DigitalMara attended TechArena 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden, from February 22 to 23. This is one of the largest tech-and-innovation events in the Nordic region. The business community gathered to discuss innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, technology, and global megatrends. Here’s a look at some of the main themes and our impressions.
The two days were full of keynotes, fireside sessions, panel discussions, startup pitches, expert seminars, investor meet-ups, founder sessions, curated side events, roundtables, workshops, and networking activities. TechArena 2024 was built on four overarching themes: leading through innovation, world-class entrepreneurship, leveraging tech for sustainability, and breaking barriers through leadership.
Highlights
- Jessica Meir, a NASA astronaut, discussed the value of SpaceTech and her experiences as one of the women who participated in the first all-female spacewalk.
- Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and philanthropist, shared his vision for how Apple has been changing computing as we know it and the future of AI.
- Former Vice President and climate change leader Al Gore talked about the intersection of global trends, climate change, and the world of investments.
- Technology advances are reshaping how we live and work and contributing to building a more sustainable future for coming generations. Experts talked about sustainable practices in various sectors, including transportation, food, waste management, and others.
- Change in the economic world order is one of the fundamental questions. Experts discussed opportunities, challenges, and venture capital trends shaping 2024.
- AI is deeply with us. Experts talked about the role of AI in business and technology development and in cybersecurity, legal regulations governing AI, and human relations.
Startups
Tech Arena offered two big competitions for startups:
- Pitch40
All startups had a chance to participate in the Pitch40 competition. Some 40 companies were chosen from the list of applicants by a selection committee to pitch live during TechArena. The assessment was based on scalability, uniqueness, sustainability, market potential, global applicability, team skills, and competency. The Pitch40 winner gets video interviews and exclusive posts to provide exposure on the channels of TechArena and its partners, meetings with international investors, a spot in the Techarenan Challenge in Almedalen 2024 and a spot in the Winner Delegation trip to Toronto and Montreal in 2024.
The 3 finalists this year:
- Reselo – the startup develops novel biomaterials from abundant biomass feedstocks as alternative to fossil-derived rubbers and plastics.
- Mifundo – the startup provides an AI platform that connects people based on their data with banks all over Europe.
- Atlas Primer – the startup offers AI-powered text to speech mobile app creating inclusive and convenient learning environment.
The winner 2024 is Leya – the startup provides AI assistant designed for legal professionals, adept at answering complex legal questions and optimizing workflows. By integrating with the firm’s internal knowledge databases and external laws, cases, and regulations, Leya delivers reliable, source-cited answers and allows lawyers to start using Gen AI today.
- Incubator Stars Challenge
All incubators and science parks in Europe can nominate their 2 most promising startups for the Incubator Stars Challenge. Of the nominees, 15 got a chance to pitch live during the event. Prizes in this category are significant and include a spot in the Winner Delegation Trip to Toronto and Montreal 2024, participation in the Techarenan Challenge in Almedalen 2024, exposure in all the event channels, and a startup booth worth 100.000 SEK (€8 894) for TechArena 2025.
The 3 finalists this year:
- FLOX Robotics – the DeepTech climate-tech startup builds the world’s first autonomous wildlife management-as-a-service.
- Cresponix – the startup offers proprietary farming technology for fish and shrimp that enables locally production of sustainable and affordable protein-rich food.
- Enerpoly – the startup produces cost-effective and clean zinc-ion batteries for scalable stationary energy storage solutions.
The winner 2024 is BrainZell – the startup offers screening platform for pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals using stem cell-based 3D models of human brain. By replacing and reducing traditional animal testing for a more sustainable future of medicine.
DigitalMara
Our Head of technology partnerships, Maria Zhurba, attended TechArena and shared her impressions:
“Spending two days in Stockholm was a great time to meet investors, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts to discuss, elaborate and learn how to transform global challenges into global opportunities for everyone. TechArena has organized the meeting area for seamless and productive matchmaking experience.”
Some key findings:
- The conference hosted interesting speakers such as Al Gore and Steve Wozniak who shared their thoughts.
- Participants and delegations from more than 100 nationalities. A great variety of people and companies.
- A lot of startups and tech companies, offering their AI-based solutions for different purposes and industries. Also, committing to sustainability or considering it a core part of their value proposition.
