Iceland review - 2016, Page 102

100 ICELAND REVIEW
INVEST IN REYKJAVÍK,
INVEST IN INNOVATION
Downtown Reykjavík is a lively hub,
home to a flourishing cultural
scene, as well a thriving startup
community. Businesses are bolstered by
a cost-competitive environment and low
corporate taxes (20 percent), while start-
ups benefit from mentorship and seed
stage investment organizations, such as
Startup Reykjavík. Iceland Startups is one
of several active entrepreneurial education
groups and business accelerators, and en-
trepreneurs from around the world gather
for annual Startup Iceland and SeedForum
Investment conferences.
VIRTUAL REALITY BOOM
Óli Örn Eiríksson, Head of Economic De-
velopment at the City of Reykjavík, can
call to mind dozens of recent investment
success stories. 2015 was a particularly re-
markable year for Reykjavík-based Virtual
Reality (VR) gaming and software develop-
ment companies. CCP Games partnered
with the Facebook-owned tech company
Oculus Rift to develop the immersive VR
game EVE: Valkyrie, receiving USD 30 mil-
lion of investment capital for the project.
International investors provided Sólfar
Studios with USD 2.2 million to launch its
game Everest VR. Meanwhile, Plain Vanil-
la, developer of the QuizUp mobile app,
brought in USD 32 million to support its
transition into a broader social media net-
work.
Tech-related industry cannot prosper
without generous sources of dependable,
cost-effective energy; so it’s no wonder
that so many successful organizations in
these fields are based in Reykjavík. The
city’s infrastructure is second-to-none, and
nearby geothermal and hydro energy pro-
viders ensure that companies such as Ad-
vania and Verne Global can provide com-
petitively-priced data storage solutions for
their global customers.
In fact, 99 percent of all electricity in Ice-
land is generated from green, renewable
energy. It’s typical for energy providers to
focus solely on electricity production, but
the four geothermal facilities within one
hour of Reykjavík take a strictly no-waste
approach. For instance, the Hellisheiði
plant exploits its extensive resources to
provide residents throughout Southwest
Iceland with electricity, as well as hot wa-
ter for domestic heating. Outside of elec-
CONVENTIONS
With a well-educated and skilled workforce, affordable green energy and tremendous
business investment opportunities, Reykjavík offers a wealth of resources to creative
and globally-minded entrepreneurs and investors.
INVEST IN ICELAND
SPECIAL PROMOTION