Knittable will represent Iceland in the New Nordics Pitch Competition, an annual event promoted by startup network Silicon Vikings and whose grand final will take place during Slush 2024 in Helsinki this November.
The Icelandic company, a startup that unlocks the creativity of knitters, was designated as the regional winner last May during the live pitching session co-organized by Icelandic non-profit KLAK during Iceland Innovation Week, an annual festival celebrating and showcasing innovation in Reykjavik.
Pitch competition
Knittable’s runner-ups were Verna, an insurtech startup aiming to make car insurance more affordable thanks to personalized driving scores; and Kuratech, an AI-enabled legaltech startup that simplifies the workflow of liquidators dealing with bankrupt estates. Both Kuratech and Knittable took part in acceleration program Startup SuperNova 2023.
The other participants in the pitch competition were Deed Delivery, a platform for trucking firms; Jibby, a project management system for the construction sector and more; Opus Futura, an HR tech startup hoping to improve the recruitment process; PLang, a programming language designed to support natural language; and Tengdu, a platform that helps parents make friends based on interests, location and availability.
While all of these projects had qualities, Knittable CEO Nanna Einarsdóttir outperformed them in her presentation. She also made a strong impression when we met before the competition at hafnar.haus, the creative space where she has been renting a private studio after her startup obtained a grant from the Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNÍS).
Explaining the jury’s pick, Andrew Cafourek, head of technology at U.S.-based growth fund Anthos Capital, said that “one of the exciting things about markets that have a lot of potential is they aren’t necessarily obvious at first, and the deeper you get into new ideas that can make those more accessible to people and enable them to do more with them, those tend to be really exciting long term outcomes.”
Well-knit plans
Knittable is based in Iceland, but it has global appeal: There are 130 million knitters around the world, Nanna told Cafourek and his fellow judges, Iryna Krepchuk and Rafael Barroso. “We believe that your ideas are knittable,” she concluded neatly.
Beyond Nanna’s well-put-together pitch, it was Knittable’s untapped market that the jury was most impressed with; not only is knitting a much larger hobby than they expected it to be, but Knittable can also help people make more of it.
To intermediate knitters, Knittable will be a companion that helps them work on complex designs without having to worry about calculations and time-consuming mistakes. But for the most advanced among them, it will also be a new way to make money by promoting and selling their patterns. As for beginners, they will find a helpful community that will encourage them to be more creative with their knitting needles.
A freemium model is what Knittable settled on since its February soft launch after testing its now discontinued free Icelandic site, Lykkjustund. The model changed, but the spirit stayed: Its home page still refers to the Icelandic saying “Drjúg er lykkjustundin,” which it says means that a moment spent knitting is a moment well spent. (We’ll have to take their word on that.)
Country-startup fit
It is certainly fitting that Knittable comes from Iceland, home to the famous ‘lopapeysa’ wool sweaters, and where knitting manuals take up whole tables at local bookshops. But the pandemic made the hobby boom all over the world, and making creative knitting more accessible could help keep the numbers up.
Knittable makes money from subscriptions, and this will likely be its main source of revenue, but it can also get other revenue streams from advertising on the free tier and from commissions on designs and yarn sold by users.
There are already online sites selling yarn, but also beginner kits and creative patterns. Direct and indirect competitors include Dreamknit, Einrúm, Kniterator, Knit&Note, Lovecrafts, Makerist, Ribblr and We Are Knitters. Knittable hopes to differentiate itself by providing both modern designs and a design tool; but ultimately, it hopes that it’s the community that will tie it all together.
While it is too early to tell whether it will become its market’s leader, it isn’t the first time Knittable has won a competition, and maybe not the last: It now stands a chance to become the New Nordics Grand Champion at Slush. If it does, it will follow the footsteps of Treble Technologies, the Icelandic audio company that went on to win the title in 2022. According to KLAK’s international projects lead, Freyr Friðfinnsson, Treble is “now one of the most exciting scaleups in Iceland.”
What’s next
Knittable’s challengers for a chance to become the New Nordics Grand Champion will include deep tech startup GaltTec, which was selected to represent the Baltics during Latitude 59; as well as AI-enabled video editing assistant Kaspar, which won the Denmark final during TechBBQ.
There will only be one winner, but all regional finalists will get access to workshops for entering the U.S. market and support from Silicon Valley and the New Nordics, an emerging term that includes the Baltic and the Nordic countries, of which Iceland just happens to be the closest to the U.S.
Disclosure: Anna Heim traveled to Iceland on an invitation from Business Iceland on behalf of Reykjavik Science City.