At the formal launch of Arctell and the opening of Arctell Sandvík in Reykjavík, Amaroq Minerals Chair Sigurbjorn Thorkelsson described Arctell as a platform that can help young companies grow by providing capital, networks, credibility and first-hand entrepreneurial experience.
Arctell was formally launched in Reykjavík this week alongside the opening of Arctell Sandvík, the company’s new Innovation & Knowledge Hub.
The event brought together entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders and members of the Arctic Circle community. Fertram Sigurjonsson, former President of Iceland and Arctic Circle Chairman Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, and Amaroq Minerals Chair Sigurbjorn Thorkelsson addressed guests during the evening.
In his remarks, Sigurbjorn argued that one of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship is not coming up with an idea, but turning that idea into a successful company.
“The idea is usually the easy part,” he said. “The difficult part is turning that idea into a successful company.”
Successful entrepreneurs, he said, create far more than individual businesses. They also build human capital, knowledge, networks, credibility and often financial resources that can be reinvested into the next generation of companies.
Sigurbjorn reflected on first meeting Fertram shortly after the global financial crisis. At the time, Fertram had a prototype and a clear vision, but Kerecis had yet to become the international healthcare company it would later grow into.
Sigurbjorn and his wife became early investors in Kerecis in 2013. Coincidentally, that was also the year they first met Eldur Olafsson and became co-founders and investors in what is now Amaroq Minerals.
He described Kerecis and Amaroq as very different companies, but both as examples of what can happen when Icelandic ideas, entrepreneurship and capital come together.
He also stressed that entrepreneurial ecosystems are strengthened not only by successful companies, but by setbacks and even failed ventures.
As an example, he pointed to Icelandic software company OZ. While the company itself did not ultimately achieve its ambitions, many of its alumni went on to play important roles throughout Iceland’s technology sector.
That accumulated experience, Sigurbjorn said, is one of the qualities that can distinguish Arctell.
“Arctell has something special: success is already in its DNA,” he said.
Unlike a traditional incubator, Arctell is being built by people who have themselves experienced the full entrepreneurial journey — including both major successes and significant setbacks.
He recalled an early period in the history of Kerecis when the company received a rejection from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kerecis had to close its office and temporarily move operations into Fertram and Fanney Hermannsdottir’s living room.
“At the time, that must have seemed potentially catastrophic. But they overcame it,” Sigurbjorn said.
He suggested that this experience of both success and adversity could become highly valuable to the entrepreneurs Arctell works with.
Drawing on Iceland’s long history of using geothermal energy to grow crops in greenhouses, Sigurbjorn offered a simple analogy for the role Arctell can play.
“A greenhouse for young companies.”
Arctell will not create the companies themselves, he said. Instead, it can help create the conditions in which they have a better chance to grow.
Those conditions can include capital, networks, credibility and know-how. Eventually, however, the companies must leave the greenhouse and compete in the real world.
Sigurbjorn argued that Fertram may also be able to contribute something less tangible but equally important: the example of what is possible.
“Success shows others what is actually possible. It makes it tangible,” he said.
For young entrepreneurs in a small country such as Iceland, he said, seeing someone from Ísafjörður build an international medical technology company can fundamentally change expectations.
“Suddenly, building a world-class company from Iceland doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched. Because it’s been done before.”
Sigurbjorn said this is part of what makes Arctell’s mission important: taking the experience, knowledge, networks and resources created through one entrepreneurial success and using them to help create new opportunities across the High North.
He concluded by suggesting that Fertram’s greatest contribution may ultimately go beyond the capital Arctell invests or even the companies it helps build.
It may be the entrepreneur who looks at that journey and thinks:
“Perhaps I can do that too.”