Public Funding for Startups in Denmark

In Denmark, we have five regions and then we have a number of municipalities. And each of them actually gives funding for startups. So there is on a national level “Innovationsfonden”, and they have two programs within something called InnoFounder for graduates and for more experienced students. And then they have, for those that do sort of what we call industrial PhD and also apply for funding there. And then they have funding programs for researchers who want to do a startup. And they are actually very generous programs for companies based. There could also be a foreign company. If you team up with some Danish teams to be eligible for some of these grants, you can also be an individual researcher from Spain or from Germany based in Denmark as well. And then you will still be eligible for these grants. If you can show that you have any affiliation with Denmark. But otherwise, the regions also tend to grant out grants. What is also very much a focus in Denmark is how your individual solution is going to create something which is growth oriented as well, which is innovative growth, orientated, and addresses a need. And if you do that, there are different funding sources as well, public funding sources. In the Corona times, I see that there are some urgent calls coming out, which is, you know, have a focus on Corona solutions. They also come from semi public organizations that come from big funds, which are sometimes not strictly private. It’s not strictly public, it’s these big foundations. And there are a lot of huge foundations in Denmark, particularly around the health and life science area that run a number of really interesting programs, supporting startups. So I would look for what the big foundations are doing in addition to the public funds. And then my own foundation, the Foundation for Entrepreneurship, we have something called the “micro grants” where we give up between either 25,000 or 50,000 Danish krones to student startups. It is both young students and also PhD students.

Usually the topics that is being funded, they may go across the board, but there is a, of course some public money is focused on what is the strength of Denmark and what do we have a political goal around? At the moment, we have a huge and the most ambitious, I think, in the world. And that means there’ll be a lot of public money going into finding solutions to get us to that target. And there’s also money going into startups. We’re working with excitement and CO2 reduction targets. So I think that’s a kind of, that’s almost a no brainer go, if you’re in the space where there’s a lot of public, official political strategy and the need for innovation, there will also be a need to support startups. So that, that is that’s a big topic and will be. And there’s a lot of organizations already in that space, both from the industrial side, network side, something called the state of green. Our big industry associations are funding innovative activities. They also like to fund startups that connect with the energy sector. You have individual big companies like Vestas, these energy companies that for instance, run sometimes their own acceleration programs. Ian is a big energy company that runs acceleration programs. That’s also worth keeping out for what they are doing because they are also advertising grant and collaboration possibilities. Then the cities and the municipalities who have delivered on specific targets. Will also be setting up innovative sort of collaboration spaces, which also are interesting for startups as well. So I think that theme is just so large and so vast, and it also crosses across disciplines as well. So it’s interesting to see maybe if you have a small startup, it’s not within the energy and climate space, it’s just tech startup, if you can kind of direct it towards where the money and the interest is in, then I think you’re doing quite well. So that comes back a little bit to being a strategic thinker when you have a startup. Health innovation and lifestyle has been a big topic in Denmark for many years. Agriculture, of course also the creative sector is fairly big too. The maritime sector is also big, and there are some networks there and shipping networks. Who are also looking for solutions and are interested in the, you know, either through venturing or through some mini acceleration programs to support startups. And then there are, as I mentioned earlier, InnovationsFonden, they give out to startups and it’s not a particular theme. I think when you’re a public funder, you need to fund solutions within a space where you have a dedicated political challenge, but you also don’t want to shut yourself out for what is emerging, you know, emerging threats, emerging needs. So y’all want to be open in supporting startups across the spectrum. And I think that’s what most public organizations do because they can’t just channel all the money into one particular challenge. Because who knows in five years, if we had known that would be a Corona crisis, we would have been only funding Corona startups in the last year. And that means, that pretty much all kinds of solutions will be funded.

I would definitely look at that. The Innovation Foundation. I think that’s really a great funding buddy to go to. I think for instance, Novo Nordisk Foundation, which is a big life sign, a foundation on the Novo Nordisk has some really fantastic, interesting initiatives and they fund large companies, smaller as well. They’re on acceleration programs. I will be looking out for those. I think some in the energy sector, as I mentioned, in some of what the individual private companies are doing, I think if you’re a startup looking to scale your solution, not necessarily for the big, except for really getting contact with the market and get knowledge and get access to researchers and subcontractors and everything that the big companies have. I think that’s quite a, it’s quite exciting to see, okay, what are they offering? How can I be working with them? I also see some of the big banks, for instance, Danske bank. They have something called the impact accelerator, what they also take in startups, nothing to do with necessarily having a finance startup, but they just want to work in the impact space. And I think that whole theme of impact startups is something that most organizations and foundations and companies are looking to move into. So if you’re a startup in that home, the impact space, which is pretty much everything, depending on how you frame your work and how you see your own value, and how you see yourself as an entrepreneur. I think that’s, that’s where there will be a lot of growth and interest as well. And then I think also my own foundation, the Foundation for Entrepreneurship, I mean, we really like startups. We like to work with a wide set of entrepreneurial competencies. So we don’t have a very strict view of what is a successful startup. We really want to support the sense of being an entrepreneur in the widest sense. So therefore we also give to companies that are working on social impact, social entrepreneurship, and maybe they hone different kinds of skills. Our grants are not big, but you tend to be part of the community. And that’s my last reminder on this as well. If you’re a startup, sometimes it’s worth looking for where the funding is, where you sense you will be part of a wider community. You get access to hubs, you get access to mentors. There’s a big space in Copenhagen called BLOXHUB, which is really an exciting space where there is a huge community and buzz amongst other startups. That’s not a big network and clusters we’re operating there. We’ll also offer help for startups. So I would look for these innovative spaces, innovative hubs, where you get the community, you get access to coaching and mentoring, interesting speeches, focus on internationalization because I think that’s where you’d be happy in the longest one as a startup.

If you’re a company and you want to get startup money and public funding in Denmark, you should either move to Denmark or you should partner up with another Danish company. If you’re a student, there’s a lot of opportunities for you. If a non Danish student in Denmark, studying in one of the universities, there are a lot of possibilities for you. Eligibility wise, the requirements tend to be that you are working with Danish colleagues or other Danish companies or Danish research organizations, or that you have a base here and that you have a solution that’s interesting for the Danish market as well. It doesn’t have to be that you have a solution that is going to have a future only in Denmark. There’s a very big interest in Denmark on scaling and internationalized scaling. So actually, sometimes it’s a benefit if you’re a foreigner or if you’re a company from outside Denmark that you have market awareness of, let’s say Greece or Italy or China, but the company and what you do need to have relevance like Danish market and Danish need as well. Otherwise, it’s not going to be interesting for public money at least. It may be for some of the private acceleration programs and the private companies that just want to have access to the best ideas in the world. And they have less requirements, but if it’s public Danish money, you need to have a clearer description of your Danish affiliation, either through partners to advisory boards, through co-creators.

I will just sign up for newsletters for someone from the big foundations and from the big public funders as well. They usually have rolling. I know for instance that the Innovation Fund has rolling applications and the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, our micro grants, we have three application rounds a year. So I think these are sort of rolling application deadlines, so keep an eye out for the most of them have. If not just, you can submit an application, they will usually have a call and open call, and then you submit for that. So just sign up, register for newsletters, for events, for workshops, so that you’re always on top of what is the next funding circle.