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# News October 12, 2022: Daniel Ek, Vok Bikes, Mathem, Google Cloud region and more
- URL: https://www.swedishtechnews.com/news-october-12-2022/
- Published: 2022-10-12T14:58:25.000Z
- Updated: 2024-11-16T09:44:24.000Z
- Description: Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector, exclusively for subscribers of Swedish Tech News.
- Author: Martin Weigert
- Tags: Daily (PRO), Daniel Ek, gustav söderström, vok bikes, Mathem, Spotify

Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector.

💡

This post has been unlocked and made available for free a month after publication.   
  
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A slow news day today. No acquisition or funding announcements at all.

### News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs

- Breakit published a list featuring "Sweden's 90 hottest tech scaleups" (in alphabetical order) ([Swedish](https://www.breakit.se/artikel/34639/scaleup-listan-2022-sveriges-90-hetaste-snabbvaxande-techbolag) / *Breakit paywall*).
- Spotify CEO Daniel Ek gave Dagens Industri "the first major interview in 10 years" ([Swedish](https://www.di.se/nyheter/det-ar-ingenting-magiskt-med-mig/) / *Di paywall*).
- 🎧 Meanwhile, Spotify's Chief Research & Development Officer Gustav Söderström talked with Harry Stebbings on the 20 Product podcast about "why product is 100% science and 0% art" ([English](https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/gustav-soderstrom/), *68 minutes*).
- Estonian startup [Vok Bikes](https://vokbikes.com/e-cargo-bike-sweden/), provider of electric cargo bikes, is expanding into the Swedish market, with Mathem Express – the fairly new rapid delivery service of Swedish online grocery store [Mathem](http://www.mathem.se) – being one of its first local customers ([Swedish](https://feber.se/fordon/mathem-express-anvander-lastcyklar-fran-vok/443441/), [machine translation](https://feber-se.translate.goog/fordon/mathem-express-anvander-lastcyklar-fran-vok/443441/?%5Fx%5Ftr%5Fsl=auto&%5Fx%5Ftr%5Ftl=en&%5Fx%5Ftr%5Fhl=en&%5Fx%5Ftr%5Fpto=wapp)).
- Google announced the launch of its first Cloud region in Sweden ([English](https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/11/google-cloud-expands-to-six-more-countries/)).
- My list of Swedish tech startups & scaleups founded and led by women has grown to 150+ protagonists now. I got a bunch of nice additions after the list gained huge attention on LinkedIn. I'll continuously update it moving forward ([English](https://www.swedishtechnews.com/swedish-tech-startups-scaleups-founded-and-led-by-women/)).

### Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

- [Spherics](https://www.spherics.io/), a UK-based carbon accounting platform for SMEs and competitor to Sweden's [Normative](https://normative.io), has been acquired by accounting giant Sage for an undisclosed amount ([English](https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/12/2422480/)).
- VC firms invested $4.44B in crypto startups in Q3 globally, a 37% decline from the same period in 2021 ([English](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-11/crypto-startup-funding-q3-plunges-alongside-bitcoin#xj4y7vzkg) / *Bloomberg paywall*, [alternative URL](https://archive.ph/OOIqj)).
- Grit or quit? Tactical advice for founders facing tough decisions ([English](https://review.firstround.com/grit-or-quit-tactical-advice-for-founders-facing-tough-company-building-decisions)).
- An entirely AI-created podcast in which a fake Joe Rogan interviews a fake Steve Jobs ([English](https://podcast.ai/)).

### Other interesting things related to Sweden

- Some Swedish and Finnish producers of pulp and paper are making record profits right now, as they can produce their own energy and thus have an edge over continental competitors ([English](https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/swedish-pulp-and-paper-industry-cashing-in-on-energy-crisis-and-weak-krona)).
- Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland have formally launched an ambitious joint-bid to host the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 ([English](https://www.forbes.com/sites/asifburhan/2022/10/12/scandinavian-nations-launch-joint-bid-to-host-uefa-womens-euro-2025/?sh=a973e85771bf)).

+++

That's it for today.