Swedish Tech Weekly #243

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This newsletter was sent on February 5, 2024, to subscribers of Swedish Tech Weekly. To receive future editions, you can sign up for free on swedishtechweekly.com.

Welcome to the latest from Sweden's startup & tech sector.

I'm Martin Weigert. Swedish Tech Weekly brings you a selection of some of the news I covered in my PRO newsletters last week. Today's email was sent to 2235 subscribers (+11).

Mergers & acquisitions


• Flow (Motala, mobile ordering and payment system for the hospitality sector) acquired the assets of bankrupt Stockholm-based industry peer Orderhero (Swedish, machine translation).

Funding news


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• Heart Aerospace (Gothenburg, manufacturer of an electric regional airplane): $107M in Series B funding from new investor Sagitta Ventures, and existing investors Air Canada, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, EIC fund, EQT Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Norrsken VC, United Airlines, and Y Combinator (English).

• Carla (Stockholm, online store for used electric vehicles): SEK62.5M (€5.5M, $6M) in a funding round from existing investors Bonnier Ventures, Inbox Capital, and Black Ice, among others (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Understatement Underwear (Stockholm, D2C lingerie brand and e-commerce company): SEK20M (€1.8M, $1.9M) from Yanno Capital, Mellby Gård, and Purefun Group (English).

• Version Lens (Stockholm, co-pilot for product managers): €1.5M ($1.6M) in pre-seed funding led by People Ventures, with participation from Curiosity and Pitchdrive (English). ➡️ PRO subscribers learned about this new startup in October 2023.

• Roro (Stockholm, game studio developing a 3D digital dollhouse game): $1.6M in pre-seed funding from node.vc, FOV Ventures, Gaming Angels, and angel investors (English).

• Fragsheet (Stockholm, platform for gamers to find other players and e-sports and gaming-related events): SEK7.8M (€690K, $750K) from angel investors and the marketing agency King. This capital injection comes in addition to SEK3.25M in funding which I covered in June 2023 (Swedish, machine translation).

• Find My Factory (Stockholm, B2B supplier database): SEK7M (€620K, $670K) in pre-seed funding from the Clas Ohlson family and angel investors (Swedish).

• Nenda (Stockholm, streaming service for businesses): SEK7M (€620K, $670K) from angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).

• OptiBinary (Jönköping, tailormade and smart cardboard solution for deliveries): SEK4.5M (€410K, $430K) from Almi Invest, Speed Capital, Triangel Invest, and private investors (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• WorkTiles (Stockholm; B2B SaaS solution for organizing, performing and improving the monthly closing and consolidation process): SEK3M (€270K, $290K) from angel investors, EHAB, and Holmströmgruppen. ➡️ First covered in my PRO subscription on Jan 31.

• LingoLooper (Gothenburg, fully immersive AI-powered language learning app): SEK2.2M (€200K, $210K) from Yuncture, and angel investors Lasse Birk Olesen and Jacob Hansen. This funding also includes a SEK600K grant from the Region Västra Götaland. ➡️ First covered in my PRO subscription on Feb 1.

• Tandem Health (Stockholm, SaaS solution for generating automated medical records immediately after a patient encounter): undisclosed amount in first funding from angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).

• Aima Sense (Karlskrona, developer of products that simplify the hygiene routine for women after sex): undisclosed amount from angel investor Anette Saleskog, in first outside funding (English).

• Spintop Ventures led a NOK15M (€1.3M, $1.4M) funding round raised by Norway-based circular app Tings (English).

I covered 8 additional rounds, as well as more details, in my PRO newsletters last week.

News from Swedish startups & the tech sector


• CAKE, Stockholm-based electric motorcycle startup founded in 2016, is bankrupt. The company has raised around SEK700M (€62M, $67M) in total funding (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• RGNT, another bankrupt Swedish electric motorcycle startup, was acquired by the company's founder Jonathan Åström (who had left the startup in November 2022) and two former RGNT execs. Their goal is to run the RGNT as a very lean operation, with no outside capital for now (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• GoCiklo, a bootstrapped Stockholm-based startup, launched battery swapping stations aimed at delivery drivers on light electric vehicles in Gothenburg and Stockholm (Swedish, machine translation).

• 84codes, bootstrapped Stockholm-based DevOps as a Service provider founded in 2012, generated net revenue of SEK257.5M (€23M, $25M) during the financial year ending in June 2023, up 30% YoY. Profit was SEK110.4M, up 56% YoY (Swedish, machine translation).

• Doktor24 announced that it is "the first profitable digital healthcare provider in Sweden" (Swedish, machine translation).

• ConScience, Gothenburg-based nanofabrication company, announced the launch of the "first commercial quantum device fully designed and manufactured in Sweden" (English).

• Kavall, the Stockholm-based hyper-local rapid grocery delivery service which was acquired in March 2023 by Mathem and then became Mathem Express, is getting a second life, once again as an independent company (English, Swedish).

• Picsmart, the Stockholm-based provider of an online and delivery platform for local grocery stores, is partnering with Wolt in Malmö to deliver groceries in 30 minutes (Swedish, machine translation).

• Cellufy, Stockholm-based spinoff from KTH developing bio-based materials for sustainable industrialisation, unveiled its fully bio-based, wet-stable foams (English).

• Albert, publicy traded Gothenburg-based digital learning subscription service for kids and teens, is cutting 25-30 jobs, representing around 20% of the workforce (Swedish, machine translation).

• Leah aims to revolutionize student financing in Africa. Now the Stockholm-based startup announced that it will finance its first cohort of students for upskill tech courses in South Africa (English). ➡️ PRO subscribers learned about this new startup in May 2023.

• Hypertype, the Stockholm-based AI email assistant startup, recruited the well-known Swedish influencer Margaux Dietz on a project basis to support the company in marketing and sales. Dietz is also becoming a shareholder (Swedish, machine translation). Hypertype was founded in 2021 by Teenie Fung and Beatrice Baltscheffsky, and became one of the first startups in Sweden to seize the genAI opportunity.

• Belly Balance, Stockholm-based developer of an app to treat irritable bowel syndrome, launched its offering in the UK (English).

• Leya, Y Combinator-backed Stockholm-based generative AI company aiming to build the future of professional legal services, is launching on the Spanish market (Spanish, machine translation).

• "Startup Boost", a startup program announced by Lund-headquartered technology consultancy tretton37, revealed its 2024 cohort consisting of ten tech startups "representing eight different countries spanning three continents" (English).

• In a scathing blog post, Spotify expressed strong criticism of Apple's planned major changes to the app ecosystem in the European Union (English).

• The program for the upcoming The Tech Arena conference in Stockholm has been published.

• Venture Cup opened the applications for the annual startup competition "STARTUP" (Swedish, machine translation).

• The nominations for the Nordic Women in Tech Awards 2024 have opened.

• Giant Ventures, a UK-based VC firm, announced the opening of its Stockholm office, alongside the launch of two new funds of total $250M (English, Swedish / PDF). ➡️ PRO subscribers learned in November about the firm's so far unannounced first investment in Sweden.

• 📺 "Patric blir Angel" is a new video podcast in Swedish in which the host Patric – a "perfectly average Swede" – sits down with the most successful angel investors "to learn the tricks of the trade and demystify the world of venture capital".

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond


• The annual Nordic State of AI report was released by Finland's Silo AI.

• In 2023, only 1,738 venture-backed startups were acquired globally — the lowest amount since 2015 (English).

• VCs need exits — but how are they going to get them? (English).

• NRR Zombie = a SaaS startup that basically fell out of product-market fit after the 2021 boom, but has enough revenue and high enough NRR to keep going (English).

• The "worst" things VCs do in the eyes of a founder they've invested in, are around incentive dis-alignments (English).

• A founder regrets having sold his bootstrapped startup, among other things because selling "destroyed" his identity of being a "CEO and Founder" (English).

• Volvo Cars plans to stop funding its publicly traded subsidiary Polestar and evaluates a distribution of Polestar shares to Volvo Cars’ shareholders (English).

• Sweden ranks #6 in the latest annual Corruption Perceptions Index, down from #5 last year (English).

• Nacka, a municipality east of Stockholm, is the first in Sweden to automate decisions in the building permit process (Swedish, machine translation).

• 50 years after Sweden introduced state-funded parental leave, there's now "a little bit of stigma on men who don't take leave" (English).

• 🎧 Swedish public service radio talks to food delivery workers (who often have recently arrived to Sweden from very warm countries) on how they cope with the Nordic winter (English / 4 minutes).

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And check out my regularly updated Swedish tech startup & VC lists.

Martin