Swedish Tech Weekly #254

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This newsletter was sent on April 22, 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 is being sent to 2346 subscribers (+18).

Mergers & acquisitions

• Locka (Örebro, SaaS platform acting as digital bridge between real estate projects and customers) is being acquired by Norwegian company SmartCraft, provider of software solutions for craftsmen and the construction industry, in an all-cash-deal worth SEK24M (€2.1M, $2.2M) (English).

• Verified (Stockholm, B2B SaaS provider of AML and KYC solutions) acquires GRC Watch, a Stockholm-based due diligence & KYC platform (English).

Funding news

Do you have unreported funding news you want to see here? Fill out this form or respond to this email.

• Blykalla (Stockholm, developer of modular nuclear reactor technology): SEK80M (€7M, $7.3M) in a funding round led by Norrsken Launcher together with Nucleation Capital, with participation from Earth Venture Capital, and Farvatn (English).

• Gridly (Helsingborg, content ops platform): SEK28M (€2.4M, $2.6M) in a seed funding round from a "top-three global games company", Subvenio Invest, Rendered.VC, and existing investors (English).

• OlsAro (Gothenburg, AI enabled climate adaption of crops for a resilient agriculture): €2.5M ($2.6M) in a seed funding round led by Future Food Fund and PINC, with participation from AgFunder, Flora Ventures and Mudcake (English).

• Nowo (Stockholm, hassle-free micro retirement savings tool, publicly traded): SEK21.1M (€1.8M, $1.9M) before issue costs, through a rights issue (Swedish, machine translation).

• Saveggy (Lund, plant-based edible vegan coating for fresh fruits & veggies): €1.76M ($1.9M) from Unconventional Ventures, LRF Ventures, existing investor Almi Invest GreenTech, and industry angels (English).

• Opper (Stockholm, development platform for the integration and advancement of generative AI): €1.6M ($1.7M) in a pre-seed funding round from Emblem, Luminar Ventures, and angel investors. Opper also emerged from stealth mode (English). ➡️ Funding first covered in my PRO subscription on January 18.

• Silo Team (Stockholm/London; upcoming developer onboarding, retention and offboarding platform): $1.16M in pre-seed funding led by Pitchdrive and Fuel Ventures (English). ➡️ Company first covered in my PRO subscription in January 2023.

• Vialumina (Stockholm, digital fleet management solutions): SEK10M (€860K, $920K) from CSB Capital, Curitas Ventures and Carl Hirsch (Swedish / Di Digital paywall). ➡️ Funding first covered in my PRO subscription on November 14, 2023.

• Improvin' (Stockholm, agri-food industry-focused sustainability performance platform): SEK8.3M (€710K, $760K) grant from the EU and Jordbruksverket (English).

• Geofy (Stockholm, platform that simplifies the shift to sustainable energy with a fixed-cost subscription model): SEK5M (€430K, $460K) in pre-seed funding led by Giant Ventures, with participation from angel investors. Geofy also emerged from stealth mode (English, Swedish / Impact Loop paywall). ➡️ Funding first covered in my PRO subscription on November 22, 2023.

• Deepgrid (Stockholm, developer and operator of Battery Energy Storage System facilities that act as virtual power plants): SEK4.25M (€360K, $390K) in first larger equity funding from undisclosed investors, at a valuation of around SEK100M. Deepgrid also secured "substantial debt funding including a green loan”. ➡️ News first covered in my PRO subscription on April 18; company first covered on November 2, 2023.

• Emission Twin, formerly The Ontology Way (Malmö, SaaS digital twin solution that helps businesses accelerate their net zero journey): SEK3.6M (€310K, $330K) from RadCap and angel investors including Jeanette Andersson, Magdalena Gräff, and Joana Fernandes, among others (English, Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• Figgy (Stockholm, AI-supported SaaS solution to create neat looking annual reports with just a few clicks): SEK3.5M (€300, $320K) from the founders, various unspecified accounting firms, and angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).

• Reccan (Lund; easy-to-use blood test for quick, accurate and none-invasive screening for pancreatic cancer): SEK3M (€260K, $280K) grant together with Lund University and Region Skåne, from Swelife/Vinnova (English).

• SweGaN (Linköping, semiconductor manufacturer): undisclosed amount in a strategic investment from South Korea-based RFHIC Corporation, which describes itself as "the world's first and only GaN device-to-systems manufacturer" (English).

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

News from Swedish startups & the tech sector

• Scout Park is a new startup making waves with a mobile app available in the company's home town Uppsala, that lets users earn money by reporting wrongly parked cars. Founder Erik Englund wants to create "the world's simplest extra job" (Swedish, machine translation).

• Stravito, Stockholm-based enterprise search engine software for market research, unveiled Stravito Assistant, a "trusted insights companion that helps users find answers faster, ask better questions, and immediately leverage a wealth of insights to inform real-world business decisions". The company touts Heineken as one of the first customers of the Assistant (English).

• LingoLooper, Gothenburg-based startup which in early March unveiled its fully immersive AI-powered language learning app, launched on Product Hunt

• Hormona, Stockholm- and London-based startup which develops data-driven solutions for women targeting hormonal imbalances, is gearing up to release an at-home testing kit to track hormone fluctuations and inconsistencies (English).

• A public listing of Stockholm-based audience engagement platform Mentimeter appears to be getting closer. The company generated revenue of SEK452M last year, up 43% YoY, positive cash flow, and cites 25 million registered users (Swedish #1 / Breakit paywall, Swedish #2, machine translation).

• GreenMerc, Stockholm-based developer of fintech solutions and operator of the crypto exchange Trijo, announced its intention to become listed at the Nordic Growth Market during Q2 2024 (Swedish, machine translation).

• Payer, Stockholm-based b2b payments provider founded in 2007, is bankrupt (English).

• Gigital, Stockholm-based digital marketplace for booking of artists and djs, is bankrupt as well (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Bankruptcy first covered in my PRO subscription on April 10.

• Quandify, Stockholm-based startup offering an intelligent water metering and leakage detection system, is expanding into the Baltics, after having launched in the Nordics (English).

• Argus Eye, Linköping-based company offering sensor solutions for real-time monitoring of biological systems and processes, is expanding into the US (English).

• Waybler, Stockholm-based provider of complete EV charging solutions for properties, businesses and streets, is expanding into Finland (Swedish, machine translation).

• Stockholm's public transport (SL) will launch its anticipated, slightly delayed pilot route operated by the flying electric hydrofoil ferry of Swedish startup Candela in fall this year (Swedish, machine translation).

• Sweden has officially become a Limited Partner of the NATO Innovation Fund (English).

• Bloomberg published a piece on the rise and fall of Renewcell (English).

• The Climate Brick has launched, a new platform aiming to provide "the missing manual for scaling climate tech" founded by EQT Ventures and Contrarian Ventures and supported by many others (English).

• Stockholm ranks #27 globally in a Pitchbook ranking of "the world’s top startup cities", and #4 in Europe.

• This year's edition of the annual invite-only event GROW Invest, arranged by Mindpark, will take place on May 28 in Helsingborg, gathering 200 early stage investors from all over the Nordics. You can apply for an invite here.

• The Norrsken Foundation will host its fifth annual Impact Week at its recently opened hub in Barcelona, on November 6-7 2024.

• Almi Invest, the prolific startup investment firm owned by the Swedish state, raised a third fund generation of approximately SEK1.6B (€140M, $150M) for investments during the period 2024 – 2029 (English).

• Tenity, a Switzerland-based innovation ecosystem and early-stage investor, and Copenhagen Fintech have launched "New Nordic Challengers", a VC-backed pre-seed program to accelerate Nordic and Baltic Fintech Startups (English).

Exclusives for PRO subscribers last week

PRO subscribers last week also read about these things (among many others), which mostly have not been covered or curated elsewhere:

• A Stockholm-based fintech raised a yet-to-be announced Series A round.

• An under-the-radar startup from Stockholm focused on transforming wasteful linear systems into circular solutions, has raised over SEK100M in unannounced funding so far.

• Bankruptcies in the SaaS fashion and foodtech space.

• Rumors about a funding round raised by a hyped Swedish AI startup, though a media report about it isn't entirely correct.

• 17 new Swedish tech startups.

• Fresh annual figures from various startups.

• Access to exclusive Google Sheets with data on funding, new startups, and bankruptcies.

Join PRO, if you are an early-stage investor, analyst, or a sales exec.

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyon

• Debt is still a dirty word in some parts of the tech ecosystem — but it’s a different story in climate tech (English).

• Sky-high AI engineer salaries are complicating startups’ equity playbook (English).

• The number of companies on LinkedIn with a designated head of AI position has almost tripled globally in the past five years (English).

• There's an alternative route that's often overlooked amidst the entrepreneurial frenzy: becoming a valuable employee at a high-growth startup (English).

• How to build a real exit strategy as a startup founder (English).

• How Sweden’s stock market became the envy of Europe (English).

• The European Commission has approved the creation of an environmental zone in the city centre of Stockholm, where petrol and diesel cars will be banned entirely from 2025 (English).

• DDoS attacks on Sweden surged by 466% after its acceptance to the NATO alliance, according to Cloudflare (English).

• The Financial Times profiles private-equity giant EQT and "the Swedish kingmakers behind" (English).

• Sweden's parliament has passed a law following heated debates, which lowers the age at which people can change their legal gender from 18 to 16, and makes the process easier (English).

• Gothenburg's 9 best Falafel joints, based on aggregated reviews from several platforms (Swedish, machine translation).

• 📺 At the Icehotel is Swedish Lapland, food is a large part of the experience. Served on plates of ice, the ten-course menu is inspired by the eight seasons of Lapland's indigenous Sami tribe (English / 5:30 minutes).

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