Vejrpigerne

The Story of Copenhagen’s Golden Weather Girls

The Story of Copenhagen’s Golden Weather Girls

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.

If you have walked across City Hall Square in Copenhagen in recent years, you may have noticed two gilded women high above the city, moving in and out of the tower of Richshuset.

Just two years ago, they were brought back to life.

After some 30 years of stillness, the mechanism behind the famous weather girls was restored as part of a wider renovation of Richshuset, the distinctive building opposite Copenhagen City Hall. Today, the two figures once again offer their own take on the weather: the cyclist appears when sunshine is on the way, while the woman with an umbrella and her dog signals rain.

But the story behind these two golden figures is as interesting as the weather they predict.

Vejrpigerne
Vejrpigerne

Alongside the large neon thermometer running down the corner of the tower, the figures were designed to form a kind of weather station high above Copenhagen’s City Hall Square.

The weather girls were created by Danish sculptor Einar Utzon-Frank and installed when Richshuset was completed in 1936.

One is the fair-weather girl. Dressed in a summer dress, she appears on her bicycle when the forecast calls for sunshine.

The other is the rain girl, who steps out with an umbrella and her dog when rain is on the way.

Together with the large neon thermometer running down the corner of the tower, the figures were designed as a kind of weather station overlooking City Hall Square.

And this is more than a charming piece of symbolism. The figures actually move according to the weather.

In the early 1990s, however, the mechanism fell silent.

For some three decades, the weather girls remained fixed in place. For a generation of Copenhageners, they became little more than part of the architecture – perhaps without realising that they had once moved with the forecast.

One explanation for their long period of inactivity was that Richshuset no longer had the caretaker who had previously been responsible for operating the mechanism.

As part of the building’s extensive renovation, however, the original mechanism was restored.

This time, the technology was brought up to date. The weather girls are now connected to a modern digital weather station, allowing them to change automatically as the weather changes.

The idea remains much the same as it was in 1936. Only the technology has moved on.

The story behind Richshuset

Richshuset itself is almost as interesting as the figures at the top.

The building was designed by architect Alf Cock-Clausen and constructed between 1934 and 1936 as the headquarters of C.F. Rich & Sønner, the company behind the much-loved Danish coffee substitute Rich’s.

At the time, coffee substitutes made from ingredients such as roasted rye and chicory were big business in Denmark, and Rich’s was a household name.

It is from the company that the building takes its name.

Today, Richshuset is best known for its distinctive corner tower, the neon thermometer and, of course, the weather girls. The building is also considered one of Copenhagen’s notable examples of Art Deco architecture.

Richshuset

The Man Behind the Weather Girls

The weather girls were designed by sculptor Einar Utzon-Frank, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and a prominent figure in Danish art during the first half of the 20th century.

He was also responsible for several other notable works in Copenhagen, including the equestrian statue of King Christian X at Sankt Annæ Plads.

The weather girls, however, are among his more playful creations.

While most statues simply stand still and invite us to look at them, the two women atop Richshuset have a practical purpose. They tell Copenhageners what the weather has in store.


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Les Deux

In Paris, Les Deux invests in a basketball court for the city

In Paris, Les Deux invests in a basketball court for the city

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


First came New York, then Copenhagen, and this week, Paris.

The Danish fashion brand has once again chosen to invest in the renovation of a public basketball court. This time, it is two adjoining courts at Terrain de Sport Glacière in Paris’s 13th arrondissement.

The investment is being made through Les Deux’ social-impact platform, Les Deux Legacy, and forms part of the brand’s Home Court project, which has previously taken Les Deux to New York and Copenhagen.

Set beneath the elevated Métro, the Glacière courts are already a natural meeting point for the local basketball community. Now, both courts will be fully resurfaced and given a new visual identity.

And importantly, they will remain free and open to everyone.

“People here took a chance on us, and Home Court is our way of giving some of that success back to the city”

Andreas von der Heide
Les Deux

“Investing in an existing local meeting point”

The Danish brand with the French name began building its presence in France in 2021 and opened its first flagship store in Le Marais in October 2025. (Read more here)

Home Court is both another way for Les Deux to deepen its connection with the city and an opportunity to give something back. As co-founder and Chief Brand Officer Andreas von der Heide explains, Les Deux first arrived in Paris as outsiders.

“We arrived in Paris as outsiders with a couple of suitcases and an empty calendar. First came some good friendships, then partnerships, and eventually a flagship store. People here took a chance on us, and Home Court is our way of giving some of that success back to the city.”

Les Deux

A home in every direction

The new design was created in-house at Les Deux and is built around the idea of home.

A repeating pattern of houses stretches across both basketball courts in a 360-degree design. There is no single front or fixed viewpoint from which the artwork is intended to be seen.

Instead, the design works from every angle, meeting everyone who uses the courts on equal terms.

For Les Deux, the project is therefore about more than renovating a basketball court. It is an investment in an existing local meeting point.

“Sport has shaped us. It’s where you make friends, test yourself and learn how to compete. In basketball, you call your own fouls and hold yourself accountable,” says Andreas von der Heide.

He hopes the renewed courts will continue to give people a place to experience exactly that for themselves.

A limited-edition Home Court Paris T-shirt and basketball will also be released as part of the project. The pieces will be available exclusively at Les Deux’ flagship store in Le Marais and through local partner Citadium.

Les Deux Paris t-shirt

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Auditdata

From Copenhagen to the world: Auditdata sets its sights on the next league

From Copenhagen to the world: Auditdata sets its sights on the next league

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


On Wildersgade in Copenhagen’s Christianshavn district sits one of Denmark’s more intriguing software companies. Auditdata has just been sold for the second time, in a deal worth a substantial three-figure million sum in Danish kroner.

Founded in 1992, Auditdata develops software and technology for hearing clinics and hospitals around the world, helping them run more efficient, connected and modern operations.

Now, the Copenhagen-based company is entering its next phase of growth, backed by new international ownership, bigger ambitions in technology and a clear focus on the US market.

We sat down with CEO Christoffer Spangenberg to discuss building a global software business from Denmark. For the past eight years, Christoffer Spangenberg has served as CCO and Head of Professional Services. He has just been appointed the company’s new CEO.

“We need to deepen our technology to support even larger customers around the world”

Christoffer Spangenberg

Christoffer Spangenberg, CEO, Auditdata

When Christoffer Spangenbergr joined Auditdata as CEO almost eight years ago, the company’s focus was primarily on the Nordic market.

Today, the Danish software company works with hearing clinics and hospitals around the world, and is preparing for another significant step in its development.

Auditdata has become part of Tera Software Group, backed by global software investor Insight Partners. But for Christoffer Spangenberg, the deal is about more than a change of ownership.

It is about moving forward and reaching the company’s next milestone.

“We reached the size we could within the framework we had. We became three times larger across the board. So it was time to move into the next league, and our new ownership gives us the opportunity to do that,” he says, when asked why the time was right for a new owner.


“It’s about making our products smarter and more efficient, using AI, data and automation”

For Christoffer Spangenberg, the next phase is relatively simple.

Auditdata needs to become bigger. But growth must be matched by a deeper investment in technology.

“We need to grow. We need to go deeper into our technology so we can serve even larger customers globally.”

That does not mean adding features for the sake of it. The focus is on making the products smarter and more efficient, with AI, data and automation playing an increasingly important role.

The industry itself is facing a very tangible challenge.

As populations age, the demand for hearing care is increasing, while the number of people available to provide it is not keeping pace.

“There is less coming in than going out. There are more and more elderly people.”

Efficiency is therefore becoming an increasingly important competitive factor for hearing clinics. And this is where Auditdata sees significant potential.

If software can reduce administrative work, provide better oversight and help clinics operate more efficiently, technology becomes more than an IT tool. It becomes part of the business itself.

Why Tera?

The new ownership gives Auditdata access to something Christoffer Spangenberg considers just as valuable as capital: expertise and experience from other software companies.

“Tera knows the industry. They have a niche within this space, and they have access to other companies that are ahead of the curve.”

That could mean, for example, Auditdata’s CCO exchanging ideas with another company in the group that is further ahead in a particular area.

“We had some of that in the Danish setup as well. But this is simply on a different scale.”

For Christoffer Spangenberg, the new structure is therefore also about having access to the right tools and technologies at the right time.

And, perhaps just as importantly, learning from companies that have already solved some of the challenges Auditdata is now facing.

From Nordic roots to a global business

Building a global company from Denmark in such a specialised niche has not been without its challenges.

When Christoffer Spangenberg joined Auditdata, the focus was primarily on the Nordic region. Since then, the company has expanded internationally through acquisitions, partnerships and the establishment of local entities.

A key part of the strategy has been following its major enterprise customers as they expand into new markets. Spangenberg explains:

“We have followed our major enterprise customers and their journey. Having such a close partnership with our customers has been crucial for us. We have also made a number of acquisitions.

For example, we have a very strong position in Australia. That came through the acquisition of a Canadian company that already had a strong presence there, and we were able to add value with our technology.

When something works well in one market, we know it will probably work well in similar markets too. The UK, for example, has many similarities with Australia because of their shared history.”

Even when the product remains the same, however, markets can be very different.

That is why having a local presence has been important.

Auditdata now has employees and leaders across multiple markets, and according to Christoffer Spangenberg, it is not enough simply to export the Danish way of doing things to the rest of the world.

Auditdata

Photo: For Christoffer Spangenberg, culture is an important part of Auditdata’s continued growth. With employees spread across borders, the company puts a strong emphasis on building a sense of community through shared activities and in-person gatherings. Even as Auditdata grows into a global business, the aim is for employees to feel part of the same company and work towards the same goal.


Culture is key

“It was important for me to explain to them, the new owners, the culture we have built. It is something we want to preserve. Communication becomes crucial as an organisation grows across borders. We are very different from one country to another, and there is a great deal of respect for those differences across the company.”

Ask Christoffer Spangenberg where he sees Auditdata in the coming years, and the answer is remarkably straightforward.

“Just as we have grown threefold, we want to do it again.”

More clinics. More markets. Better products. In many ways, it is as simple as that.

But if Auditdata is to realise that ambition, one market in particular will be crucial.

“The US represents 40 per cent of our potential market. So if we are going to achieve that goal, the US will be a decisive market for us. Our new American ownership will naturally play an important role here.”

For a Danish software company that started with its roots firmly in the Nordics, the next chapter is increasingly being written on a much larger stage. And the US will be one to watch.


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Thomas Delaney

Norlix Is Scaling Fast: FC Copenhagen Legend and Former EQT Partner Join Danish Insurtech

Norlix Is Scaling Fast: FC Copenhagen Legend and Former EQT Partner Join Danish Insurtech

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.

There is growing momentum behind Danish digital insurance broker Norlix, founded by Jens Grønlund (former CEO of TDC) and David Harboe (co-founder of Norm Invest). Despite having been in operation for less than a year, the company has already built a solid customer base and attracted a notable group of investors.

In March, Norlix raised DKK 30 million (€4 million) in a seed round led by Danish venture capital firm Seed Capital. Its existing investor group includes Sander Janca Jensen, Flatpay, and former Microsoft executive Kristian Nygaard Johansen. The company has now extended the round, bringing total funding to DKK 40 million (€5.4 million).

The latest investment comes from former EQT partner Kasper Knokgaard, lawyer and investor Anders Birkenfeldt, and FC Copenhagen legend Thomas Delaney, among others.

“Norlix has shown in a short space of time that we can challenge a traditional industry”

Thomas Delaney

Thomas Delaney

Jens Grønlund, CEO & co-founder of Norlix, says:

“We have shown in a short space of time that we can challenge a traditional industry. That has opened a few doors, and some of them were simply too good to turn down. When conversations with a number of experienced investors began, it made sense to keep the seed round open a little longer. We are bringing together an investor group with strong, complementary expertise across capital markets, AI, technology and scaling high-growth companies. Their experience and perspectives will be invaluable, particularly as we look to take Norlix into new markets.”

Jens Grønlund

Jens Grønlund, CEO & co-founder at Norlix

He goes on to explain that 80% of Norlix’s revenue currently comes from businesses with up to ten employees, and that the company remains fully focused on supporting Danish SMEs.

Using AI, the platform continuously analyses customers’ insurance coverage as their businesses grow and evolve. This allows Norlix to identify where customers may be over- or underinsured, as well as where there may be opportunities to reduce costs.

Jens Grønlund continues:

“Few people deliberately choose the wrong insurance. Many businesses select their policies once and never revisit them. Then the company grows, changes, and suddenly its insurance no longer reflects the reality of the business. We find significant savings for most of our customers. But the greatest risk lies where a business believes it is covered, when in reality it isn’t.”

New Investors Back Norlix’s International Ambitions

While Denmark remains the company’s immediate focus, Norlix’s ambitions extend well beyond its home market.

New investor Kasper Knokgaard says:

“Many attempts to digitise the insurance industry have started by taking existing workflows and layering technology on top. Norlix, by contrast, has built its processes from the ground up, with technology and AI at the core. This makes it possible to automate much of the historically manual work that has defined the industry, creating a fundamentally more scalable model in an advice-led business. I see significant potential for this approach to be scaled into other markets.”

Fellow new investor Anders Birkenfeldt has been particularly impressed by Norlix’s early performance. Within its first six months, the company surpassed 300 customers.

He says:

“Norlix has built a product that demonstrably saves SMEs money, and one they are willing to pay for. This underlines the strength of the business model. The team behind Norlix is exceptional, and they have brought the product and business to market with a speed and efficiency I have rarely seen. I have great confidence in the business and look forward to being part of its continued growth journey.”



Les Deux

Les Deux Turns 15: “Contrast Still Defines Almost Everything We Do”

Les Deux Turns 15: “Contrast Still Defines Almost Everything We Do”

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


From a Copenhagen beginning to an international fashion brand, Les Deux’s journey has been well documented, not least here on dontt.dk, where we’ve followed the brand closely over the years. This year, Les Deux celebrates its 15th anniversary with a new collection photographed in the city where it all began.

For Creative Director Mathias H. Jensen, who has been part of the journey from the very beginning, Copenhagen remains a defining reference point. Not as a fixed formula, but as a particular way of seeing the world.

To mark the launch of AW26, we sat down with Mathias to reflect on 15 years of evolution, the contrasts that continue to shape Les Deux, and the ambitions guiding its next chapter.

“Les Deux was born from the meeting of two very different worlds, and that contrast is still at the heart of almost everything we do.”

Les Deux
Mathias Jensen

Mathias H. Jensen, Creative Director


Mathias, 15 years is a long time! Congratulations! How much of the original Les Deux still lives on in the brand today?

“Thank you. Actually, quite a lot. Our aesthetic has naturally evolved, and we’ve become more mature and more precise in what we do, but the fundamental idea remains the same.

Les Deux was born from the meeting of two very different worlds, and that contrast is still at the heart of almost everything we do. The polished and the relaxed. The classic and the sporty. The familiar, with something that pushes it in a slightly different direction.

So while Les Deux is in a very different place today than it was 15 years ago, I still think you can feel the same curiosity and energy in the brand.”

Les Deux

“If it becomes too classic, we introduce something unexpected. If it leans too street, we bring in something more refined.”

Have there been any aspects of Les Deux that you’ve consciously chosen not to change over the years?

“Yes, I think that contrast is probably the most important thing. We’ve never wanted to become too much of just one thing.

If it becomes too classic, we introduce something unexpected. If it leans too street, we bring in something more refined.

That tension has become a kind of creative compass for us. I also think we’ve always been very focused on the people around the brand.

Les Deux shouldn’t feel like something that exists in a vacuum. Community has been part of the story from the beginning, and it’s still important to how we think about the brand today.”

What has been the biggest change for Les Deux over the past 15 years?

“Confidence, I think. In the beginning, a lot of it is about proving that you belong. You naturally look outward and try to understand where you fit in. Today, we know Les Deux much better. We know which contrasts work well for us, which products feel natural to the brand, and what kind of world we want to build.

At the same time, we’ve gone from being a relatively small Copenhagen-based brand to having an international audience. That naturally changes the scale and the ambitions, but hopefully not the way we think creatively.

For me, the evolution isn’t about becoming something else. It’s more about getting better at being ourselves.”

Les Deux

“The ambition is for people to recognise Les Deux before they even see the logo”

Where do you see the greatest potential to develop Les Deux further and take the next step?

“I’m less convinced that the next step is necessarily about doing more, and more interested in making the world around Les Deux stronger.

There’s still a great deal of potential in developing the product, exploring materials, silhouettes and categories in greater depth, and creating things people might not necessarily expect from us.

But just as important is how all these elements come together. The stores, campaigns, collaborations, our community and the way people experience Les Deux internationally.

The ambition is for people to recognise Les Deux before they even see the logo. When a brand reaches that point, I think it becomes really interesting.”

We’re also here today because AW26 has just launched, and you chose to shoot the collection in Copenhagen. What was the thinking behind that decision?

“It felt very natural. When you turn 15, you automatically start looking back at where you came from. Rather than marking the anniversary with something overly nostalgic, we wanted to return home and see Copenhagen through the eyes we have today.

In many ways, AW26 is a very mature Les Deux collection. It moves between sportswear and tailoring, between the relaxed and the more refined, and there’s something distinctly European about it. I think that fits Copenhagen incredibly well.

We also didn’t want to create a classic postcard version of the city. We wanted to capture the Copenhagen we know ourselves: a little raw, understated and very alive. In that sense, the city became more than just a location. It became part of the story.”

Les Deux

“Copenhagen has this rather unique balance between functionality and aesthetics.”

What does Copenhagen mean to Les Deux today, and how deeply is the brand’s identity still rooted here?

“A great deal. But perhaps more as a way of seeing the world than as a literal reference.

Copenhagen has this rather unique balance between functionality and aesthetics. People can be impeccably dressed without looking as though they’ve tried particularly hard. There’s something relaxed and pragmatic about that, which I think runs deep within Les Deux.

At the same time, we’ve become an international brand, and it’s important that our inspiration doesn’t come exclusively from Copenhagen. We need to remain curious about Paris, London, New York and all the people and environments we encounter.

But Copenhagen is still our starting point. It’s the filter through which everything else passes.”

Les Deux


Coachway

Coachway is on the rise: “We want to be the biggest, we want to be the best”

Coachway is on the rise: “We want to be the biggest, we want to be the best”

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


Markus Evers, Peter Vahl Kristoffersen and Thomas Egelund have built, in record time, the platform they felt the market was missing: Coachway. The all-in-one solution brings training programmes, nutrition, check-ins, messaging and payments together in one place for online fitness coaches. In less than nine months, the founders bootstrapped the business to DKK 3.5 million in ARR and 200 customers.

Now, their ambition is to make the Danish platform one of the leading players in the Nordics, before breaking into the US market next year.

But it all started with a frustration.

Markus and Peter knew the industry from the inside. They had worked together at Zenfit, another platform for online coaches, and remained part of its journey until Lenus acquired the company in autumn 2021.

As the new organisation took shape, however, Markus and Peter chose not to continue. Both believed strongly in the market, but they also sensed that there was another way of doing things. Existing solutions, they felt, were becoming increasingly corporate, while prices continued to rise.

Why not simply build something better ourselves?

That question marked the beginning of Coachway, a platform that has quickly found its place in the market. Here, we take a closer look at the three founders.

Coachway

From left: Peter Vahl Kristoffersen, Co-Founder & Head of Management; Thomas Egelund, Co-Founder & CTO
and Markus Evers, Co-Founder & CEO.


Today, the founding team consists of Markus Evers, Peter Vahl Kristoffersen and Thomas Egelund. Despite having been on their new journey for just nine months, they already have customers outside Denmark and have built a profitable business with more than 200 coaches on the platform.

But the story of Coachway begins neither with a major investment nor a large team.

In early 2023, Markus and Peter had each started building their own marketing agencies, helping online coaches grow their businesses. They soon decided to join forces, running EmpowrCoach until December 2025, when they launched the platform and changed its name to Coachway.

The ambition was clear, to move from a traditional marketing agency to a complete powerhouse, combining the agency with a software platform under one roof.

Before long, a new question emerged, should they continue working with other people’s solutions, or build the platform they believed the market was missing?

They chose the latter.

“If you had asked people in the 1800s what could be fixed about the horse-drawn carriage, they probably would have said a faster horse. But you could always invent the car”

This was also when Thomas Egelund entered the picture.

Thomas, how did you end up becoming part of Coachway?

“Peter reached out to me on LinkedIn. At the time, I was working as a senior software engineer at a larger company, and after my time as co-founder of Quickorder, which we closed down in 2022, I had started feeling the pull to build something again.

“I was looking for new challenges and had a few conversations elsewhere. But I remember being really hooked on this from the beginning. I could see the potential in their plan, so we moved pretty quickly.”

Thomas uses a simple metaphor to describe the way they approach building Coachway:

“If you had asked people in the 1800s what was missing from the horse-drawn carriage, they would have said a faster horse. Instead, someone invented the car.”

That way of thinking lies at the heart of Coachway. Rather than simply building a slightly better version of what already exists, the founders have set out to rethink how online coaches work.

“We don’t want to be just a SaaS platform"

In short, Coachway is an all-in-one platform for online coaches.

It allows coaches to manage training programmes, nutrition, client data, check-ins, messaging and payments, while clients have access to their own dedicated app. The idea is not simply to digitise a coach’s business, but to make it scalable in a way the founders believe the market has yet to see.

Markus Evers explains:

“We’re an all-in-one platform for coaches, helping them support their clients. Simplicity is a crucial part of the product. Rather than positioning ourselves around replacing PDFs with digital solutions, as many competitors do, we’re focused on building something that takes the entire experience to the next level.”

Platforms are nothing new. But Coachway believes there is still room to make the experience both better and simpler.

Today, the platform is designed for coaches looking to scale their businesses without losing the personal relationship with their clients. However, technology is not the only thing the three founders talk about when describing Coachway.

They also want to build a brand. Markus puts it plainly:

“We don’t want to be just a SaaS platform. We want to build a brand around it in a way that hasn’t been seen before.”

It may sound like a considerable ambition for a software company, but to the founders, it makes perfect sense.

They point to companies such as Les Deux and Oversized Lifting Club as examples of brands that have managed to create something extending beyond the product itself.

For Coachway, that also means focusing on the relationship with the coaches using the platform.

Markus explains:

“When you write to us, you get hold of us. Personally. We feel that’s something that has been lost with other platforms. It’s an important part of our strategy. Being so close to our customers means we hear first-hand what works and what doesn’t, and can use that feedback quickly in the development of our product. It creates a great deal of momentum.”

Coachway x Nordic Strong

Photo: Building a brand is a central part of Coachway’s ambition.
Here, the team gathers for an event with NRTHRN Strong in Nordhavn.


The ambition extends beyond Scandinavia

For the three young founders, Coachway is ultimately about more than building yet another Danish software company. From the outset, they have had a clear ambition to create something that can grow far beyond Denmark.

Peter Vahl Kristoffersen explains that 85 per cent of the business currently comes from Scandinavia, with Norway representing the largest market.

He continues:

“The Nordic market is, of course, an important part of the plan. We want to conquer Scandinavia. But our sights are already set further afield. We already have American customers, and the US is a natural next step. If we don’t break through in the US, we’ll never become the biggest in the industry or in online coaching. That’s simply the reality.”

The plan, then, is not merely to test the American market. Coachway is already looking towards opening a US office in the foreseeable future.

But Peter is quick to emphasise:

“Even with these ambitions, there’s one thing that must not change. We will continue to stay close to our customers, move quickly and build around the realities coaches face. But we have just one goal when we come to work. We want to be the biggest, we want to be the best.”

COACHWAY


JOE & THE JUICE

JOE & THE JUICE launches new global breakfast strategy

JOE & THE JUICE launches new global breakfast strategy

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


JOE & THE JUICE has not been short of milestones in recent years. The chain has surpassed 500 stores and is approaching DKK 4 billion in annual revenue. Alongside major partnerships and key appointments, the company continues to develop new initiatives at product level.

For the first time, JOE & THE JUICE is bringing its breakfast offering together as one coordinated strategy, rather than treating individual products as standalone additions to the menu.

The reasoning is straightforward. Mornings currently account for too small a share of JOE & THE JUICE’s business, which peaks around lunchtime and in the afternoon. That is now set to change.

While many guests already start their day at JOE, the company’s research shows that one in four still do not consider JOE & THE JUICE a morning destination. It is this gap that the new menu and campaign are designed to close.

“Morning is the one part of the day we haven’t truly won yet, and that’s the one we’re going after now.”

JOE & THE JUICE

A focus across every market

Thomas Noroxe, CEO of JOE & THE JUICE, says:

“We’ve built our name on freshly made juice and coffee, at lunch and in the afternoon. Morning is the one part of the day we haven’t truly won yet – and that’s the one we’re going after now.”

Noroxe continues:

“We’ve offered a breakfast range for quite a while, but demand for eggs in particular has grown, giving our morning guests more choice. This campaign is about making sure people think of JOE the moment they start their day, whether they’re in the mood for juice, coffee, eggs or something else.”

The new hot breakfast items featuring eggs will see their widest rollout in the UK and US, but will also be available at selected stores across the Nordics and wider Europe, as well as in several of JOE & THE JUICE’s franchise markets, including the Middle East. At the same time, every market is sharpening its focus on the morning experience.

The new hot offering includes egg wraps and bowls, among other items. The new cold products, including yoghurt and grain-based bowls, will be available across all 529 JOE & THE JUICE stores worldwide.

Thomas Nørøxe

Here, Thomas Noroxe is pictured alongside Nicklas Bendtner as JOE & THE JUICE announced
its partnership with the Danish Football Association (DBU).


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All Gravy Jonatan

All Gravy is going global: “You don’t become number one by copying number one”

All Gravy is going global: “You don’t become number one by copying number one”

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


We’ve been following Jonatan Marc Rasmussen and All Gravy since the Danish startup first began looking beyond its home market. Now, another significant chapter has been added to the story: European tech publication Sifted has ranked All Gravy number 13 among the fastest-growing startups in the Nordics.

Since our last story, its UK business has grown significantly, Germany has joined the picture, its first customers have landed in the US, and the team has doubled in size in just six months.

We sat down with Jonatan to talk about the growth, the international expansion and what comes next for All Gravy.

“Competitors are now launching what we built two years ago.
That’s fine, but you don’t become number one by copying number one”

Jonatan Marc Rasmussen, All Gravy

Jonatan, let’s get straight to it. Sifted has ranked All Gravy number 13 among the fastest-growing startups in the Nordics. What do you think you’ve got right?

“First and foremost, we’ve built a product that is 10x better than the products currently on the market for hospitality and retail businesses. They’ve been used to needing six different pieces of software to solve what we solve with one elegant solution, whether you have 20 or 9,000 employees.

We’ve also managed to build agents that make a real difference for our customers, saving HR and operations teams several working days. For example, surveys with 1,000 respondents can now be analysed in 30 minutes instead of two working days. Employee onboarding, including all the administration, contracts and everything else, can be handled end-to-end by an agent instead of a person spending two hours on it. That means the human can spend that time actually saying welcome.

At the same time, we went hard on international expansion as soon as we had something that worked. Our goal isn’t to become the best local burger restaurant. Our goal is to become McDonald’s.”

“The UK is now approaching 70% of our revenue”

The UK now accounts for close to 70% of your revenue. How does the split between Denmark, the UK and your other markets look today?

“The UK is now approaching 70% of our revenue, while a market like Germany is actually growing even faster than the UK did at the same stage.”

How is the product evolving?

“We now have a product and engineering team of 20 people, who can deliver 3–5x more than they could just a year ago because of AI. We completed our 2026 roadmap within the first three months of the year, but that hasn’t made us slow down in any way. If anything, we’ve become even more aggressive about how much value we can create in the product.

Beyond communication, training, engagement and operations, we can now cover the entire employee journey, including scheduling, holidays, contracts and performance reviews.

And perhaps most importantly, we’ve built agents on top of our software. Agents that take responsibility for entire areas of work, such as coordinating new employees, scheduling shifts, ensuring compliance with employment law and much more.

Competitors are now launching what we built two years ago. That’s fine, but you don’t become number one by copying number one.”

All Gravy dontt.dk

De 2 founders af All Gravy: Jonatan Marc Rasmussen & Kristian Lundager

“Germany came sooner than we expected”

What are the larger British chains seeing in All Gravy and what is making them buy into the platform?

“What is becoming clear to these large chains is that they can bring in a piece of software that solves their biggest headache: people.

We work with industries where people, and their energy and competence, are the product. If you want to grow from 20 to 40 locations, or even from 150 to 250, you simply have to put a stop to the fact that 80% of your employees leave every year. You can’t recruit your way out of that problem. That’s where All Gravy comes in.

The difference between a thriving business and a dying one is simply how good you are at retaining and motivating your employees, as well as your ability to develop them from their first day all the way to becoming a manager. They can see that this is something they can bottle with us, not just a system that can handle large enterprises, but also a system where agents give HR teams the space to work strategically because they are no longer caught up in the increasingly demanding coordination tasks that come with growing a business.”

Last time we spoke, the US was the next step. Germany came first. Why?

“The German market pulled us in. We signed one of the largest chains in Europe, which came to us after its owners had seen us working successfully with several of their English businesses. Afterwards, we realised there is a huge market right next door.

We’ve actually just closed our first five customers in the US. At our size, it’s still an experiment. But it’s one that looks very promising.”

“Our growth in headcount is smaller than our growth in revenue”

You’ve gone from 30 to 60 employees in just six months, with plans to hire another 20 before the end of the year. What is driving such rapid growth?

“We have a market that is practically ripping the product out of our hands, so we are running to keep up. Everyone in the industry in the UK knows us, we are well on our way in Germany, and of course we still have a lot of customers we work closely with here at home.

At the same time, we’ve only just started on our product. That means massively scaling our product team, the team looking after customers, and of course our sales team to meet the demand we are seeing.

Our growth in headcount is smaller than our growth in revenue, precisely because AI has become such an integrated part of the way we work. We can all do more than we could a year ago.

Right now, we’re looking for talented salespeople, designers and developers who are good at working with AI – and, even more importantly, who know how to make it feel as human as possible. For us, it’s about building the most fantastic product experience, whether that product is agents or software.”

If you had to put one headline on All Gravy’s development since our article last year, what would the biggest change be?

“From software to colleague. We are still on the journey, but we have come a long way from being a system that made HR and operations teams more efficient. Today, we deliver agents that can onboard new employees, handle shift scheduling and ensure compliance with employment law.

It’s getting closer to a colleague. And that is the change that has taken us from being a Danish startup with a good idea to becoming the platform some of Europe’s largest chains are building their employee experience on.”

All Gravy

Photo: The entire All Gravy team following the news that they had been ranked 13th on Sifted’s list of the fastest-growing startups in the Nordics.

The growth is impressive, the image quality slightly less so. The excitement, however, is unmistakable.


Three things need to happen

What is the next big goal?

“To become the platform through which frontline employees around the world experience work. At the same time, we want HQ teams to spend their time on value-creating initiatives rather than what unfortunately takes up a lot of their time today: coordinating the many people who move through these businesses every year.

In concrete terms, that means three things: Germany needs to become our next UK. The US needs to move from an experiment to a real market. And the product needs to go from helping people do their jobs to making their jobs better. The 19-year-old starting their first job today should have a better path from their first shift to becoming a manager than anyone has had before.”



Flatpay reaches 2500 employees as its first market turns profitable

Flatpay reaches 2500 employees as its first market turns profitable

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.


Flatpay’s rapid rise has been well documented here at dontt.dk.

Just 18 months into the company’s journey, we sat down with Sander Janca-Jensen, Flatpay’s CEO and co-founder, for an in-depth interview about the company’s ambitions. Even then, the plans were bold. Looking back now, it is fair to say: he was onto something.

Founded in Denmark in 2022, Flatpay set out to challenge the traditional payments industry with a simpler proposition for businesses.

Four years on, the picture looks rather different.

Flatpay now has more than 2,500 employees across seven European markets and has passed the 100,000-customer mark. The company has also reached an important milestone in its growth story: its Danish business is expected to turn an operating profit in 2026.

Finland is expected to follow later this year, Janca-Jensen tells Børsen.

Flatpay now employs more than 2500 people across seven European markets and has surpassed 100.000 customers

Flatpay

Sander Janca-Jensen at TechBBQ this year

That pace is notable for a company still relatively early in its international expansion. Flatpay has not built its business by cautiously entering one market at a time. Instead, it has pursued growth with an almost uncompromising sense of urgency from the outset.

That approach was underscored in November 2025, when Flatpay raised DKK 1.1bn (€147m) at a valuation of around DKK 11bn (€1.5bn). At the time, the company had approximately 1600 employees.

Since then, its workforce has grown by almost 1.000 people.


1 million customers by 2029

Flatpay has already surpassed 100,000 customers across Europe and has previously said it is targeting 1 million customers by 2029.

It is a growth opportunity the company is investing heavily in, above all, by moving fast.

According to Sander Janca-Jensen, expects to post a loss of around DKK 1bn (€134m) across the group in 2026.

On the face of it, that is a substantial figure. But for Flatpay, it is largely the cost of the strategy it has chosen: investing heavily in international expansion now in order to build a significantly larger business over time.

In that sense, the company is still only at the beginning of the journey that has turned Flatpay into one of Denmark’s most notable fintech growth stories in recent years.



Hotel dangleterre

Copenhagen icon Hotel d’Angleterre welcomes new international leader

Copenhagen icon Hotel d’Angleterre welcomes new international leader

🇩🇰 Du finder den danske version af denne artikel her.

Over the summer, Hotel d’Angleterre has welcomed a new leader.

João Prista von Bonhorst has joined the iconic Copenhagen hotel as its new General Manager and CEO, succeeding Lucas Johansson, who has led the property since 2013.

Prista von Bonhorst arrives in Copenhagen with an extensive international career in luxury hospitality. Most recently, he spent six years at Tivoli Hotels & Resorts in Lisbon, where he served as Hotel Manager and General Manager of the historic Tivoli Avenida Liberdade.

Prior to that, he led Lisbon’s renowned Bairro Alto Hotel. His career has also taken him to some of Europe’s most prestigious hotels, including Hôtel Beau-Rivage in Geneva, Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, The Bentley Kempinski in London and the iconic Hôtel de Crillon in Paris.

Jeg synes især “arrives in Copenhagen with an extensive international career in luxury hospitality” fungerer godt – det lyder mere editorial end den klassiske pressemeddelelsesformulering.

Hotel dangleterre
d’Angleterre ejer

An iconic Copenhagen hotel

As noted earlier, Prista von Bonhorst succeeds Lucas Johansson, who has been a central figure in Hotel d’Angleterre’s recent history.

Johansson led the hotel from 2013 and has now moved on to become CEO of IHA Management, an international hotel management company that counts Hotel d’Angleterre among its clients.

With a history dating back to 1755, Hotel d’Angleterre is one of Copenhagen’s most iconic hotels. The five-star property on Kongens Nytorv has 92 rooms, including 55 suites, as well as the Michelin-starred restaurant Marchal.

The hotel is also a member of The Leading Hotels of the World and has long been an internationally recognised name in luxury hospitality.

Owned by the Remmen family

Hotel d’Angleterre is owned by the Remmen family through The Remmen Foundation Property AB, which has held 100 per cent of the hotel company since 2014.

The family’s ties to the hotel, however, go back much further. The Remmens first acquired d’Angleterre in 1993, with the ambition of restoring it to its place among the world’s leading luxury hotels.

Following a brief change of ownership, the family bought the hotel back in the 2010s.

Today, Mette Remmen Kristiansen serves as Chair of the Board, alongside her mother, Else Marie Muderspack Remmen, who is also a board member.

João Prista von Bonhorst

João Prista von Bonhorst



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