Straight-talking Swedish entrepreneur, investor and thinker with a first-hand understanding of the technological megatrends currently shaping business, society and culture.
With over 30 years of working as an entrepreneur, Nicklas Bergman has an immense level of foresight in building companies across different regions and economic climates. From being the co-founder and largest investor in an electron microscopy company featuring unique patented technologies and used by high-profile customers in more than 30 countries worldwide, to setting up a Volvo distribution network in Romania that grew into a 300 million EUR business, Nicklas is able to capitalize in emerging areas that are often shrouded in ambiguity and uncertainty thanks to an unflinching desire to understand how trends work.
Even outside of the tech world, Nicklas is the co-founder and largest investor in a Scandinavian ski resort that has attracted investments close to 200 million EUR to the region over the past ten years.
Thanks to Nicklas’ curiosity in how technology is shaping the future, he has always looked both home and afar for what comes next. To this date, Nicklas has been a private investor in more than 20 startups throughout Europe, granting him with an unrivaled understanding of the trials and tribulations of investing in the tech space. Since July 2020, Nicklas is also one of seven IC members at the EIC Fund, an EUR 5 billion deep tech VC fund that is investing in more than 100 European startups per year.
Major companies going up in flames. Businesses rising from the ashes. Tiny players conquering the world. Nicklas has seen it all. At times, Nicklas has witnessed returns fifty-two times the size of his investment. Other times, zero. It is this hands-on, curious and unyielding approach to exploring what comes next that has led to the creation of one of the most realist futurists in the tech space.
As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Nicklas Bergman lives with technology 24/7 and meets with scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs, and fellow investors daily. He’s optimistic about the promises emerging from new technologies but is also concerned that society is not ready for the upcoming techstorm.
A fews years ago, he cleared his schedule and embarked on a journey to understand where technology is taking us. The result was Navigating the Techstorm – The Business Impact of Technology Beyond the Hype (Lid Publishing, London, 2018): a totem to technological trends that provides a macro understanding of the past, present and future of technology and its impacts on business and society. The book was listed in Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 10 books to read in 2018.
Since then, he’s dividing his time between technology investments, a couple of skunkworks projects and speaking, writing, and advising others on how they can best navigate the opportunities and challenges of the near (and distant) future.
Nicklas Bergman is convinced that we’re entering an era in which technology will redefine who we are, and it’s no longer just a question of what it can do for us, but what should we allow technology to do. We need to discuss the ethical perspectives of any innovation or scientific breakthrough. Technology in itself is pointless; it’s the applications and ability to improve people’s lives that are what is important.
With serious skin in the game as a long- time technology entrepreneur and investor, Nicklas is uniquely positioned to guide an audience through the challenge of understanding how technology is rapidly changing the way we do business. As an advisor to management teams, investors, and policy makers, he knows how to navigate in these times of great technological uncertainty.
It’s Nicklas’ firm belief that digitization, although highly relevant, is only the warm-up. The real disruption will come at the intersection of new digital technologies such as AI, crypto, and augmented reality in combination with exponential progress in nanotechnology, neurotechnology, and genetics. In a couple of decades, this will create a radically different world from the one we’re living in today…
Because of his global mindset and presence, paired with continuous interactions with innovators, investors, scholars, policy- makers, artists, activists, entrepreneurs and the like, Nicklas is able to draw thought-provoking conclusions about the state of the world today.
Is this as good as it gets? Have we reached the pinnacle of our evolution as a species? Far from it! With human ingenuity driving an ever increasing rate of innovation, we will see a radically different society in the coming decades. We’re entering an era in which technology will redefine who we are, and it’s no longer just a question of what it can do for us, but what should we allow technology to do.
Nicklas’ experiences from starting a company in Eastern Europe in 1991, co-founding a nanotechnology company in 2000, building a ski resort from scratch, or investing in dozens of startups, has made him immune to the problems posted to others by times of great uncertainty. He’s learned that instead of spending your time trying to gather even more information in a complex environment, you must aim to build a resilient and flexible mindset that adapts to it.
Whether it’s co-founding a company in Eastern Europe in 1991 and scaling that to a 300 MEUR business in 15 years, conquering the world of nanotechnology with a ten people team, or investing in a North Sea offshore engineering company, success always comes down to luck, timing, and talent (in that order).
Through the eyes of an entrepreneur, Nicklas shares colorful stories and useful insights from 30 years as an entrepreneur and investor. Not only the successful moments, but also the challenges, struggles, and mistakes along the way. In other words, an eclectic mix of epic failures and a couple of homeruns.
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