News June 17, 2023: Nextory, Vembla, Metry, Klarna, Greenely, Swish, Avanza, Safello, Rider's Position and more
Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector.
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Or, if you prefer a free weekly newsletter, subscribe to Swedish Tech Weekly!
Funding news
- Nextory (Stockholm, audiobook and e-book subscription service): SEK100M (€9.4M, $10M) in a funding round led by existing investors Industrifonden, Acacia and LK Finans, reportedly at a valuation of SEK1.2B, for the European expansion (Swedish / DI Digital paywall, Swedish #2, machine translation).
- Vembla (Stockholm, instant hyper-local grocery home delivery): SEK5M (€460K, $500K) through equity crowdfunding from 360 investors (Swedish, machine translation).
- Metry (Gothenburg, energy data platform to help building owners become more energy efficient): undisclosed amount from SEB Greentech VC (English, Swedish).
- Volvo Energy invests SEK50M (€4.7M, $5M) in the UK-based, second-life battery energy storage specialist Connected Energy, and secures a 10% stake in the company (English, Swedish).
>> Daily updated, subscriber-exclusive Google sheet with all funding rounds raised by private Swedish startups and scaleups. Request access.
News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs
- The valuation keeps dropping: Klarna is reportedly discussing raising cash at a valuation around $15B, down from 2021’s near $46B (English / WSJ paywall, alternative URL, Swedish).
- Greenely, Stockholm-based next-generation household energy platform, reached its equity crowdfunding goal of €1.5M within 24 hours of launching the campaign. It will run for 13 more days (English).
- Ubiquitous p2p payment app Swish hit the milestone of 8 million users in Sweden, which represents 77% of the country's population (English, Swedish).
- Avanza, one of Sweden's 2 major finance and broker apps, is cancelling the process to evaluate a collaboration with Swedish crypto exchange Safello to integrate crypto services. The potential partnership was announced in March, but now the broker says it wants to awaiting further regulation of the cryptocurrency market (English, Swedish).
- Rider's Position, Uppsala-based horsetech startup, launched an iOS app which tracks how the rider moves in the saddle, and lets them purchase an objective analysis with written feedback on their seat (English).
Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond
- As a VC, earning the right to be contrarian (English)
- The hardest part about SaaS companies, at each stage (English).
Other interesting things related to Sweden
- At Sweden's new Holocaust Museum, survivors will be able to respond to schoolchildren's questions for generations - as a digital version themselves (Swedish, machine translation).
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That's it for today.
