Antti Vilpponen

🚀 Big news for Icelandic innovation: Iceland's first HealthTech accelerator has just launched: KLAK - Health 💗 I’m proud of LIFA Ventures ' support of this initiative, alongside other great Icelandic partners, to help lay the foundation for a stronger HealthTech ecosystem. Iceland has already produced incredible MedTech and Life Science success stories, from Embla Medical (Össur) to Nox Medical to Kerecis 🐟. These prove that world-class innovation can and does grow from our small island. But we need more. More founders supported from day one. More investors and mentors need to step in early. More infrastructure to ensure that our next generation of startups doesn’t just leave for bigger markets, but builds global impact from here. KLAK Health is a big first step in that direction, and it won’t be the last. Iceland has the talent, creativity, and ambition. Now we are finally focusing more on the sector that can change lives everywhere. 💡 To all the future founders out there: the ecosystem is ready to back you. Let’s make Iceland a place where MedTech and HealthTech startups can thrive. Great work KLAK - Icelandic Startups ! #HealthTech #MedTech #Startups #Iceland #Innovation #medicaldevices #LIFAVC #KLAK

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Norway’s $1.8T sovereign wealth fund is saving 213,000 hours every year with AI. How? They tapped into their enterprise data on Snowflake, integrated Anthropic’s Claude, and made AI proficiency non-negotiable—backed by real training, enablement, and leadership conviction. This is what enterprise AI looks like in action. 👉 https://lnkd.in/gtFrcScv

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A simple ring, now worth $11B. URA just raised $875 million 💍 That’s huge, not only for the company but for the entire wearables industry. ŌURA, the Finnish company behind the Oura Ring, is now valued at nearly $11 billion. With more than 5.5 million rings sold and revenue expected to double from $500M in 2024 to $1B in 2025, this raise is designed to supercharge their growth. And why does this matter? Because it means more people will have access to meaningful health data : not just steps or calories, but sleep cycles, recovery, readiness, stress levels. The kind of insights that help us better understand our bodies and make smarter decisions every day. Personally, I find this inspiring. It shows that wearables aren’t just gadgets anymore ; they’re becoming powerful companions for preventive health, well-being, and performance. As Ōura grows, it pushes the entire industry forward, forcing bigger players to innovate and proving that consumers want accurate, discreet, 24/7 tracking. The wearable market is expanding rapidly, and this milestone feels like a glimpse of what’s ahead: more comfort, more data, more personalization — and ultimately, more people in control of their health. ✨ Exciting times for health-tech.

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My Qualia co-founder Lucas Hansen published an op-ed in the The Wall Street Journal yesterday on why chatbots that just agree with everything you say are actually dangerous. Lucas stepped back from Qualia a few years ago to run CivAI, an AI safety nonprofit, and he's been doing some really interesting technical work at the edges of what these models can do. The piece walks through some pretty dark examples of AI models essentially becoming yes-men for users' worst impulses - reinforcing delusions, encouraging violence, pushing vulnerable people toward self-harm. All because the incentive is to keep people engaged, not to be helpful or accurate. Here's what I find interesting though: fixing sycophancy isn't just a safety issue, it's good business. We're building products like Qualia Clear that need AI to actually be useful - to catch errors, flag issues, sometimes tell you you're wrong. An AI that just agrees with everything is useless in a professional setting. The labs should want to solve this. Models that are reliable and willing to push back when needed create way more value than ones optimized purely for engagement. Lucas makes a strong case for why we need better incentives and real accountability as these systems get more powerful. Worth reading if you're building with AI or just thinking about where this is all headed. https://lnkd.in/gmzkvy4C

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