“Per capita”: It’s a phrase I heard a lot in my time at Iceland Innovation Week (IIW).
Delivered with a wry smile and self-deprecating tone, Iceland’s startup founders know from the outset they have a tough time competing with other European startup hubs.
The island nation produces more startups — per capita — than most places. But that qualifier matters. In a country of fewer than 400k people, scale is the key challenge.
Far from a carbon copy of Slush or Web Summit dropped onto a smaller island, IIW is altogether more intimate, honest and, at times, more surreal than your usual tech conference.
Take the “Fermented Shark Tank,” a pitching competition that could only really exist here. Founders step up to make their case for investment while being offered a cube of hákarl — cured shark meat, notorious for its ammoniated punch — and a shot of the country’s signature spirit, Brennivín (also known as “black death”) to calm their nerves.
The logic goes: if you can stomach this, you can probably handle a US market entry, where many Icelandic startups aim to expand as a priority.
“It was quite strong,” says runner-up Justine Vanhalst, CEO and founder of Hringvarm, an Icelandic startup harnessing the excess heat from data centres to power food production. “I could feel it in my cheeks when I was pitching going more and more hot, and I was as red as my dress. So it was quite intense, but fun.”
Local founders' transatlantic ambitions came through in a fireside conversation I had with Lóa Fatou Einarsdóttir, COO of Good Good. The company, best known for its sugar-free jams and spreads, has pulled off what many European startups struggle to do, cracking the US market at scale.
Einarsdóttir spoke candidly about what it took to get her company’s products on Walmart’s shelves, as well as the ongoing challenges it faces retaining such a coveted spot.
“Innovation is in the nature of Iceland. We have always found solutions to the hardships nature has thrown at us, and this culture of resilience and agility has found a unique place in our startup culture,” says Erna Björnsdóttir, head of tech and innovation at Business Iceland, a public-private partnership established to improve the competitiveness of Icelandic companies in foreign markets.
“Icelandic companies stand apart in their commitment to sustainably creating new technology and products that maximise the use of our natural resources.”
Geopolitics were also never far from the surface either. A panel on “The next wave of GenAI” brought together Dr Ailish McLaughlin, of London-based Unlikely AI, alongside Iceland’s current innovation minister Logi Már Einarsson and former leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir.
The conversation veered between optimism about Europe’s ability to carve out a distinct AI path and a more sober assessment of the regulatory and capital constraints that might hold it back. If “per capita” is Iceland’s running joke; “strategic autonomy” might be Europe’s.
What stands out most, though, is how tightly innovation here is intertwined with the country’s natural advantages.
Homegrown successes like supplements startups GeoSilica and Algalif or land-based salmon farm Thor Salmon are extensions of Iceland’s natural environment, turning geothermal energy, clean water and controlled environments into exportable products.
The week closed out with “OK, Bye: Future of Food,” an admittedly hard-to-define finale pitched somewhere between a TED Talk, a Broadway musical and a tasting menu. It leaned fully into the festival’s slightly offbeat energy: part spectacle, part serious exploration of how we’ll feed ourselves in the decades ahead.
Which brings you back to that phrase: “per capita.”
When I first arrived, it sounded like a caveat. But by the end of the week, it feels more like a quiet assertion of confidence. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that innovation doesn’t necessarily need to be massive to be meaningful — just creative and a little bit brave.
