Swedish royals in Silicon Valley

Princess Estelle gets an early start learning how Nordic companies are expanding and making great innovations in the U.S. 

  • The Crown Princess Couple and Princess Estelle visiting the Swedish Church in San Francisco Sunday afternoon. Photo: Jan Sjöberg, Svenska Kyrkan San Francisco

  • Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden are in San Francisco and Silicon Valley this week and Princess Estelle is with them, making her trip to the U.S. her first international appearance.

  • H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria, H.R.H. Prince Daniel and H.R.H. Princess Estelle at the Swedish Church, San Francisco in 2014. Photo: Jan Sjöberg, Svenska Kyrkan San Francisco

  • Hosted by the Consul General's office the young royal family also visited the Swedish Church in San Francisco. Several of the congregation's children had the opportunity to meet a real life princess. Fika was served with members of the church, the Consul General Barbro Osher, Swedish Ambassador Björn Lyrvall and others, and Princess Estelle, who will turn 3 next month, charmed the guests while they enjoyed Swedish cinnamon buns and even sang nursery rhymes together with the other children.

  • Children were the focal point for the royal family's visit to the local church. H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria with some of the attending children.

  • After enjoying some downtime as tourists, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel visited several of the world's largest IT and Nordic companies with operations in Silicon Valley.

  • Founder of the San Francisco Swedish congregation, Lisa Wiborg with Ambassador Björn Lyrvall.

  • They began at Runway, a technology start-up that provides office space for other start-up companies in the technology world. They also visited Stripe, which works with transactions between online merchants and their customers. The company has 17,000 customers and is present in 14 countries in North America and Europe.

  • At Tesla Motor Company outside San Francisco, the Crown Princess and Prince met Swede Peter Carlsson, head of logistics, who spoke about Tesla and showed them around the factory. Tesla, which produces electric cars, is America's youngest car company, founded in 2003.

  • Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel had the opportunity to preview the latest Nordic technology inventions during a special event at the Computer History Museum, where they explored the innovation and technology of some of the most exciting startups in the U.S. with Nordic Innovation House.

  • Nordic Innovation House in Palo Alto is a resource center for Nordic tech companies that began last year and already boasts 40 companies actively using the incubator space. "The strong connection between Sweden and the United States has meant that technology companies from Sweden and all over the Nordic region have found a welcoming environment to grow and expand," said Barbro Osher, Swedish Honorary Consul General.

  • This event, called The Nordics and Silicon Valley — From Startup to Success event, was co-hosted by Business Sweden, VINNOVA and the Swedish Consulate General of San Francisco and was sponsored by Swedish Ericsson and IKEA. "Silicon Valley is not just a port of entry for the U.S. market, it is also a key gateway to the global market," said Ann-Sofie Safa, acting country manager USA for Business Sweden. "Partnerships and collaborations between Nordic companies and businesses in Silicon Valley lead to shorter time to market and create great technology and innovation."

  • The Crown Princess couple's continued visit includes visits to educational institutions, Stanford University and its design school.

  • For more info, see
    www.svenskakyrkan.se/sanfrancisco
    www.nordicinnovationhouse.com
    www.computerhistory.org
    http://stripe.com
    http://runway.is
    www.teslamotors.com