Nordic Hackathon

Date:
Wednesday, 4^th February 2026
from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm CET ‍
Location:
Google Copenhagen,
2, Sankt Petri Passage 5, 1165 København K, Denmark
‍
Applications open:
1:00 pm CET on 17^th December 2025
until 11:59 pm CET 16^th January 2026

Apply Here

Dream Big. Build Today!

For the most talented Nordic founders.

We’re unlocking bold ideas with real capital.

Join a first of its kind hackathon designed to launch the next wave of robotics, climate, cyber security and consumer AI startups. It’s open to any person building in Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland or Norway who is happy to create a company in the Nordics that has a link to the UK.

Ada Ventures is investing £250,000 in the winning team  (T&Cs apply), alongside:

$100,000 in Google Cloud credits valid for Gemini 3
and other GCP products (T&Cs* apply)

to power your infrastructure.

*To apply for Google Cloud Credits:  
1) The winning team must receive investment from Ada Ventures  
2) The winning team will not be eligible if they have received more than $20,000 in credits from Google Cloud previously.  Details can be found here: cloud.google.com/startup.

Who it’s for

Engineers who ship fast and validate early.
Product builders with taste who believe in shipping > decks.
Builders who see a problem and immediately open VS Code
Anyone with a vision to build something with real impact.

Why join?

Real cash and resources are on the line.
£250,000 investment goes to the winning team (T&Cs apply).
Build, test, and showcase your idea in just 1 day.
Collaborate with some of the sharpest engineers, product thinkers, and creators.
Be part of a community where raw talent - not just connections - gets funded.
We want the very best talent across the Nordics to apply and will do our best to reduce barriers which may prevent you from attending the hackathon in person.

Why This Hackathon is Different

No endless pitches. No “networking only”.
Come solo or with a squad - your code speaks louder than LinkedIn.
Ada’s here to back extraordinary talent at the earliest stage.
Come with a bold idea.
Leave with a funded startup.

Spots are limited.

Apply Here

How the day will run

Check-in: 8:30 AM CET

Teams will be presented with a list of up to 5 broad areas they can build something in. They must then submit a short “idea card” of what they intend to build.

This card will explain:

Name of the idea
Problem or opportunity being addressed
Target user

Hackathon Kick-off: 9:00 AM CET

Hackathon starts.

Ends: 6:30 PM CET

Close and end.

Building Rules & Ethos

You’ll build and demo your product idea on the same day. We’ll kick off at 9:00 am and you’ll have until 4:00pm to submit your MVP. Demos start at approximately 4:30 pm and end at 6:00 pm. (3 Mins Per Team).

What you can and can’t do

We want this to be fair and high-energy. So here’s the deal:

You can use

Publicly available libraries, templates, or open-source tools
Your own skills, past learnings, and ideas
Basic project scaffolding or boilerplate you build on the day

You can’t

Bring a pre-existing MVP or product and pass it off as new
Submit something that was mostly built before 4th February
Use private or proprietary codebases built earlier

Everything you demo should be built on the day.

Apply Here

T&Cs for the winning team to receive an investment offer

It’s open to any person building in Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland or Norway who is happy to create a company in the Nordics that has a link to the UK. You’ll have to enter the UK market six months after launch with a clear strategy for clients, staff, sales and generating business or value to the UK.
Venture is within one of our investment themes and not in excluded sectors
Founding team will pursue the venture full-time
Investment will be subject to contract and satisfactory due diligence
GBP 250k investment

Judges

Lead Judges

Check Warner

Co-founding Partner
at Ada Ventures

Matt Penneycard

Co-founding Partner
at Ada Ventures

Supporting Judges

Geeta Schmidt

General Partner
at Seed Capital

Benjamin B. Biering, PhD

Chief AI Officer
at Interhuman

Troels Oliver Vilms Pedersen

BDM at Odense Robotics

Judging Criteria

Speed of Execution – How far did you get with the limited time and resources?
Originality – How non-obvious or differentiated is the idea?
Clarity of Problem/Opportunity – Is it solving a significant pain point or addressing a massive opportunity?
Team Potential – Could this team or founder be backed to scale something big?
Demo Quality – Does the MVP do something valuable today?

Nordic innovation. Global impact

Where the next generation of technology gets built.

Robotics, Cyber Security, Consumer AI and Climate

Powered by Ada Ventures

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