News October 24, 2022: STILRIDE, BrightBid, SenseNode, H2 Green Steel, Volta Trucks, Albert, Behold Ventures 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): €3.5B ($3.5B) in debt financing from various European financial institutions (English).
• STILRIDE (Stockholm, manufacturer of personal mobility devices using industrial origami): SEK40M (€3.6M, $3.6M) from existing angel investors such as Gustaf Hagman, Saied Esmaeilzadeh and Tobias Emanuelsson, as well as the Bonnier family office. The startup says it will also launch an equity crowdfunding campaign shortly (Swedish, machine translation).
• BrightBid (Stockholm, SaaS solution using AI and automation to improve ad campaigns on Google Search): SEK25M (€2.3M, $2.2M) from angel investors such as Filip Lilja, Mikael Lindblom and Thor-Olof Philogéne (Swedish, machine translation).
• SenseNode (Lund, provider of wireless smart energy solutions): SEK25M (€2.3M, $2.2M) from Latour Future Solutions (SEK18M for 10.9% of the company) and Almi Invest GreenTech (SEK7M) (English, Swedish).

>> 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

• H2 Green Steel and Volta Trucks are 2 Swedish out of a total of 8 European companies that have formed a new cleantech scaleup coalition, supported by Bill Gates (English).
• Breakit published an interview with Einride co-founder and CMO Linnéa Kornehed Falck. She shares thoughts on where the industry is going, the current market environment, the business of shipping, meritocracy, and equality (Swedish / Breakit paywall).
• Albert, Gothenburg-based digital learning subscription service for kids and teens, launched in Finland (English).
• Jens Nylander, Swedish serial entrepreneur who founded Automile, JAYS and Jens of Sweden, is looking for technical co-founders for his new startup. Not much info available about it other than that it is "seeking to be part of the electrification of the society" (English).
• Taylor Swift’s "Midnights" breaks Spotify record for most-streamed album in a single day (English).
• Behold Ventures is a newly announced Stockholm-based VC fund launched by Karl Magnus Troedsson, Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir and Magnus Kenneby, that invests in early-stage video game startups from the Nordics. The trio aims for a total fund size of around SEK500M (€45M, $45M), of which half has reportedly already been raised and partially invested in 12 portfolio companies (Swedish, machine translation).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• An early stage startup founder wears many hats and does many things. But at the end of the day, their only real job is finding product market fit (English).
• When is short tenure at tech companies a red flag (English)?

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• Somebody is systematically stealing speed cameras from Swedish roads (English / NYT paywall, alternative URL).
• IKEA's new smart hub "Dirigera" is hitting stores in Europe and North America this week, and The Verge has tried it out (English).

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That's it for today.