News February 7, 2022: Lexly, Pej, Allbry, Musselfeed, PriceRunner, Truecaller, Hiber, Quartr and more

Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector, as well as some interesting reads, exclusively for subscribers of Swedish Tech News.

Mergers & acquisitions

• Lexly (Stockholm, provider of online legal services) acquired Danish competitor Legalhero for reportedly between SEK60M - SEK80M (€8M, $8.8M) according to DI Digital (Swedish, machine translation).
• Yabie (Stockholm, flexible and mobile POS & payment platform) acquired Stockholm-based Cliento, provider of a booking system solution for businesses. The price was not disclosed (Swedish, machine translation).

Financing rounds

• Pej (Malmö, order and self-service platform for multiple channels): SEK65M (€6.5M, $7.1M) from Polynom Investment and existing shareholder Schibsted (English, Swedish).
• Allbry (Stockholm, digital platform for a better student health): SEK6M (€600K, $650K) from angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).
• Musselfeed (Ellös, foodtech startup that uses blue mussels to create powder and flour which can be processed into food and feed): SEK5.5M (€550K, $600K) from First Gate Invest and angel investors, as well as a SEK1.5M loan from Almi Företagspartner (English, Swedish).

News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs

• PriceRunner, Stockholm-based shopping comparison site, sues Google for €2.1B ($2.4B) after a European court ruled that Google breached EU antitrust laws (English, Swedish).
• Truecaller partners with several unspecified "world leading Android smartphone manufacturers" to preload the caller id app on smartphones in the company's key markets such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Latin America (English).
• Hiber, Gothenburg-based game creation and social gaming platform not entirely unlike Roblox, wants to "open the Metaverse to the masses", as it starts to roll out its new engine and platform to users in a few test markets such as New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines, writes CEO and co-founder Michael Yngfors (English).
• How a cold email outreach by Gothenburg-based investor relations app startup Quartr to the well-known US podcasters Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson led to 2 subsequent angel investments (English).
• Spotify CEO Daniel Ek confirms removal of 70 Joe Rogan episodes due to "racially insensitive language", says the company will spend $100M on content from marginalized groups (English).
• San Francisco-founded global payroll and compliance startup Deel is expanding into the Swedish market, seeking to help Swedish startups to hire internationally (Swedish, machine translation).
• The "European Edtech Funding Report 2022 - Nordic special" has been published. (English, PDF). Here is a summary of the highlights (English).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• How 6 European VCs, among them Sweden's EQT Ventures, are doing due diligence on founders (English).
• Hiring your first product leader (English).
• Why gamers hate crypto, and music fans don't (English).

Other interesting things from Sweden

• Top companies, including IKEA, are exaggerating their progress in tackling climate change, according to a new report (English).
• Homes sell in record time in Sweden, and after 2 years of pandemic anomaly, the pressure is highest again on apartments in central locations (English / The Local paywall, Swedish, machine translation).

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That's it for today.