Northstack Editorial

Northstack Editorial

The Technology Development Fund Needs Refactoring

Yesterday the Icelandic Technology Development Fund announced what projects would receive grants in 2016. The TDF is funded by tax money and operated by Rannís, the Icelandic Centre for Research. It has been an integral part of early stage funding of companies, and many of Iceland’s most prominent technology

Failures and Job Hoppers

Society is one of the most influencing factors on how we shape our career paths. We all want to place ourselves as an ideal marionette of those entitled to pull the strings and define the rules of the game. Some of you may already know how dropping out of school

Various tax-reform measures for the startup community likely passed in 2016

Last Friday at the Federation of Icelandic Industry’s Technology Summit, Bjarni Benediktsson, Iceland’s Minister of Finance, spoke of changes to the tax system to help the startup community. Bjarni announced plans to change the taxation of both stock-options and convertible bonds, making both a more viable instrument than

Every Oculus Rift pre-order will come with a copy of Eve: Valkyrie

Oculus announced today that every Oculus Rift pre-order will come with a copy of the game ‘Eve: Valkyrie’ from CCP games, who recently raised $30 million to boost its VR development efforts. Tech website engadget has great coverage on the announcement: Talking about today’s announcement, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey

ATMO Select, provider of in-store music, closes $1.5 MM Series A

ATMO Select just announced a $1.5MM (ISK 200 million) Series A funding round from Brunnur. The company, which provides in-store music for businesses, was previously operated as Gogoyoko, a music streaming platform. In 2013 the company rebranded to ATMO Select and refocused, working to enable retailers to customise music

The Podcast #3 – Recent fundings and the Role of Government

In this edition, Jökull and Kiddi discuss the role of the government in building a startup ecosystem. The spark: several announcements from Gov’t institutions for actions and changes in policy aimed at making the startup ecosystem in Iceland better. The Ministry for Industry and Innovation published a draft for

Watchbox secures $380K funding from Frumtak 2

AppolloX, the makers of Watchbox, just announced a ISK 50 million (~$380,000) funding from venture fund Frumtak 2. The investment will be used to boost development of Watchbox, which by now is the company’s main product. This January, the team will move to the United States to focus