Graph®. Unacast is a Norwegian company based out of NYC, leading the global push for democratizing access to accurate and transparent location data, and starting 2019 with strong revenue growth and a recent $17.5 capital raise. Unacast has won awards for its innovative culture based on decency and diversity. Previous to Unacast, Kjartan was part of the founding team at TIDAL, acquired by Jay Z in 2015.