Nordic Venture Forum 2008 is over and the winners have been announced. Just when I wrote (here) about how skeptical I was about Concilio Networks, they land among the top three companies out of the 50 firms that participated in the Nordic Venture Forum.

Nothing delights me as much as company proving me wrong when I’ve been critical of them. Here’s the top 3:

• Concilio Networks (Finland) - Mobilizes and monetizes VoIP and internet community services
• NsGene (Denmark) - Developes novel cell and gene based products for the treatment of neurological diseases.
• Inmold Biosystems (Denmark) - Develops sterile polymere products with biomolecules immobilised into the plastic surfaces.

ArcticStartup congratulates the winners!

While talking to Concilio Networks’s CEO, Kristian Järnefelt, in Copenhagen he showed me exactly how the company allows users of normal existing handsets to import their internet contacts from social networks. The user experience is much smoother than I’d expected -I could start chatting with a friend with two clicks: First I chose my contacts and then I just jumped into the relevant contact name as I do with any Nokia phone and I was ready to start chatting. Whenever I have my phone on it shows as ‘active’ in all the networks I choose to use, for example Google Chat or Skype. As soon as one of my contacts decides to start chatting with me I receive a SMS for every comment. Easy and simple.

I actually pulled out my Nokia N95 and fired up Fring to show Kristian that such a solution already exists, but just as Kristian told me, it takes ‘forever’ to wait the Fring to load and connect via WiFi or 3G. That said, I still believe it’s an up hill battle to sell this solution to the telcos. This Kristian also admits.

All in all, I have to give this round to Concilio Networks. Kristian showed me how easy and effortless their product is to use. Not only that, It makes the world of difference where there are no 3G or WiFi networks in place, which would make it an ideal for South American market or even for Africa. Kristian told me that this might be the case, but that Concilio Networks has found out that to win the telcos’ trust they need to find the proof of concept closer to home.

I still believe that iPhone might give them a run for their money, but even if that happens in some markets there are still nearly 3 billion other mobile phones to work with. ArcticStartup 0 - Concilio Networks 1.

I’ll be writing more extensively on all the companies that I saw presenting in the conference in the coming days. Keep on the lookout for some interesting startups!

Concilio Networks is a Finnish startup offering a solution that allows users of normal existing handsets to import their internet contacts from social networks.

In effect, Concilio Networks’ Community Connect Solution (CCS) extends Internet communities, social networks and Internet voice- and chat services to any existing mobile handset.

CCS is designed to work with every mobile handset with no need to install any application software to the handset. Instead, normal mobile phone functionalities are used as such to access the services.

In an interview with Social Networking Watch, Concilio Networks CEO, Kristian Järnefelt, informed that the company is currently beta testing with a solution for Google Talk and that they have Facebook and Microsoft Windows Live Messenger support coming out in late 2008. After that it’s MySpace’s and Bebo’s turn. He also added that they are keenly looking at OpenSocial due to the significant upside of bringing many social networks within one.

According to Mr. Järnefelf the company is build on the idea that Internet services could be connected with mobile handsets. A great idea, except that increasingly the handset can already do this with a decent user experience without a need for a third party. For example when talking about iPhone apps I am not sure if receiving status messages via SMS add value or whether it’s just easier to tap the app icon and see all of the updated status messages with a glance and a flick of a finger.

I understand that this might sound like a very lucrative opportunity on paper for the mobile service providers to increase ARPU when they are struggling to differentiate themselves from being just a fat pipe for the data. But now when the iPhone started the ‘arms race’ for a satisfactory user experience I am not sure how thrilled the consumers are for paying extra fees in the form of higher phone bills just to add a middle man between the social networks and the carriers.

I am not suggesting that everyone will inevitable have an iPhone, but that is the direction the browsing experience is heading whether we are talking about iPhone, Nokia, Android, and so on. This does not happen over night, but nor does Concilio Networks have their software running on carrier routers any time soon as they are currently running their first pilot running with Telefónica Móviles in Spain.

When it comes to chatting, sending messages and calling over the Internet there is already Fring, even though admittedly the user needs to download a client to use it.

If Concilio Networks aims to beat the already existing solutions such as Fring and add something extra to the experience the sole handsets will soon offer their solution needs to be dead simple and unbelievably easy to use.

Concilio Networks is one of the companies which has been chosen to attend the Nordic Venture Forum taking place today in Copenhagen, Denmark. I will be also there talking to startups and investors. If you’re attending, don’t hesitate to come and talk to me.

I interviewed Mr Pekka Roine last week about the initiative, that we’ve written here, to take Finnish startups to Israel to learn their secrets of success. Mr Roine has been sitting in numerous company boards both in Finland and in Israel. He also has an understanding of the differences between these two countries many would crave for.

I personally wondered why the initiative was put forward by individuals such as Mr Roine, Mr Juha Ruohonen and Greater Helsinki Promotion and not the members of parliament. After discussing for a good half an hour I understood why.

To understand the backgrounds of this exchange, one must understand Israel and what they have gone through in the last 15 years or so. Israel is one of the leading incubators and accelerators of startups in the high tech industry. During the last 15 years, Israel has “sent” more than 100 companies to Nasdaq. They also have a very systematic way of doing this and it does not rely on assumptions such as the “connections between the jews in Israel and America” or any nonsense of that sort.

However, the story goes further back. In 2004, an event was organised in Finland, followig the signing of an Agreement of Understanding between the two countries on the government level. The agreement creates the framework to work together to increase the chances of cross border co-operation and eventually, success. Needless to say such an agreement did not work very well.

In May 2006, Erkki Virtanen, the permanent secretary of TEM, together with a delegation of business and government executives visited Israel to further deepen the understanding. After the visit the understanding and keys to success began to unfold.

February this year, the chairman of the Israeli Venture Association was over for a visit in Finland and invited Finnish companies over. The visit is timed in sync with the IVA’s annual conference which gathers a lot of people from many areas of business.

The goal of the visit for the Finnish delegation this time is three fold; 1) there are lots of Israeli startups and knowledge to be shared, 2) Israeli investors are present and 3) many international investors are at the event as well.

When the program for the visit was announced in February, Greater Helsinki Promotion received applications from about 20 companies. Seven have been considered qualified for the visit. The companies travelling to Israel are Ball-it.com, Concilio Networks, Eniram, EpiCrystals, Ramblas Digital, SenseG, and Whatamap.

These seven companies will visit Israel in two weeks time. IVA’s conference is held on the 19th and 20th of May. After the conference the Finnish startups will have a chance to pitch to some Israeli startups and investors and get feedback from them, perhaps land an investment deal as well.

The program is primarily funded through sponsorship from Greater Helsinki Promotion and Technopolis Ventures BornGlobal, but there is a lot of work put in place pro bono.

Arctic Startup will be following the event very closely and we’ll be reporting on the outcome of the conference later in May.

First Line Angel Group FLAG.fi, a Finnish business angel community with a global reach, is launching on 25-26th of February 2008 at EU EASY Event in Milano, Italy. FLAG.fi is stated to be the the first and only global portal dedicated to investors, entrepreneurs, and business angels.

The founder Peter Bougdanos, a well-acclaimed business angel, hopes FLAG will be “a solution to the startup situation in Finland and all over Europe”. The problem statement manifests that many entrepreneurs and opportunities go unnoticed and/or unfunded in Finland - and also in Europe in general - because of a lack of a true angel community, consensus, support, and meaningful interaction among professionals in the field. This is something that was also identified recently in Growth Forum 08 as reported by Tomi. In addition many investors get caught up in long exit cycles, ending up tying up their valuable resources of time, money, and expertise.

The vision of FLAG is to become the first true Angel Group in Finland which mirrors the activities of angel groups in the USA. It’s mission is to make Finland, Finnish companies, Finnish business angels, and the Finnish venture capital industry a healthy, competitive, and interactive community. FLAG targets to create a currently missing dynamic forum with both a professional and social function for business angels to meet and discuss angel investments. Peter Bougdanos aims to promote Finnish startups and help them “get the commercialization and business concept traction that many fail to do”. Recent members of FLAG include online business traveller tool Dopplr and free news service forum ampparit.com.

The service will be Finland centric, but it’s claimed that already over 3000 pan-European interested members have been identified, and the majority of them have expressed keen interest to enroll. FLAG also looks to integrate Middle Eastern and Asian flare of active members. It is planned to be the melting pot for existing angel associations, stand-alone organizations, network clusters, and independent actors on local, regional, and international levels, operating both online and offline.

FLAG will offer a whole community universe for connecting investors, with a wide spectrum of tools and services, including facilitating selling of companies angel-to-angel, and providing company information and management bios. FLAG also believes in giving back to the community and 25 percent of profits will go to funding stipends for young students, lower income families’ teens, and budding entrepreneurs to gain international experience, overseas exposure and professional and academics skills.

Greek American Bougdanos has helped to foster nearly 50 startups in Finland, since moving from NYC after surviving 9/11/2001. His background includes investments in companies like Google, Skype, and Finnish Helmi Technologies, Nordic Koivu, FogScreen, Concilio Networks, and Trackway, among many others. Peter is also a founding partner of FirstRound Startup Center, which has a unique smart money approach to incubating fast track early stage companies.

It is great to see something of this scale being initiated in Finland, and hopefully FLAG will be able to give rise to new business angels activity and many new fast growing firms. If you’re interested in joining FLAG, be sure to check the web page. We can also put you in touch with Mr. Bougdanos, just drop a note at info [at] arcticstartup.com.

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Edit: I have heard there are some two-fold opinions on how Mr. Bougdanos works, so it’s advisable that you first discuss with people who have worked with him before jumping right in, to make sure there is a good match (as would be good with any new relationship in general).