Brunnur Ventures Logo

We change the game

for Icelandic startups,

from early stage to mature

We foster visionary startups through an attentive approach to partnership. From first entry forward, we help founders navigate the intricacies of organization, strategy, finance, resourcing, and even branding. We’ve built deep international corporate and financial networks through decades of experience as founders and funders, and we give your company access to the right opportunities at the right moment, as well as the means to get you there.   

Our Approach

Brunnur Ventures logo
Empowering visionaries

Since 2015, we’ve invested early in more than 25 startups and growth companies with teams that show extraordinary entrepreneurial talent and create game-changing solutions to unique and big problems. The founders we work with have an ambitious vision for their venture and will benefit from our hard-won experience.

Our people are the backbone of our business. Our experience of pioneering our own startups and taking the helm at global Fortune 500 companies inspired us to create a venture fund that offers the whole package.  

Árni Blöndal

Árni Blöndal is a Founding Partner at Brunnur Ventures. Árni’s crossed 10+ countries during his 25+ years' experience in startups, venture capital, private equity, and corporate finance. By education, he’s a mechanical engineer from the University of Iceland with an M.Sc. in information technology from Denmark’s Technical University. He’s paved his own path from engineering to venture capital and brings a warm but grounded energy to all he does. Arni has operational experience as a start-up co-founder from the London/New York-based ad-tech platform bepaid.com from 1999-2001.

 

He has supported entrepreneurs in various sectors as a board member and advisor within multiple sectors, e.g., biotech, industry 4.0, B2B software, and fintech. He’s skilled at fundraising, financial modeling, negotiations, business and leadership development, risk management, and corporate relations. Among recent boards that he has served on include Oculis (NYSE: OCS), Laki Power, DTE, Taktikal, Glaze and Hopp.

Árni Blöndal

Founding Partner

Sigurður Arnljótsson

Sigurður is Founding and Managing Partner at Brunnur Ventures. In his 20+ years as a senior executive across start-ups and high-growth companies, he’s been routinely responsible for multimillion dollar revenue. He’s a personable, resourceful, and decisive advocate for young companies and founders, and has navigated extremely stressful situations in businesses with limited funds across six major markets.

 

Sigurður is the chairman of Framvís - The Icelandic Venture Capital Association, and a co-founder of CCP, which grew from a two-person design studio to a successful global gaming company, with a $425 million exit in 2018. 


He is skilled in product development, financial management, budgeting and cost control, risk management, employee recruitment, fundraising, software development, legal, and business operations and strategy.

Sigurður Arnljótsson

Founding Partner

Soffía Theódóra Tryggvadóttir

Soffía is a Partner at Brunnur Ventures. She is a mission-driven catalyzer who started out on the trading desk of an investment bank, and expanded her specialties through roles in business development, marketing, design, team leadership, and legal for Icelandic startups and corporations. Because of her acumen, she has held executive and director-level positions throughout her career. She pivoted a Fortune 500 company’s brand from a hardware provider into a leading cloud company, which drove yearly earnings to over $1.4 billion dollars. She's also the founder of the illustrious Nordic Style Magazine, which she grew into a globally distributed publication. 

 

She is skilled at business development, recruiting domain expertise, developing marketing and budgeting plans, and transforming teams. 

Soffía Theódóra Tryggvadóttir

Partner

Óskar Fannar Vilmundarson ​

Óskar is an Associate at Brunnur Ventures. Prior to this, he held positions in R&D and CEO Office at Kerecis, a pioneering biotechnology start-up which later became Iceland's first unicorn after being acquired by the industry giant Coloplast in 2023. Óskar's academic journey took him to Norway, where he pursued degrees and diplomas in Mechanical Engineering and Business Economics from Oslo Metropolitan University and the Arctic University of Norway. Besides his studies, he began his professional career teaching mathematics and science at Roald Amundsen High School and as Teaching Assistant in mathematics for engineering students. 

 

He is proficient in financial analysis, strategy, risk assessment, and portfolio management. At Brunnur Ventures, he provides support for our portfolio companies, sources new investments and follow-on investments, analyzes and evaluates new opportunities, while aligning with the funds’ guidelines and overall strategy.

Óskar Fannar Vilmundarson

Associate

Check out our full portfolio of vested companies and the success they bring through rapid growth strategies.

Oculis

At the forefront of novel treatments for ophthalmic diseases, Oculis has just been listed on Nasdaq.

DTE

DTE’s portable element analyzer changes the way the aluminum industry operates.

AviLabs

The passenger disruption management platform that customers love.

Laki Power

Leading real-time operational intelligence and analytics for high-voltage power grids.

Hopp

Eco-friendly electric scooters that change the way you see the city.

Nanitor

Hardening security across your global IT landscape in a new age of cybercrime. Learn more.

Our Thoughts