News November 29, 2022: Easycom, Abacube, PlayMaker, Scania Growth Capital II, TRUE, Klarna, Boozt and more

Here are today's news from Sweden's startup and tech sector, exclusively for subscribers of Swedish Tech News.

Funding news

• Easycom (Borås, digital solution for online retailers to improve the return process and reduce the number of returns): SEK20M (€1.8M, $1.9M) in a funding round led by Bring Ventures, with participation from existing investors Seven District and Almi Invest. In conjunction with the funding, founder Peter Hietala is handing the CEO role to Fredrik Hedblom, who will focus on sales growth and international expansion (Swedish / Breakit paywall, Swedish #2, machine translation).
• Abacube (Stockholm, solution to help insurance companies automate the way they calculate compensations for personal injuries): SEK3M (€280K, $290K) from Esmaeilzadeh Holding and angel investors including Christer Hellström and Carl Svernlöv (Swedish, machine translation).
• PlayMaker (Stockholm, football analytics as a service): SEK4M (€370K, $380K) from new investors, among them Black Heat Equity. Previous investors participated as well, including Almi Invest, E14 Invest, Oscarson Invest, and angel investors Hans Victor, Jan Friedman, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall (Swedish, machine translation).

>> Daily updated, subscriber-exclusive Google sheet with all funding rounds raised by private Swedish startups and scaleups.

News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs

• Scania has launched its new SEK2B (€180K, $190K) venture capital fund, Scania Growth Capital II. It will continue its predecessor’s focus on the most attractive companies and entrepreneurs in the B2B tech space (English, Swedish).
• Stockholm-based startup TRUE was founded in 2020 and offers issuance of blockchain-secured certificates, diplomas, awards and memberships. Founder and CEO Patrik Slettman argues that this area – where mechanisms of trust are relatively easy to establish – are more suitable for an initial application of blockchain technology, rather than something as complex as the global financial system (Swedish, machine translation).
• After an initial start in the US in October, Klarna launched a platform that connects retailers with creators and influencers, in 45 markets including Sweden (English, Swedish).
• Boozt is Sweden's leading online retailer based on 2021 revenue, followed by Dustin, Apotea, Mediamarkt and Ellos (Swedish / Market paywall, Swedish #2, machine translation).

Swedish tech earnings

• Esmaeilzadeh Holding (Stockholm, investment company) published its Q3 2022 interim report (English).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• Of 344 VC-backed unicorns founded in Europe and Israel since 2008, nearly two-thirds (203) have led to at least one startup being founded by former employees, with 1,018 tech startups emerging in total, according to a new report by VC firm Accel (English).
• The damage that's being done to a VC when a high flying startup implodes (English).
• Report on the "State of Quantum Computing" in 2022, from IQM Quantum Computers, OpenOcean and Lakestar, in association with The Quantum Insider (TQI) (English).

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• Polestar aims to dethrone Porsche 911 in dynamic driving with new electric sports car (English).
• IKEA plans to cut prices as some input costs ease (English).

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That's it for today.