Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector, exclusively for subscribers of Swedish Tech News.
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Subscribe to Swedish Tech News to get access to a daily newsletter that brings you a brief overview of news from the Swedish startup & tech sector, curated by Martin Weigert.
Or, if you prefer a free weekly newsletter, subscribe to Swedish Tech Weekly!
Funding news
- Liquid Wind (Gothenburg, developer of a solution to convert CO2 and wind energy to liquid fuel): €15.2M ($14.9M) in a Series B round from HyCap and existing investors Uniper, Alfa Laval, Siemens Energy, Topsoe, Elyse and others (English).
- Dandi (Stockholm & New York, analytics platform for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace): $3.7M in seed funding led by Springbank and Alleycorp Impact, with participation from Atlassian Ventures, Impact Engine, Uncommon Denominator, AAF and Heirloom VC (English).
- Meds (Stockholm, online pharmacy): SEK40M (€3.6M, $3.5M) loan facility from an undisclosed major bank (Swedish / DI Digital paywall, Swedish #2, machine translation).
- Reselo (Stockholm, developing a sustainable rubber from forest residues): €2.5M ($2.5M) grant through the European Union's EIC Accelerator (English).
- Kale United (Stockholm, holding company for plant-based food innovation): SEK13M (€1.2M, $1.2M) through an equity crowdfunding round from around 640 investors (Swedish, machine translation).
- Rabble (Stockholm, cashback platform for FMCG brands): SEK10M (€900K, $900K) in a funding round led by existing investor Inbox Capital. The company, which started in 2010 with an app for discounts, launched a cashback feature in early 2022, which has now 100,000 monthly active users. The funds will be used to launch Rabble in Finland, Norway and Denmark (Swedish / DI Digital paywall)
- Off Script (Stockholm, e-commerce platform for creators): SEK10M (€900K, $900K) in a pre-seed round of funding led by Watertower Ventures, with participation from 3KVC. The financing will be used for the expansion into the US. For that purpose, Off Script's co-founders Pontus Karlsson, Yuriy Kurylenko and Tom Coleman have moved the company's headquarter to the US and relocated to West Hollywood (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
- Ment, Stockholm-based developer of a smart digital service for ADHD, is looking to raise €650K (€630K) for 25% of the company, according to a press release sent out by existing investor Curus (English). A 27-page pitchdeck is provided (PDF). Seems an unconventional approach, but why not try.
- MIOO, Stockholm-based startup offering an app for on-demand bicycle repairs, is launching a large-scale expansion into Germany and the UK. Next up could be France, The Netherlands and Italy (Swedish, machine translation).
- Bitrefill (Stockholm, service to let people buy gift cards and refill phones with cryptocurrencies) generated net sales of SEK1.7B (€154M, $150M) and an operating profit of SEK10M in 2021, according to a profile published by Breakit. The majority of the startup's business is coming from markets outside Europe. Co-founder and CFO Michel Gustavsson says the company, which currently has a headcount of 54, is considering raising a Series B funding round to accelerate growth – but there is no pressure to do so, if terms aren't good (Swedish / Breakit paywall).
- Creandum and Slush launched an anonymous founders' salary survey for VC-backed tech companies from pree seed to Series B and beyond (English).
- UK-based equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs is looking for a Head of Nordics (English).
Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond
- Some European VC firms are spreading misleading fund announcements (English)
Other interesting things related to Sweden
- Swedish parliament backs center-right leader Ulf Kristersson as new PM, with support from the far-right Sweden Democrats (English)
- Sweden’s incoming cabinet says new reactors will be built (English / Bloomberg paywall, alternative URL).
- Researchers in Sweden have constructed a scent machine that can be controlled by a gaming computer, potentially paving the the way for the development of smell-based game mechanics (English).
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That's it for today.