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The Tech Scene

The local tech scene is small but relatively accessible - given the number of foreigners participating in it already. There's a host of organisers, events & meetups, and groups that serve the community, in addition to tech companies.

Main Characteristics

Small, but growing is probably the best way to describe it. It's characterised by several established companies, and a host of smaller ones. Recent growth in local venture capital funding has spurred a bigger number of local, funded, startups, that aim at international markets. While there are companies active in many sectors (from gaming, to developer tools, to data analysis, to fintech), the small size of the scene makes for a rather general approach, i.e. we don't have real organised sectors within the tech scene, with several exceptions.

Gaming

The gaming sector is small, but one of the few within tech that are organised. Through lobby groups like Iceland Gaming Industry and community organisers like Game Makers Iceland, there's decent visible activity. The main player in the gaming sector is CCP Games developer of EVE Online. In recent years, several other startup gaming companies have received funding and released games to some success (the jury is still out on that one), including Solid Clouds, 1939 Games.

Fintech

Similar to gaming, Icelandic fintech is small with a decisive main player - Meniga. The community is organised by organisations like the Icelandic Fintech Cluster, which both runs an office space in one of Reykjavik's "skyscrapers" and hosts regular events, conference trips and investor meetups, and the Icelandic Blockchain Foundation, which as the name suggests, is focused on Blockchain.

Organisers

  • Icelandic Startups - Run startup accelerators, business plan competitions (like Gulleggið), host various events.
  • Startup Iceland - An annual startup conference (and blog), usually held in May.
  • Game Makers Iceland - A community group game makers, they do events, have a Slack group, and more.
  • Icelandic Blockchain Foundation - A lobby and community group for Blockchain in Iceland
  • Javascript Iceland - A javascript user group, often active with meetups, Beer.JS and more. Organised an international Javascript conference in Iceland.