News October 19, 2022: H2 Green Steel, Baseload Capital, Kvartal, Meela, Hemavi, Klarna, Stratipath and more

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

Funding news

• H2 Green Steel (Stockholm, developer of a fossil-free steel plant to be built in northern Sweden): €70M ($68M) in the final close of its Series B round (which now totals €260M) from investors such as Hitachi Energy, Kobe Steel and Kinnevik (English).
• Baseload Capital (Stockholm, specialized investment entity that funds the deployment of heat power worldwide): $24M convertible loan from new investors Baker Hughes and Nefco, and existing investors Gullspång Invest, Chevron Technology Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (English).
• Kvartal (Stockholm, online publisher): SEK10M (€900K, $900K) from around 15 angel investors, including Tommy Jacobson, Fabian Hielte, Per Josefsson, and previous investors Staffan Persson, Patrik Wahlén, and Erik Åfors – according to unconfirmed information obtained by Breakit (Swedish / Breakit paywall).
• Meela (Gothenburg, therapist-patient matchmaking platform for women): SEK4.5M (€400K, $400K) from The Inner Foundation, The Case For Her, as well as angel investors such as Kerstin Cooley and Katja Bergman. In conjunction with the funding announcement, Meela launched its service (English, Swedish).
• Hemavi (Lund, matchmaking platform for room rentals): SEK3.5M (€320K, $310K) in a funding round led by angel investor Kerstin Lindell (English).

>> 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

• Klarna today launched shoppable (live) video content in its app as well as a Creator Platform for retailers and influencers to collaborate on brand campaigns and to track earnings, performance and sales (English, Swedish).
• Profile of Stratipath, Stockholm-based startup developing AI-based precision diagnostics for cancer treatment. The company, which was founded in 2019 by Mattias Rantalainen, Fredrik Wetterhall, and Johan Hartmanhich, will win this year's research and innovation award "Athenapriset" (Swedish, machine translation)
• Hormona, Stockholm- & London-based startup providing an app for women to track hormonal imbalances, is launching its service in the US (English).
• Bird, US shared e-scooter provider, is exiting the Swedish market (and a couple of other markets) (English). Already 2 months ago, competitor Superpedestrian unceremoniously decided to leave the Swedish market, as reported by SvD today (Swedish / SvD paywall)
• Unconventional Ventures launched its annual report on the gender funding gap in the Nordics (plus UK, Germany and France), based on 2021 numbers. The following chart shows the funding distribution for founder teams in Sweden (English):

• On November 7-8, the Space Investment & Talent Day takes place, a free-to-attend event dedicated to space industry growth and networking. Participants can join online, or physically in either Luleå or Trollhättan (English).

Swedish tech earnings reports

• Kinnevik (Stockholm, investment company) wrote down the valuation of its stake in online grocery store Mathem by a massive 77%, according to its Q3 report (English, Swedish).
• Plejd (Gothenburg, smart connected lighting solutions): Swedish, machine translation.

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• The rise of the extremely niche venture firm (English).
• Eliminating the wall between Product and Engineering (English).
• Primer on the effectiveness of usage-based pricing in SaaS (English)

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That's it for today.