News October 27, 2022: Instabee, Astrid, Ovulai, Radinn, byWiT, Bambuser and more

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

Funding news

• Norrsken VC participated in a $10M Series A round raised by US-based personal carbon-cutting app Joro (English). The startup is on the Norrsken Foundation's recently published Impact 100 list.

>> 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

• Instabox and Budbee got the green light for their planned merger from the Swedish Competition Authority (Swedish, machine translation). It also looks as if the soon-to-be-named company Instabee might have bought the instabee.com domain from an India-based startup of the same name. Its previous website (archive.org snapshot from July) has recently vanished. Currently the domain leads nowhere.
• Judging from teasers shared on social media, Stockholm-based language learning startup Astrid is expanding its scope. It moves from being an AI-powered voice-based English learning solution focused on kids and teens, towards a much broader user group. The promise of the company's newly launched iOS/Android app: to speak English "confidently in no time". The solution for kids/teens is now called Astrid Junior (English).
• Ovulai, Stockholm-based digital health coach for women with menstrual related issues and PCOS, launched its iPhone app (Swedish only for now) (English).
• Radinn, Malmö-based maker of electric boards for water sports, announced that its X-Sport board is now authorized for rental purposes, "making it the first rental-approved, warranty-backed jetboard in the industry". The company says it has developed a "plug ’n play business model" for tourism and watersport markets (English).
• Swedish investment company byWiT, which invests in "digital challengers", has secured over SEK300M (€28M, $28M) in its annual new share issue, with a goal of raising another SEK100M before the first quarter of 2023 (English, Swedish).

Swedish tech earnings reports

• Bambuser (Stockholm, provider of technology for live video shopping): English.

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• Exactly 15 years ago, a Forbes’s cover story trumpeted: "Nokia, one billion customers – can anyone catch the cell phone king?” (English).
• Tips from Creandum on how to find a suitable coach as startup founder/CEO (English)

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• Amazon will release 18 exclusive Nordic titles on its Prime video streaming service, including 6 Swedish ones (Swedish, machine translation).
• Scientists in Sweden and Denmark have managed to transmit data at a staggering 1.84 petabits per second — nearly twice the amount of global internet traffic in the same interval. A petabit is equal to one million gigabits (English).

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That's it for today.